Cindy Gimbrone at the torch
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Michelle: How long have you been working with glass?
Cindy: 8 years.
Michelle: How did you get started?
Cindy: Before I was drawn to the torch, I was drawn to wire. Metal and glass although different behaves similarly. As an artist I work to bend the medium to my vision but sometimes the medium has a will of its own, it wants to be something of its own choosing. Rather than fight it, I work with it. My creativity comes into play in how I am able to bring out what the medium wants to be.
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Michelle: Tell me about the spiral beads. It seems like these are your signature item. What's the story behind them?
Cindy: Last fall, I had a personal situation that caused me a great deal of pain. I’ve been a yoga practioner for a number years and I was trying to be with the pain. I would be working at the torch thinking how the situation was familiar. I felt that it kept coming back to me over the years giving me the opportunity to face it and understand it. So the the spirals represent that – they repeat but gradually become small and finally nothing. The end represents the understanding you finally come to.
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Michelle: Why are you drawn to this shape?
Cindy: It’s an outward expression of the cyclical nature of one’s emotional life.
I strive to express the internal life through an external medium that has a mind of it’s own sometimes. I rarely have a great initial wind of glass on a mandrel–I want to fight that but with the spirals, I just let them be.
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One of Cindy Gimbrone's signature beads
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Michelle: What one word would you use to describe your bead style?
Cindy: Thoughtful. My work is well thought out, I work on techniques and the characteristics of the glass to bring about a representation of the internal–some of the internal is readily understood, the hands or the Niagara Skies, others are more cryptic like the spirals. Although I’ve thought about the beads a great deal, the buyer doesn’t have to – they can enjoy the unique shape or the colors and I know they’ll attach their own special meaning.
Michelle: When you're not making beads, what else do you enjoy doing?
Cindy: I fuse glass, making small soap dishes, sushi plates, etc. I’m a fiber junkie, crocheting and knitting when my glass studio is too cold or too hot to work in. I’m also a sign language interpreter and I enjoy translating between people.
Spiral of Kronos
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The instructions for a necklace using one of Cindy's beads, the Spiral of Kronos necklace designed by Sandi Wiseheart, are available free on Beading Daily.
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