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Scientist

ARTIST PROFILE

artist

Margaret Zinser adds and adapts techniques andaesthetic ideas with each new series, as seen in these 2008 beads from her Beetles series.

by name,by nature

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You can’t miss the bugs at MZ Glass. Mounted at eye level for easy identifica-tion are carne-lian, teal, gray, blue, and green beetles, beauti-

fully flameworked in high-contrast hues, wings and heads outlined in black. Also on display are mesmerizing tabular and barrel-shaped beads in amber and violet, with slices of living cells floating between veins of marrow. There are more designs, too, but it may take a while to get close to Margaret Zinser’s booth at a bead show — you have to wait for the crowd to thin.

When you see her, Margaret enthusi-astically explains her methods and her muses. She uses two aesthetic concepts to create her beads. First, she forms each bead on a mandrel, using colored glass rods and a Glass Torch Technologies Lynx/Phantom torch to shape and color the bead. Then, she paints the beads after they cool. On the torch, Margaret

works with soft Italian Effetre and Moretti glass, as well as German glass-blowing rods from Kugler.

“Glassblowing colors — which are saturated colors — heavily contribute to the color profiles that I end up using,” she says. “I like a lot of color variation, and tend away from the classic Crayola colors. Classic colors come into my work in the form of enamel paint.” The paint provides contrast, allowing her to add detail that can be seen from afar. “The term ‘30-foot bead’ stuck with me, meaning, can you see the bead from 30 feet?” she explains.

Phylogenesis at playMargaret creates beads in series, one series evolving from another like phylogenesis — the evolutionary devel-opment of organisms — which she explored while studying insects as an entomologist. “It would appear to someone who doesn’t know my work that I hop around stylistically,” she says. “But my series have direct connections to things going on in my life or in my beads.”

Margaret Zinser finds glass an ideal medium for blending interests.

byAnnDeeAllen

Margaret is pictured with a few of her favorite things in the photo at the top. Her Maze series, including the 2009 marble shown directly above, grew out of her Roots series. She made the Beetles pictured below in 2009 also.

by naturePhoto by Audra Koerber

Her series have become amorphous as they branch from one to another. After she learned lampworking in the early 2000s, she created the Talisman series, which begat the Biologicals — beads that look like cells. She also pro-duces pieces from the Meterologicals, Maze, Tie Dye, and, of course, the Beetles series. She has five retired series, too. All are posted on mzglass.com.

Margaret explains how a series matures: “My Biologicals cell beads were inspired by microscope slides. What became even more inspiring were the veins in the cells, made from a cane of silver ivory. One day I didn’t melt in the caning, I left it raised. Then, I melted in half of the cane and that looked really nice. What I kept from that experience was the veining, and I added a ‘rocky’ effect, which I called Roots. The aesthetic popped up one day in an instant. It was a time when I was going through a lot of change in my life, and it was a good way to draw on the growth I was going through.”

Output brings new workAs her work evolves, Margaret moves on to new series and continues to pro-duce pieces that nourish her creativity over time. “I put a lot of positive energy into what I’m making, and as long as it isn’t feeling stale I keep making it,” she says. “People put a lot of energy into the jewelry they make with the beads, so I don’t want them to have anything stale.”

Working in productive cycles helps her keep her work fresh. Her torch glows orange and blue from the winter holidays through early summer as she prepares for the Best Bead Show in February in Tucson, where she lives; the Bead&Button Show in June in Milwaukee, Wis.; and the International Society of Glass Beadmakers’ Gathering conference in a different city every July. “I like the ebb and flow that comes with an academic year, and my time in the studio ends up being very inspiring,” she says. “I get good ideas while doing production, so I try to get the show work out of the way and still have a little time to work on new pieces.”

You can find MZ Glass at about eight bead shows each year, half as

many as a few years ago. “That was a nice effective recipe for creative burnout,” Margaret says. “It’s a big gamble to put new work out when you don’t know how it’s going to get received. I’ve been trying to slow down so that I have time for creativity. I have several big projects percolating and in various stages of completion.”

