I was always exploring artistic endeavors from my earliest memories. In 1984, I started making stained glass lampshades and windows in my home studio. A few years later, I added a small kiln and created fused objects and glass jewelry components. I realized then that working with glass and light as an art form was remarkable and gratifying. I loved...the possibilities!

In 1992, I started training as an offhand furnace glassblower at the Toledo Museum of Art, in Toledo, OH. It was an unbelievable experience that ended my work in cold glass techniques and paved the way toward hot glass artistic pursuits. I worked at the TMA Glass Pavilion for 5 years making paperweights, vessels, filigrana and glass cane among other things. Hot glass was truly addictive. Glassblowing was also quite physically exhausting and I was only in my forties!

In 1994, while vacationing in Sante Fe, my husband and I darted into a "Bead Expo" show to escape a snowstorm. It was a pivotal event in my life as a glass artist. I watched lampworking and beadmaking demos and met many, now-famous and talented glass beadmakers. Some of the original pioneers in the studio glass beadmaking movement were there doing demonstrations. I bought a torch that day and took it home to start a new adventure. Beadmaking captivated my creative imagination.

I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1997 and pursued beadmaking professionally. I made many types and sizes of glass beads for designers, enthusiasts and collectors all over the world. However, I met another beadmaker in 2002 that changed my life once again and her name was Lise Aagaard. We had dinner one night and discussed a glass bead design for her company, Trollbeads, in Denmark. I had never heard of Trollbeads but her enthusiasm and joyful nature persuaded me to fulfill her request to make small Siberian Tiger beads and send them to Denmark as a new designer for Trollbeads.

I never fully grasped what Lise did with all the beads that I sent her but she seemed very happy with them and we kept in touch of the next few years. I made many, many tigers for her. We agreed to retire my tiger bead in 2006 or 2007. At that point, I stopped making beads of this style for the next 5 years.

In 2011, I was invited to go on tour with Trollbeads USA around the western USA states doing lampwork beadmaking demos at events being held for TB USA distributors and selected customers. Until that tour, I had never really met any TB collectors or enthusiasts. It was an amazing experience! I was introduced to the people who loved Trollbeads. Again, I was hooked. It is a great experience to see what people do with your beads and view the final designs for their bracelets. They encouraged me to re-create my Siberian Tigers that I created for TB.

I am now creating my own glass bead designs for Trollbead bracelets, European Charm bead enthusiasts and collectors around the world who still consider the artisan to be part of the Trollbead experience. As an artist, I try to create new and innovative designs for my customers and hope they will add them to their collections. I love to see them next to the fantastic beads they buy from Trollbeads and other glass bead artists.

As I expanded my customer base around the world, I still find that many TB purists have not yet purchased artisan work but I hope to tempt them over to the artisan world of new and unique glass beads. It has been a wonderful and gratifying adventure that I hope to continue in the years ahead or at least until I am no longer able to make beads at the torch. Thankfully, I think I have a few more years left!