Ilsa Fatt

I was smitten with beads from the first time I walked into a bead shop in Palo Alto in 1997. For quite a while I made conventional beaded jewellery. Then, a few years later, I opened a book about woven beadwork, and realised that tiny glass beads could be used to create not just pretty jewellery, but expressive artworks. I taught myself the techniques and developed my own organic, freeform style, inspired by oceanic life forms and the art and architecture of Gaudi and Hundertwasser. I became increasingly intrigued by the medium of glass itself, and in 2006 took my first glass bead-making class. At first I was mainly interested in making my own glass buttons for use on my woven beadwork creations, but then obsession with glass took over. My work currently is a mixture of my own lampworked beads with woven beadwork using seed beads, and wire-work. I like to use swirling organic shapes, and either a lot of glitter, or blending, transparent colours. My work has been exhibited at the Bristol Designers' Guild, Bristol Architecture Centre, Northampton Museum as part of an exhibition of contemporary beadwork, and in Lyme Regis as part of a collaboration with Lyme Regis museum.