Margaret also uses pen and ink to fuel her creative impulses. She has drawn on the intellectual exercises in Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, which prescribes a plan to explore work and life through writing. “I found that it was really important for me to write down who I am as an artist,” Margaret says. “I’ll write ‘this works’ and ‘this doesn’t work’ as I’m working on a series. For the most part, the writing allows me to get ideas out on the page. Then when I get into the studio, I’m a little more mentally prepared.” Generat-ing output is the most significant thing that she learned from The Artist’s Way, and as long as there’s output, there is creativity, Margaret explains.

From science to artAs a child, Margaret was awestruck by Dale Chihuly’s and William Morris’ large furnace-glass sculptures, which she saw at a museum. It wasn’t until 2001 that she learned glass could be worked on a torch. She had taken her only art class — painting and drawing — in her final semester as an undergraduate in zoology. In the class, she drew illustrations of insects. At the time, she didn’t know she would put her education to use as a glass artist. “I now reference lessons from that art class daily,” she says, laughing. “I had put myself in a box and labeled myself as not a creative person. That class opened up a new world.”

She quickly taught herself to make beads using a small Hot Head torch and lampworking books. Within six weeks, she was working on a Lynx torch. Her first class was with Bronwen Heilman in 2003. “I had been silently resisting any-thing that didn’t look biological because I wasn’t able to get details in my beads that didn’t look cartoony,” Margaret says. “Once Bronwen taught me enamel painting, I was able to include details I couldn’t do before.”

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Similar color themes pervade both the 2007 Tie Dye series, shown at the top, and the Roots series, represented by the 2006 bead above.

www Subscribers can download design tips for a necklace with Margaret’s Beetle beads at BeadAndButton.com/spotlight. Register online today!

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Margaret has studied with other glass artists, including furnace workers Laura Donefer and Karen Willenbrink. “Laura helped to reinforce that I have the freedom to choose what I do every-day, creatively and personally,” she says. “I understand better the role that the tools, the writing, and the output play, so I make sure that I go into the studio even when I don’t have to.” Margaret says she learned about detail from Karen. “With three moves of her hand she turns a blob of glass into a bird’s head. And then with two more moves, that bird becomes a falcon, and with three more moves, a peregrine falcon.” Margaret has now taken up furnace work as a hobby: “It’s fun and big, and I make a lot of really lumpy things. I would go with it for no other reason than making really gigantic pieces.”

Bronwen encouraged Margaret to become a full-time artist as she was finishing her master’s degree in entomol-ogy in 2005. “Being an academic offered constant mental stimulation, constant learning, teaching, and writing. I came to realize that I would be able to get all of those things with glass, but I also wanted to finish my degree — close that book and have it as a backup plan,” Margaret says. “Now my degree sits on the deep freezer in my studio. It’s like a pot roast in the freezer that you made five years ago and might need someday.”

She probably won’t tap into her diplomas anytime soon. Margaret teaches lampworking and serves on the boards of the Sonoran Glass Art Academy in Tucson, and Beads of Courage, a national program for children with serious illnesses. She helped coordinate the first two bead-making fundraisers for Beads of Courage at the glass academy. Quality time is also spent with her “family” of bead makers. “My fellow artists are my primary resource for artistic and business advice,” she says. “We’re constantly bouncing ideas off of each another, and that is inspiring and motivating.”

If it sounds like she has a lot going on, Margaret will tell you that everything she does keeps her life in balance. It makes sense, coming from someone who has successfully integrated science and art into her work and her identity. w

You can find Margaret’s beads, blog, and show schedules at mzglass.com.

Black lines and borders are evident in Margaret’s 2008 Maze and Beetle beads, above, and her 2007 Biologicals series, below.

Ann Dee Allenis editor ofBead&Button.You can reachher ateditor@beadandbutton.com.