Margaret Zinser is a glass artist known for her detailed beadwork featuring insects and other natural forms. She uses glassblowing and flameworking techniques to create beads in interconnected series that evolve based on her interests and life experiences. Zinser draws inspiration from her background in entomology and incorporates scientific observation and detailed coloration into her work. She continually challenges herself with new series while maintaining her signature aesthetic blending art, science and nature.

1. Scientist
ARTIST PROFILE
by name,
artist by nature
Margaret Zinser
adds and adapts
techniques and
aesthetic ideas with
each new series, as
seen in these 2008
beads from her
Beetles series.
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2. Margaret Zinser finds glass an ideal
medium for blending interests.
by Ann Dee Allen
Y
Photo by Audra Koerber
ou can’t miss works with soft Italian Effetre and
the bugs at MZ Moretti glass, as well as German glass-
Glass. Mounted blowing rods from Kugler.
at eye level for “Glassblowing colors — which are
easy identifica- saturated colors — heavily contribute to
tion are carne- the color profiles that I end up using,”
lian, teal, gray, she says. “I like a lot of color variation,
blue, and green and tend away from the classic Crayola
beetles, beauti- colors. Classic colors come into my
fully flameworked in high-contrast hues, work in the form of enamel paint.”
wings and heads outlined in black. Also The paint provides contrast, allowing
on display are mesmerizing tabular and her to add detail that can be seen from
barrel-shaped beads in amber and afar. “The term ‘30-foot bead’ stuck
violet, with slices of living cells floating with me, meaning, can you see the bead
between veins of marrow. There are from 30 feet?” she explains.
more designs, too, but it may take a
while to get close to Margaret Zinser’s Phylogenesis at play
booth at a bead show — you have to Margaret creates beads in series, one
wait for the crowd to thin. series evolving from another like
Margaret is pictured with a
When you see her, Margaret enthusi- phylogenesis — the evolutionary devel-
few of her favorite things in
astically explains her methods and her opment of organisms — which she
the photo at the top. Her
muses. She uses two aesthetic concepts explored while studying insects as an
Maze series, including the
to create her beads. First, she forms each entomologist. “It would appear to
2009 marble shown directly
bead on a mandrel, using colored glass someone who doesn’t know my work
above, grew out of her
rods and a Glass Torch Technologies that I hop around stylistically,” she says.
Roots series. She made the
Lynx/Phantom torch to shape and color “But my series have direct connections
Beetles pictured below in
the bead. Then, she paints the beads to things going on in my life or in
2009 also.
after they cool. On the torch, Margaret my beads.”
www.BeadAndButton.com | February 2010 51

