A New Introduction

For those of you who caught the Kumihimo tutorial videos, I'm Sondra, Rowen's Mom, Rick's wife and a very occassional contributor to Fire Inspired Creations.

In another world I would love to design jewelry and take photos and teach wonderful crafts that are loads of fun and beautiful every day, but I can't. So since I'm pretty much bedridden most of the time with various disabilities you'll see my occasional contributions to help my daughter's college fund and recoup some of the expense of supply buying. :D

I'm the part of the team that's less precision and more organic. Which is strange for my OCD soul to admit, but that's the way it works when I'm designing jewelry. Most of the crafts I've added to my repertoire lately have something to do with jewelry making or designing or fire.

I'm a lampworker and jewelry designer. I also spend a bit of my time when I can be upright doing medieval illumination.

Nowadays I've picked up kumihimo weaving on the modern foam disk as something portable I can do. I find it satisfying to create something beautiful even if it takes me forever to do it with all my "pain breaks." 

I'm posting pictures here of the first round kumihimo metal braiding I did. These were a matched set for a group that I belong to and I happened to need woven metal in green and gold at the last minute... Low and behold...my first round metal project was almost done! Rowen wanted a necklace out of it for herself. It's surprising how much of the jewelry I make goes to that destination. Hmmm. Well, she lost out this time.

The necklaces were varying colors of green colored (copper) metal woven together. Both had a focus bead of dark emerald green transparent glass added to them and additional chains. The male pendant was in diaper bead shape with my "starry night" pattern wound around the flattened glass about quarter sized and spun. The stringers used to put down the gold pattern were a twisted triplet of gold colored glasses themselves. The female pendant was also wound with the "starry night" pattern. But the shape was left more organic. The female necklace also has added copper pailettes. Excuse the picture quality. They had to be taken quick, with my cell phone.

This weave, like most tighter weaves is a bit stiff, but when bent to fit naturally around the neck these laid beautifully.  The green woven wire portion of the male necklace is about 22", the female necklace about 20".

An Introduction!

Hello! So, I think it’s time to introduce the other half of Fire Inspired! My name is Rick, and I am the Father of the father/daughter art experience!

I am an Artisan and was convinced by Rowen to come into this for fun! I figured it would be good to share the results of some of the skills I have learned over the years with others.

I am a long-time participant in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and through that participation, have learned to do many things over the years. Hand made jewelry design, chainmaille jewelry, Norse wire-weaving, some woodworking, a little woodcarving now and then, and have even tried my hand at lamp worked beads! I willingly teach everything I have learned to the best of my ability, and am very happy when my students surpass my skills!

Watch over the coming weeks, examples of my work will be posted here to the site, and similar works are available on a commission basis.

Thank you for your interest in our efforts!

Rick

Introducing Rowen:

Hi everyone! I figured it was about time to introduce myself. My name is Rowen, I'm the co-creator of Fire Inspired and I'm the daughter of the father/daughter art experience.

I am an artisan and the main driving force behind the actions of Fire Inspired. Currently I am a student and hoping to find some income to support myself getting through school.

I am a lamp-worker; Lamp-working is the art of creating hand-made glass beads on a torch. I've been lamp-working for several years now. It was introduced to me through a family friend and both my mother and I have run with the craft.

I design hand made jewelry, up to this point primarily for Christmas presents for relatives and friends :3 Off center and a-symmetrical jewelry pieces are my absolute favorites! 

I am fond of photography and have an eye for scenic shots and for portraits. I've finished one series up until now. Its a rather personal series and is about being trapped in various aspects of life. It's also available for purchase through Fire Inspired.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more as the days go by ^^ Looking forward to hearing from all of you!