An Evening with
Ann Scherm Baldwin
Iris Bead
Friday January 15, 2021
Ann Scherm Baldwin (Shermo) is ready to spend some enjoyable time together sharing her knowledge with us, (and hopefully a few laughs!). She is happy to answer questions while showing her techniques for getting realistic looking petals, leaves and vines.
Shermo will be creating a beautiful iris bead using a shaded, striped cane and show us how she makes the striped cane used in her floral beads. That cane, in a different color palette, works well for vines and leaves too. We will also watch her make an iris as a surface decoration on a bead, and how to get realistic looking petals, leaves and vines. Ann will show us how she uses layered transparents to get great dimension and complexity in her flowers.
Shermo always had an interest in beads, but it was a while before she began creating her own. She bought a book about polymer clay beads and started out making them. To use her beads to make jewelry, she found she needed other components to use with the polymer clay beads, so she began buying glass beads. That led her down the road to her first class in lampworking with Kate Fowle-Meleney in 1999 – and so it began.
Read more (in her own delightful words) about her interesting journey in glass and life, and see more of her beautiful work on her website!
After the Demo Update!
(If you missed it, remember that members can watch the recorded demo on the Facebook Members’ Page, check it out! And if you aren’t a member but would like to be, visit the Membership page)
We were delighted to have Schermo join us as a guest speaker. She credits Mavis Smith, of Small Wonders, as being a great influence at the beginning of Schermo’s own glass journey. She then shared with us her collection of Mavis’ wonderful beads.
To start her demo Schermo showed us how to make two different canes that she uses to create her Iris bead – one is a leaf and vine cane, and the other is for flower petals. Schermo uses both transparent and opaque glass in the canes – in light and dark colors – in order to give the flowers depth and interest. She was even kind enough to draw out a plan for us, to make it easier for us to recreate her canes.
After she demonstrated how she makes her cane for us, we watched as they were transformed into beautiful iris flowers on a bicone bead. She made it look so easy that many of us were eager to try it ourselves. We were also treated to a tour of her studio, with her numerous work areas – even a mask making station – and her pride and joy, the beautiful floor!
Thank you Schermo, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We look forward to your next demonstration!