Jewelry made of glass beads offers a sparkly gift

By Carrie A. Mizell

Kim Hart is not afraid of fire.
If she had her way she would spend her days sitting at a worktable putting a torch to long sticks of colored glass melting it to form intricate mermaids, sea horses or fish, as well as brightly colored beads.
The mother of four grown children, Hart said she “booted” one of her kids out of a bedroom so she could have a studio to work in. Using both propane and oxygen, Hart fires up her torch as often as she can to melt a rainbow of colored glass that once it is melted forms the consistency of honey.
“The trick is to learn to control it,” Hart explained as she rotated a stainless steel welding rod with an ivory colored bead on the end in and out of the propane blaze. “The chemicals in the glass are what make the colors.”

Kim Hart melts a thin stick of ivory colored glass in order to make a bead for a bracelet. Hart works inside her home in a studio she converted from one of her children’s former bedrooms.

Though making beads for jewelry is fun, Hart said that making sculptures out of glass has consistently been her favorite element of design since her dad and her Uncle Bill, who is an art professor at Southern Illinois University, taught her the art.
“One Christmas my grandmother gave us all necklaces with a glass bead on it,” Hart explained. “I just loved it! When I asked her who made the bead, she said that my dad did. I couldn’t believe it!”
Apparently, Hart’s father was bored one day and asked her uncle to show him how to make glass beads. A skilled woodturner, Hart’s father then taught her how to make glass beads some five or six years ago.
“I sew and I quilt and I paint,” Hart said. “But I would say that I have stuck with glass the longest.”
Since picking up the art, Hart has entered a few art shows including a Halloween bead contest where she took first place her first year and second place her second year entering.

A member of the International Society of Glassbead Makers (ISGB), Hart said that she enjoyed entering a collaborative show with her father several years ago.
A joint venture between the ISGB and the American Woodturners Association, which her father is a member of, Hart said their entry entitled, “Nemo and Friends in the Hood” won Best of Show. From the piece’s diving helmet and octopus to the mermaid and brightly colored fish, every detail is made of glass.
Though work at Robinson’s Seafood in Cedar Key keeps her busy now, Hart said she still tries to make time to work with glass. She offers a multitude of jewelry for sale including bracelets, earrings, and necklaces, as well as hair sticks, writing pens, key chains and cell phone charms.
For more information, call Kim Hart at (352) 221-5972.