Bead Arist Interview-Sarah Hornik

What is your personal name, business name, website and location?
Name - Sarah Hornik :: Business – Glass by Sarah
Location – Tel Aviv, Israel
Website –http://www.glassbysarah.com
Blog – http://blog.glassbysarah.com
eBay - http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsarahQ5fhornik
Etsy – http://sarahhornik.etsy.com

What kind of beads do you make? What kinds of processes do you use? What is your favorite beadmaking technique?
I make glass beads. The process I use is called lampwork. In a nutshell - rods of colored glass are melted over a flame and wound around a steel mandrel to form a bead. I don’t know if I could pick a favorite technique, as I like to combine many different elements in my beads. One of the great things about working with glass is that you’re constantly discovering new things you can do with it. I like layering opaque and transparent colors to create a sense of depth in my beads. I usually add a lot of decoration on top of that, so each bead turns out interesting from whatever angle you look at it!

How did you get into beadmaking? What are some of the important things you do for your business?
Pure coincidence – I was looking something up on Google, when I came across a sponsored link for a place here in Tel Aviv that was offering lampwork classes. Before that moment, I had no idea one could even make glass beads at home! At the time, I was a web designer – I had been one for eight years, was running my own business and beginning to feel very burnt out. I thought I’d give “the glass bead thing” a try, just to get out of the office and away from the computer, expand my horizons, find a new hobby, something like that. I was instantly hooked. Within just a few months, I closed down my web design business and decided to devote my life to being a full-time beadmaker. No regrets whatsoever there! I think one of the most important things I do for my business is maintaining an online presence. As I sell exclusively on the internet, it is important to me to give people a sense of who I am – the personality behind the work. I run a website and a blog, and I am also active on several web communities and social networking sites.

What is your workspace like and how do you work in your studio?
What is a typical day like?
My workspace is quite small and always chaotic – but for now, I like it that way. I hope to get a larger studio someday. A typical day… I usually wake up in the early afternoon (I’m not a morning person!), photograph yesterday’s “crop” of beads while the light is still good, pack orders and take them to the post office if I need to, and then it’s torch time! I try to work on the torch for at least a few hours each day. I spend most evenings editing photos and/or listing new items on eBay.

How do you stay inspired and motivated?
How could you not? :-) As I mentioned – when you’re working with hot glass, there are always new things to be discovered, new techniques to explore, new colors you’ve never tried before – it’s a whole little world of ideas. It never gets boring. Besides the glass itself, some of my inspiration comes from other types of art – anything from painting to photography to music. Inspiration is everywhere really, if you keep your eyes open. Of course, there are also “bad bead days” when nothing seems to go right and I feel like I’m out of ideas – but those pass, thankfully.

What type of beads and jewelry designs do you feel best compliment your art beads? Do you design your own jewelry too?
I don’t design jewelry. I thought I’d want to when I started out with this business, but discovered I was too obsessed with the glass itself to focus on learning other things – so I leave that up to my buyers. Since my beads usually have a lot “going on”, I feel that clean and simple jewelry designs usually compliment them best, but there are always exceptions.

What beady plans do you have for the future? Do you have new designs or ideas you will be exploring soon?
One thing I’ve learned through working with glass – you can make as many “plans” as you like, but eventually, the glass will take you wherever it wants to go and you’ll find yourself creating designs that never even occurred to you before. Glass is definitely a material that has “a mind of its own”. Even when you think you’re controlling it, it’s really controlling you! Since writing is another activity I enjoy, I plan on writing a book (or possibly a series of booklets) about glass beadmaking in the near future. I have taught some beadmaking classes in Europe over the past few months, and I am heading out to teach in Australia this summer – and then to the International Festival of Glass (www.ifg.org.uk) in the UK. I hope more travel opportunities come up in the future – what could be a better way to see the world, than sharing a love for glass beads?

If you have a discount code you would like to give our readers, please list it here, including the expiration date:
I’d be glad to give your readers free shipping on any order from my Etsy shop (http://sarahhornik.etsy.com) – just place your order, contact me through Etsy and tell me you read this interview, and I will refund your shipping costs.