| Gretchen Oldham
is a twenty year-old student, majoring in geology, at
Western
Washington
University
. She first discovered the art
of lampworking when she received an introductory course in
beading from a local artist for her sixteenth birthday.
Lampworking involves heating glass rods in a torch flame,
then winding the molten glass onto metal mandrels. Gretchen
was fascinated by the creative outlet that lampworking could
provide and soon thereafter purchased her own beading
equipment. Since then, she has found her lampworking niche
in making animal and holiday themed sculptural beads.
Nicknamed "Bunny-girl" when she was little, due to
her love of
rabbits
, bunny beads are a common focus of Gretchen's work. She enjoys coming up
with new unique designs especially those featuring
rabbits
.
|