gitti@weinmayer.com

www.weinmayer.com

After going to ground and grammar school, making A-level degree I started nursing school and since 1999 I am working as an ICU-nurse in the hospital.

The fact that I am the girlfriend of one of the best Austrian glassblowers Bernd Weinmayer made me to come in contact with glass. But it took several years that I really got infected with the glass-virus. It started in 2003 when the equipment of Bernd¥s workshop was enlarged and one burner was left which was just for me. From the glass school in Kramsach I got some Murano glass and so I started. Bernd couldn¥t show me anything about beadmaking because he didn¥t work with soft glass. So I learned it on my own, later with the help of Corina Tettinger¥s and Cindy Jenkins¥ books. Last year I took my first course with Liane J‰hde in Germany.

My favourites are making figural beads. ìThe palmtree queenî gave me a lot of ideas how to make figures and animals and I love this very much. Short after starting beadmaking I made the first ìWeiniî: this is a little figure with a big head, innocent eyes, small shoulders, big tummy and big feet. It is named after Bernd¥s nick name and their figures are looking similar the same.

Till now ìWeiniî has been developed and wearing sunglasses, shoes, motor helmets, visible hearts inside, flowers,Ö..; it¥s around 3 ñ 5 cm high, made of soft glass; One of the first ìWeiniî is standing in Wertheim in the glass museum showing whole Europe his happy face.

So beadmaking is just my hobby but it¥s also like meditation where I don¥t have to think about anything.

A lot of the staff in the hospital I work in is wearing my ìWeiniî- so as a patient you always will find somebody who makes you happy.