Featured Artist: Lezlie Winemaker

Richmond Hill Studio Tour is awesome!!! I look forward to exhibiting at the show each year! First of all, getting to spend the weekend with such talented artists, share ideas and actually get to see their artwork is inspirational. Boynton House has such character and it's a beautiful location, full of light, and a wonderful place to show off our art!

It's great to have the community come out and show support. I must give credit to the amazing staff and volunteers that make this weekend such a success! I have participated in several other studio tours and it is unheard of to have the Town be running the show. Plus the dedicated people that volunteer so much time to make this event a success are invaluable!

I have met so many fellow bead lovers whom I look forward to seeing every year! Some of them have become true friends! I became instant friends with one couple in particular after meeting them at the show. It was meant to be because of the instant laughter! I knew we were kindred spirits! After all "laughter cures everything"!!!! They have even gone so far as to get my son into an amazing apprenticeship program with an great future!!! The conversations with the different people I meet are diverse, interesting, entertaining and you get to learn something new each day!!!

 

I have been creating my entire life! I started with beading as a child when my grandmother gave me a brown paper bag filled with beads to play with. What a treasure! I wish I could see into that bag today?!?!? As a teen, leather was my medium. From vests, to lampshades, I did it all. I attended art school where textiles and metalsmithing came into my life. I spent many years after graduating creating leather, metal, and enamelled accessories. In 1993 I was reading an art magazine when I saw the amazing beads of Loren Stump and Pati Walton. Their beads took my breath away and I actually gasped!!! I knew I had to do this. It took me 4 years to actually amass enough information to feel confident in lighting up the torch for glass in my home, especially since I had young children to protect! 2 months before giving birth to my 4th child I lit that torch for the first time, and I have never looked back!

Glass is my true passion. It is my meditation, a silent journey, melting, twisting, layering, squishing, blowing and sculpting, with glass rods to create one of a kind miniature worlds in glass! Each bead and object has a life of it's own. People bond to a bead, image, colour, or story that has a special meaning for them. The feedback I receive is so gratifying. People tell me they get stopped every time they wear their bead. What can I say...glass is shiny and we are like the crows, always attracted to shiny things!!!

Lampworking or flameworking is an ancient technique from Murano Italy, that was passed from father to son for centuries. If they divulged the secret they could face death!!! It has only been for the past 25 or 30 years that people worldwide have figured it out, adopted their techniques and shared their glass. To watch a maestro from Murano transform glass into the most beautiful and life like figures, dancing, moving, expressing, is like watching a dance unto itself. It is simply awe inspiring!!!

Recently I have had the honour of making "cremation beads" for families that have lost a loved one. They tell me stories of their loved ones, favourite colours, and symbolism that remind them of the person, and I create a special memory bead which actually contains their ashes encased within the bead!!!

Although my main focus is glass, I still continue to create in any medium that strikes my fancy. I still love the leather and metals, but you will always find a piece of glass on it! I love learning and experimenting with different materials. Because of my vast knowledge (and many years of experience) I teach a lot. My classes range from lampwork to metals, enamelling and leatherwork, to beads and even macrame!!! (I know the macrame dates me, but it's new and fresh approach!!!) I am limited to the size of glass objects I can create because I have to keep it hot with a torch, so I fall on my other skills to create finished jewelry and larger sculpture! I have just acquired a mig welder and am teaching myself to weld flowers etc to showcase my glass. Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist!!! Creating for me, is my life source...like breathing is for most!

The studio tour is just around the corner and I look forward to seeing you all there!!! Until then, I will be melting something.....