After 11 years in the glass creation business, managing director of Crystal Forms, Jamal Ifill, is eager to make the next 20 years a flaming success.
The 27, year-old entrepreneur, who operates from Pelican Village, wants to start exporting his glass-blown and flame-worked glass creations to customers in the niche markets he is targeting and bring foreign exchange to Barbados.
“I want to do exports. I do a little bit now but I want to be more heavily involved in exporting because I import all my raw materials. I would like to import the raw materials and export the finished products. That can help the economy of Barbados,” he said.
Last week, BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY watched as Ifill made small turtles to complete an order for a gift shop which carries his work. Along with the showcase of his skills, lessons were given on the various types of glass available, the fact that it is made from sand, as well as in chemistry, history, geography, and art.
For example: “Crystal is clear glass. It sounds expensive and exquisite. Glass just sounds like it’s going to break. There’re different types of glass . . . the difference is how it’s worked
in the flame. Lead is introduced to the batch-making process of lead glass so that it gives you a nice sparkle, and when it is faceted it gives you a nice rainbow prism effect. It is designed to be aesthetic.”
The Coleridge & Parry School old scholar remembers walking through Pelican Village during a summer vacation looking for a job when something caught his attention.
“I walked around and was just looking when the sun reflected off a paperweight and just hit me in my eye. When I saw all the colours,I said ‘what’s that’?. When I went inside [Glass Creations], I saw Fabian [Browne], I was so fascinated. I said ‘my mother would love this’.” Browne told him they offered classes but Ifill had no money and was leaving when he was told about their work trade programme in which he subsequently enrolled.
“When I started my career, I started making hair beads, hair jewellery. I started in 2003
at 16 in the Glass Creations building. My first teacher was Steve Dudwick and he started to teach me how the material behaves . . . I am known as the bead guy but I’m really otherwise known for light refractive jewellery. I had my serious days six to seven years ago, right now, it’s slowed down,” Ifill said.
In addition to the beads, he makes pendants, rings, napkin rings, flowers, Christmas decorations and commissioned items.
He also makes lamps which he refers to as art.
He started making them to celebrate his tenth year as a glass artist.
In 2007, Ifill attended the University of Berkeley, California, to be trained by “a Japanese guy who did something called compression flowers”.
“It is done using a technique called compression. It is a really fascinating thing, it is just lines and dots you’re seeing and a flower. It’s drawn, I heat and flatten the surface and I actually come with a thin piece [a tool] and I draw on the line in a pattern and from there I keep at a downward angle,” Ifill explained.
During that trip, he also went to San Francisco where he met the managers of Tiffany’s and Bloomingdale’s to find out exactly what they were looking for regarding their jewellery.
“When I cam back, I was pumped to sell my pieces and I wanted to sell them for a couple thousand dollars but when I started the e-commerce website in our country wasn’t ready,” he said.
Despite this setback, he persevered and some of his pieces were sold at the exclusive Heather Harrington Jones.
He is also proud of the fact that he made a piece for Princess Anne.
“It’s a lot cheaper to be an artist in the US than it is to be an artist here. That’s just the reality of it. I was in the US in 2012 to be taught by an American artist, Robert Michelson.
“He had a quote that made my eyes pop out of my head, ‘glass is cheap’. Glass is not cheap. It is cheap for him and readily available. Here, you have to pace yourself. I order in everything and the weight distribution carries up the shipping costs,” he said.
“As an artist you can’t stop! I just love it,” he said, smiling broadly. (Green Bananas Media)
