Perhaps you've heard of the new freeze and fuse technique! Check out this stunning sterling silver pendant built around a glass focal bead. The bead was created in three firings. The first firing created a pate de verre component. The second firing created the bead, which was then cold worked. The third firing tack fused the pate de verre to the bead and fire polished the bead. A long, pain staking process, but the resulting bead was worth it!

The bead is hung from a hand fabricated sterling silver finding on a hand made classical loop and loop chain of woven fine silver.

Art to wear! Enjoy!

Creating my beads takes hours and many steps. I begin by creating lamp worked frits and stringers. These are used to construct the detail of the bead. I combine frits and strings with enamels to both the surface and in between three stacked layers of compatible glass to create a picture. The glass is fired in a kiln until fused and then carefully annealed. The first firing takes several hours.

Once removed from the first firing, the hole and edges of the fused glass bead are shaped and smoothed. I smooth out the hole using a flex shaft and diamond bit. I create the shape of the bead with a diamond or tile saw. These saws leave the edges rough; so I next use various glass grinders to smooth the edges. Glass moves in the first firing so the picture I created is not precise. I add a second layer of enamel on the surface of the bead to enhance depth and design. The bead is fired a second time. The second firing has three purposes: (1) to “fire polish” the edges of the bead until it is smooth, (2) to fire m

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Flower Power

Shades of the 1970s! Isn't it funny how color and fashion always comes back? You can almost see the smiley face lurking behind this flower! Or are you blinded by the sunshine? No matter, here's another great bead to wear with your hip huggers and bell bottoms. (Don't worry what fashion calls them today, you know what they really are!)

Story Beads

All beads have a story. Through multiple firings and a careful combination of using lamp work, cold work, silver foils and enamel, I create dichroic fused glass beads that tell a story. Whether it is a young girl strolling through the woods on a hot summer day, an elephant frolicking for tourists at the national zoo or a flower bursting into bloom on a sunny day, my “story bead” series seek to capture the romance of life frozen in a glass bead. I hope the viewer is entranced by the duality of a fluid experience caught as a snapshot in glass. I want viewers to see and find their own stories in my glass beads.