Annie McCabe is Daubigny Fusion. Originally trained as a jeweller, she became interested in glasswork and took a short diversion through the wonderful world of stained glass windows, before realising that ‘there are only so many stained glass windows you can make’, and eventually coming to settle at her true metier: glass jewellery.
Annie now works for up to twenty-five minutes on every s tiny bead that makes up her stunning necklaces, bracelets, and earrings – a painstaking effort considering some pieces consist of up to thirty!
Annie’s uses a technique known as lamp work. ‘It used to be a closely guarded secret; in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries it was shrouded in secrecy and only Venetian merchants knew how to do it’, She tells me. ‘But about ten years ago it became popular in America and the old secrets were rediscovered. That’s how I got to know about it.’
The way the beads are made is almost as captivating as the finished result. Listening to Annie talk about it is absolutely fascinating – her descriptions of molten, dripping and stretching glass make her sound like a confectioner creating mouth-wateringly extravagant candies.
The bead is built up around a thin metal rod called a mandrel, which is turned as molten glass (heated in a white-hot flame of gas and air) is dripped onto it. Globules of other coloured glass and air bubbles are then twisted, stretched, pulled and manipulated until you have a three dimensional, multilayered sphere. As most of the glass is transparent the designs do, quite literally have depth – a sort of insect trapped in amber effect that varies slightly at every angle. The beads range from smooth, with much swirling of colour below the surface, to textured, peppered ever so delicately with minute glass droplets.
Annie creates pieces that can either be show stopping when worn individually, or worn together as sets, as well as offering one off pieces in a fantastic bespoke service where jewellery can be created to match a special outfit or an existing piece of jewellery, making Daubigny Fusion the perfect choice for every occasion!
Look out for Annie’s open house in the Brighton festival.
By Amy Sandiford-Watts
