I have been creating hand crafted artworks since 1975.  Starting with hand dyed and painted textiles, my love of color has driven me to explore a variety of media.  For the last several years I have been working with glass.

"I have...always longed to 'paint with glass'   I find the interplay of light and color in fusing glass almost hypnotic."
My work has always been color driven.  The question I ask myself is how these colors will translate into silk, cotton, wool, paper, beads, glass, plastic, or metal. I came to glasswork after experimenting with paper arts and knew that this was a medium I needed to explore in greater depth.

Although my “jewels” are crafted by me, people often mistake them for natural stones.  I enjoy working with glass and seeing the luminous quality it displays.  I do not make representational art, but am often told my work conveys the essence of various things in the natural world.  Often the object emerges under my hands as I work at the saw.
I truly enjoy this process of discovery.
Humans have always been driven to make and surround themselves with art no matter what their circumstances.

”The brilliant colors seen in my dichroic glass jewelry are achieved by adhering metal oxides to glass in a vacuum chamber.  This causes the glass to function like a prism. The glass is cut and arranged in a pattern.  It is then fused in a kiln to temperatures between 1425 and 1700o F.
The glass must be cooled very slowly (annealed) to keep it from shattering. This process can take several hours to a full day depending on the size of the piece.  I then carve the piece with a diamond blade to achieve the desired shape. The piece is then returned to the kiln for a process called fire polishing to smooth any rough edges.  Some pieces require many firing and annealing sequences spanning several days.

I have recently begun creating a series of larger works.  These works include vases, platters bowls and small sculptural vessels. These pieces are made of kiln formed glass.  Each piece starts with a glass tile.  The glass is cut into small pieced and pieced together like a mosaic.  It is fused in a kiln at temperatures ranging from 1400 to 1600 degrees F.  It must be heated and cooled slowly through certain temperature ranges to avoid shocking the glass so as not to shatter it.  It must also be moved through certain temperature ranges quickly to avoid degrading the glass through devitrification which causes a milky glaze to appear on the surface of the glass.  This process can take hours, days or weeks, depending of the size and thickness of the glass.  The tile is then cut into a particular shape, the edges are ground to smooth out irregularities and a second fusing takes place.  The tile can either be slumped or draped to give it its final shape.  Slumping involves firing over a shallow mold until the piece slumps in the mold taking on its shape.  Draping involves firing over a form until heat causes the glass to become soft and liquid and begin to flow.  Gravity and time determine the ultimate form the piece will take.  Slumping is more predictable.  Draping tends to involve more risk but also more dramatic results.