3-Day Mandala Glass Beads with Leah Nietz

Join flameworking artist Leah Nietz in this intermediate/advanced lampwork class. Students will learn to build mandala beads on large hole mandrels working with 104 COE glass rods.  Students will create optical illusions using a variety of layering, encasing and raking techniques. The class will start with simpler designs exploring the use of gravity to create symmetry and will gradually progress to more elaborate designs. Demonstrations will be given throughout the class.  All materials and use of our torches is included,

Leah Nietz has been working with glass for over 20 years. She specializes in soft glass beads, pendants, perfume bottles and mandalas. Over the last four years she has been expanding her work to include ornaments, goblets, bud vases and flower bowls. Most of her skills were developed through experimentation with a few workshops and master classes taken through the years to sharpen her skills.  
 
Leah draws much of the inspiration for her glass from nature and happy accidents.  Friend and fellow artist, Gini Behrendt, once advised her to “Never waste a good piece of glass.”  She has carried that advice throughout her career creating flowers from would be vessels and discovering the grand optical illusions unique to glass. Many of her designs are improvisations on pieces that did not go according to plan. 
 
Leah was the commemorative artist for the ISGB Gathering in 2020 and was one of ten artists selected to contribute to Susan Richards’s Presidential Collection at the Corning Museum of Glass in 2022. Her work has been published in a variety of publications including Bead & Button Magazine, Glass Art® magazine, The Soda Lime Times, and Jewelry Affaire Magazine.
Her works are held in private collections in countries throughout the world including the United States, Canada, Malaysia, The United Kingdom, Australia, Israel and Singapore.
 
Her teaching experience includes Introduction to Lampwork Glass at The Toledo Museum of Art from 2004-2008,  a Vessels and Bottles online class premiering during the ISGB Gathering in 2020, Blown Pendants,  a Vessels and Bottles class and a Sea Creatures class at Snow Farm in MA in 2021 and Vessels and Bottles again in 2023, a Vessels and Bottles class and the premier of a Mandala class at Public Glass Work in KS in 2023.
 
“There are no mistakes in art. Only opportunities to change your perspective.” - Leah Nietz