I was 18 going on 19 when I started, if your wondering what 19 year old me looked like check out the pic below. I originally fell in love with glass blowing while ln Finland on a student exchange, a friend's mom was kind enough to take me on a tour of the Nuutajärvi Glass Village. THANK YOU! I also saw my first lampwork beads being made while in Finland too. I used to have to ride my bike over the cobble streets of old town Porvoo to get to school. In the afternoon on the way home I would ride past a little gallery type shop where sometimes there was a women sitting just inside the door making these wonderfully earthy organic beads. When I returned home (briefly) my family ended up moving to Palm Springs, California. Where I began an apprenticeship with a glass blower at a local artist colony name Palapas. While learning to blow vases, cups...etc, I started playing around with a torch to make little beads to make into jewelry. Once I moved back to Canada I took what I learned blowing glass and combined it with what I had learned making beads, and started making the lampworked glass pendants that I am known for now.
Now 18 years later I am living in and working in Saskatoon....in the Canadian prairies blowing glass again and expanding my lampworking into making larger decor pieces.