3. Her series have become amorphous many as a few years ago. “That was
as they branch from one to another. a nice effective recipe for creative
After she learned lampworking in the burnout,” Margaret says. “It’s a big
early 2000s, she created the Talisman gamble to put new work out when
series, which begat the Biologicals — you don’t know how it’s going to get
beads that look like cells. She also pro- received. I’ve been trying to slow down
duces pieces from the Meterologicals, so that I have time for creativity. I have
Maze, Tie Dye, and, of course, the Beetles several big projects percolating and in
series. She has five retired series, too. various stages of completion.”
All are posted on mzglass.com. Margaret also uses pen and ink to
Margaret explains how a series fuel her creative impulses. She has
matures: “My Biologicals cell beads were drawn on the intellectual exercises in
inspired by microscope slides. What Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way,
became even more inspiring were the which prescribes a plan to explore work
veins in the cells, made from a cane of and life through writing. “I found that it
silver ivory. One day I didn’t melt in the was really important for me to write
caning, I left it raised. Then, I melted in down who I am as an artist,” Margaret
half of the cane and that looked really says. “I’ll write ‘this works’ and ‘this
nice. What I kept from that experience doesn’t work’ as I’m working on a
was the veining, and I added a ‘rocky’ series. For the most part, the writing
effect, which I called Roots. The aesthetic allows me to get ideas out on the page.
popped up one day in an instant. It was Then when I get into the studio, I’m a
a time when I was going through a little more mentally prepared.” Generat-
lot of change in my life, and it was a ing output is the most significant thing
good way to draw on the growth I was that she learned from The Artist’s Way,
going through.” and as long as there’s output, there is
creativity, Margaret explains.
Output brings new
work From science to art
As her work evolves, Margaret moves As a child, Margaret was awestruck by
on to new series and continues to pro- Dale Chihuly’s and William Morris’ large
duce pieces that nourish her creativity furnace-glass sculptures, which she saw
over time. “I put a lot of positive energy at a museum. It wasn’t until 2001 that
into what I’m making, and as long as it she learned glass could be worked on a
isn’t feeling stale I keep making it,” she torch. She had taken her only art class —
says. “People put a lot of energy into the painting and drawing — in her final
jewelry they make with the beads, so I semester as an undergraduate in zoology.
don’t want them to have anything stale.” In the class, she drew illustrations of
Working in productive cycles helps insects. At the time, she didn’t know she
her keep her work fresh. Her torch would put her education to use as a glass
glows orange and blue from the winter artist. “I now reference lessons from that
Similar color themes holidays through early summer as she art class daily,” she says, laughing. “I had
pervade both the 2007 prepares for the Best Bead Show in put myself in a box and labeled myself as
Tie Dye series, shown at February in Tucson, where she lives; not a creative person. That class opened
the top, and the Roots the Bead&Button Show in June in up a new world.”
series, represented by Milwaukee, Wis.; and the International She quickly taught herself to make
the 2006 bead above. Society of Glass Beadmakers’ Gathering beads using a small Hot Head torch and
conference in a different city every July. lampworking books. Within six weeks,
“I like the ebb and flow that comes with she was working on a Lynx torch. Her
an academic year, and my time in the first class was with Bronwen Heilman in
studio ends up being very inspiring,” 2003. “I had been silently resisting any-
she says. “I get good ideas while doing thing that didn’t look biological because
production, so I try to get the show I wasn’t able to get details in my beads
www
Subscribers can download design work out of the way and still have that didn’t look cartoony,” Margaret
tips for a necklace with Margaret’s a little time to work on new pieces.” says. “Once Bronwen taught me enamel
Beetle beads at BeadAndButton.com/ You can find MZ Glass at about painting, I was able to include details
spotlight. Register online today! eight bead shows each year, half as I couldn’t do before.”
52 Bead&Button | www.BeadAndButton.com

4. Margaret has studied with other She probably won’t tap into her
glass artists, including furnace workers diplomas anytime soon. Margaret teaches
Laura Donefer and Karen Willenbrink. lampworking and serves on the boards
“Laura helped to reinforce that I have of the Sonoran Glass Art Academy in
the freedom to choose what I do every- Tucson, and Beads of Courage, a national
day, creatively and personally,” she says. program for children with serious
“I understand better the role that the illnesses. She helped coordinate the first
tools, the writing, and the output play, two bead-making fundraisers for Beads
so I make sure that I go into the studio of Courage at the glass academy. Quality
even when I don’t have to.” Margaret time is also spent with her “family” of
says she learned about detail from bead makers. “My fellow artists are my
Karen. “With three moves of her hand primary resource for artistic and business
she turns a blob of glass into a bird’s advice,” she says. “We’re constantly
head. And then with two more moves, bouncing ideas off of each another, and
that bird becomes a falcon, and with that is inspiring and motivating.”
three more moves, a peregrine falcon.” If it sounds like she has a lot going on,
Margaret has now taken up furnace Margaret will tell you that everything she
work as a hobby: “It’s fun and big, and does keeps her life in balance. It makes
I make a lot of really lumpy things. I sense, coming from someone who has
would go with it for no other reason successfully integrated science and art
than making really gigantic pieces.” into her work and her identity. w
Bronwen encouraged Margaret to
become a full-time artist as she was You can find Margaret’s beads, blog,
finishing her master’s degree in entomol- and show schedules at mzglass.com.
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 Ann Dee Allen
of those things with glass, but I also is editor of
Black lines and borders are
wanted to finish my degree — close that Bead&Button.
evident in Margaret’s 2008
book and have it as a backup plan,” You can reach
Maze and Beetle beads,
Margaret says. “Now my degree sits on her at
above, and her 2007
the deep freezer in my studio. It’s like a editor@beadandbutton.com.
Biologicals series, below.
pot roast in the freezer that you made
five years ago and might need someday.”
www.BeadAndButton.com | February 2010 53