They number Kirstie Allsop and Miriam Margolyes among their fans and have been admired in one of the world’s leading glass factories.

Later this month, Jane Sherwood’s fabulous lampwork bead jewellery will be on show and for sale when Weymouth’s artists and craftspeople gather for Artwey, two weeks of open studios, knowledge-sharing and sales.

Jane started making beads a decade ago using an ancient method known as lampwork. She heats different coloured glass rods over a gas flame onto a steel mandrel that has been coated with a resin to prevent sticking. She then rolls and shapes them, sometimes using different coloured glass or metals or decorating them.

The beads are multi-shaped and beautiful, iridescent shards of colour and light, every one unique and hours in the making.

She said: “It is called lampwork because in the days before electricity and electric torches, the work was done over oil lamps. I just love it. I started getting into beading about 10 years ago, mainly working with tiny seed beads before getting on to bigger things. I found it really fascinating.

“Then I went into the stationery and art shop Compton’s – which sadly isn’t there anymore – and got talking and someone said their husband was given a glass bead kit for Christmas. I thought it sounded a good idea so I bought one too – and then didn’t touch it for a year because I thought I might blow the house up or get hit by a piece of molten glass!

“But then I went to a bead event in Shaftesbury and everything there was quite plain and very expensive and I thought I could make better beads so I went home and started. I haven’t had a single lesson in my life, but I have read books and taught myself. To start with, every time I turned on the gas my heart would thump and it took me six months to feel confident with it. I have burned myself a few times and tiny bits of glass have hit me, but luckily I haven’t scarred.

“Some people wear visors and lead aprons but I can’t be doing with that. It removes you from the glass. You can work with it but I don’t think you can ever be its boss – you have to respect it and treat it right otherwise it will burn you.”

Jane, who suffers from severe asthma and bronchiectasis, has never entered a competition without winning a trophy and created and donated a beautiful lampwork award – The Weezyanna Trophy – to the Dorset Arts and Crafts Association exhibition and competition held annually in Bovington. She promptly won it back and was also presented with the prestigious Elizabeth Ellen Trophy which hadn’t been awarded for nine years because the entrants were not of a high enough standard.

She said: “I have almost missed flights to France because people keep stopping me to ask where I get my jewellery. I went to Venice with my daughter Sophie and we visited the Murano glass museum where they make the most exquisite glass that’s known all over the world.

“I was wearing one of my necklaces and two of the tutors at the school there said I was good enough to be a Glass Master. That meant so much to me.”

  • Jane’s creations are available to buy from Every Cloud in Dorchester and between May 25 and June 9 they will also be available from Weymouth Old Town Hall opposite the Boot Inn as part of this year’s Artwey open studios event.

For this event, 19 studios and group galleries open across Weymouth and Portland with the public invited in to browse and buy unique pieces of work and to meet the talented creators.

Everything from Jane’s jewellery to knitted toys, hats, textiles and artwork will be on show and available to buy, all at reasonable process. For further details visit artwey.co.uk or pick up a brochure and studio map.