An Evening with
Patty Lakinsmith
“Glass & Metal –
Headpins & Buttons”
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Patty has been drawn to the flame since 2003, when she took a class on glass beadmaking from Jackie Marr of Kiss My Glass in Santa Cruz, CA. It was a bit of playtime from her full time job as a human factors engineering consultant, where on any given day you could find her either testing new steering devices on an armored vehicle at a remote army field testing facility, or running helicopter pilots through a simulation gathering data on artificial intelligence aids in the cockpit. She left that world behind for good when she quit her day job to melt glass full time in 2015, and she hasn’t looked back.
While she had never seen a glass bead before that night with Jackie, something about the flame captivated her as she practiced in her garage, and her love for melting glass has burned strong for nearly 20 years.
Patty has dabbled in many aspects of glass, but is particularly fond of marrying metal with glass- making glass headpins on wire, making wire shank glass buttons, and electroforming on glass and organic materials.
Her work reflects the nature that surrounds her in her Santa Cruz Mountains home and 8 year old teaching studio above the Silicon Valley in Northern California. She teaches at studios around the country from time to time, in her own home studio in Northern California, and online.
Patty is excited to show the Dragons how she makes matching headpins using her Perfect Pairs headpin tool, and also how she makes wire shank buttons with colorful twisted cane.
You can find out more about her shows, classes, and available work on her website, and check out her online workshops. Her next workshop on wire shank glass buttons will be coming up this fall.
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)
Patty Lakinsmith took her first Lampwork class in 2003 – she had never even seen a glass bead prior to that class! She was immediately hooked and jumped in with both feet.
Patty taught us how to make head pins and shank buttons. The wire she uses most often is stainless steel because it’s sturdy, easy to clean, easy to work with and maintains it’s shine. She also suggested that copper, bronze or annealed steel wire may be used – she has even used Niobium wire. Patty’s advice is to pick the wire your customers want for their work, or that you want for your own work. Her favorite is the stainless steel wire for the reasons listed above.
The gauge (thickness) of the stainless steel wire she decides to use is determined by the piece that she plans to make. For headpins she uses 22g but when making weightier pieces, such as larger pendants, she uses 20g. There are several pin vises to hold the wire that Patty has tried over the years – vices from Arrow Springs, Carlo Donà and Bronwen Heilman. She explained the advantages of each and used two of them during her demos.
To make her head pins, Patty developed and now sells her own stainless steel plate which has multiple geometrical shaped cut outs – a template of sorts. By using Patty’s plate, it is possible to uniformly sized and shaped pairs to be used for earring head pins. The plate also accommodates different gauge wire. Her demonstration for the headpins was specific, clearly explained and very easy to understand.
Patty also showed us how she makes glass buttons with a stainless steel shank. She uses her buttons on hats, sweaters, jackets and even explained how they could be artfully used as closures for a bracelet or necklace. To make the buttons, she uses a “bale hemostat” from Arrow Springs to hold the “U” shaped stainless steel shank. Next, Patty did a demonstration of how she makes the twisted cane she uses to embellish the outer edge of her flowered buttons.
As an encore, Patty made one of her “Meanies” in response to a special request she had received. Patty showed us how she gets the lips such a realistic color, and what she likes to do to make the teeth and lips so much fun. What a lot of smiles that one provoked!
It was a great class. Thank you Patty, for opening our eyes to more options with glass! We appreciate you sharing your time and expertise with us.
Visit Patty’s website to see more of her work and get information on any classes she may offer as well as where to buy her glass and tools.
Members may watch the recorded presentation on the Facebook Members Group page.