When I was younger, I was very creative. Me and my friends used to spend hours drawing and creating; there were worlds and galaxies in my head that I was free to explore whenever I wanted. My head was so full of ideas it was easy to put it down on paper or make a movie.

As I got older, I had more responsibilities. I had to be focused on the real world, and that imaginative side became less and less important. I was becoming more mature, but I was forgetting something important.

One day I visited the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the most prestigious glass museum in the US, maybe the world. I was so in love with everything there. They had all these amazing sculptures, information on the history of glass, and these amazing live demos. It lit a fire in me. I knew one day I wanted to work with glass.

Fast forward about a year later, and I felt that urge to create once again. And I started thinking: "What about glass?" So I did a quick google search and found Diablo School of Glass in Boston, MA, where I still create today.

And it's like I've come home to myself again, rediscovering that childlike sense of wonder and desire to create. I've opened the door to the world of imagination once again.

I create my items through 2 methods: flameworking and furnace working. The larger items (vases, cups, bowls) are created in the furnace, which means I gather the glass from a blistering hot 2000 degreee furnace with a six foot long blowpipe, and then use tools and air to shape the glass. This is the type of glasswork that gets your adrenaline pumping; it's also the more painful one as being that close to such large quantities of molten glass can easily give 1st and 2nd degree burns without even touching the glass itself. Flameworking means working with glass rods in front of a torch. I can take my time here, and go at my own pace. I also have much more control over detail, and nearly limitless possibilities. Most of my items are created through flameworking (marbles, pendants, small sculpture).

See me at work making a unicorn pendant here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNPc1LtuaEM