Bio
Ever since I was little girl with my first “Creepy Crawler”* set, I've been hooked on mixing colors and creating “dimensional art." My family knows I’m happiest when undertaking a new creative challenge, whether it’s making goofy fleece hats, custom Christmas cards, hand painted ceramics, custom jewelry, or Halloween costumes. I am a well known customer at the local craft stores.
Besides the birth of my daughter, one of the high points in my adult life was winning “Best in Show” at the Great Frederick Fair.
My first encounter with melting glass was Mary Klotz’s ‘Intro to bead making” class in 2000. As much as I loved it, I didn’t think molten glass and a curious toddler were a good combination. Fast forward several years and I again took Mary’s class, this time it stuck and I’ve never looked back.
Lampworking provides endless opportunities to combine color/ texture and design into one little package. The “science” part of my brain enjoys the experimentation with the chemical reactions that can (almost) be controlled with heat and oxygen. Being a basically impatient person, I love the instant gratification of bead making, since simple beads take only 10-15 minutes. I’m slowly learning to take my time and develop more complexity. (I was amazed to learn that some of Kristina Logan’s beads take HOURS at the torch).
I still have my earliest beads, they help remind me from where I’ve come, and also how beautiful glass can be, even in its crudest forms.
After several years of practice, trial and error and workshops I am pleased to market my beads. I prefer to do custom work, but if you’d like something from the gallery that’s no longer available, I can try to come up with a similar design.
*For those of you too young to know “Creepy Crawlers”, a young child could mix liquid plastic into metal molds of various creatures, and then heat them in a tiny oven, sort of like a mad scientist’s Easy Bake oven. I’ll never forget the smell that emanated from the bubbling plastic. I’m pretty sure they’ve been taken off the market for obvious reasons.