Beth Gaertner
Beth Gaertner Flameworked Glass Jewelry
Creating playful jewelry in glass and silver has been a passion of Beth's since when she first experienced beadmaking in a jewelrymaking class at her Pittsburgh, PA high school. Beth was working with almost no instruction, but was drawn to the movement and color of the molten glass. Soon, she was eating lunch in the classroom so she could spend more time at the torch. During college at Tufts University in Medford, MA she continued her education in metalsmithing by taking courses at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and worked with glass whenever she could.
Since graduating from college in 2003, Beth's work has grown as she's experimented with new techniques and different ways to incorporate her glass beads into jewelry. As a visual, hands-on learner, Beth prefers to work out an idea in 3-D by creating mock-ups rather than working from a sketch. Sometimes a design idea lives in her head for months before she comes up with the best way to execute it, and other times she'll be inspired by tinkering with the many containers of beads and components sitting on her workbench.
Color, movement, and the intimacy of jewelry are important facets of Beth's work. The bright, saturated colors of Effetre, her glass of choice, are a constant inspiration and she loves to create pieces that are just this side of outrageous. Jewelry that somehow entertains the wearer is a joy of hers, so she designs many of my pieces to contain elements that spin, swing, or make noise when worn. The intimate relationship between a piece of jewelry and the wearer is very interesting to Beth, and she endeavors to create pieces that flatter the wearer but also have a definite presence of their own. Beth creates all of the glass beads used in her jewelry and many of the silver components, and views herself as a jewelry artist working in the medium of glass. If a piece brings a smile to the face of the wearer and still looks stunning when paired with a little black dress, Beth feels she has been successful.
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