I had always been interested in art and took classes at university. But when I took my first glass class in lampwork bead making (1991) that was it. I bought a torch and moved out of my bedroom to turn it into a studio and started selling at local craft fairs.

I asked around and people said I had to apply to the Rhode Island School of Design, and I did, and they let me in! While getting my BFA I learned a lot about the different methods of glass work from blowing to casting and have experimented with incorporating my first love lampwork (glass melted with a torch) with just about every other glass working technique.

My beads are inspired by nature and my love of flowers and the garden, as well as the beautiful colors available in glass. From the start, I was interested in sculpting hot glass and my first designs were Goddess beads.

The beads are hand crafted one at a time, shaped with simple tweezers and marvering tools. The glass is sculpted just like clay, only at about 2000 degrees.

I use a minor bench burner (in the picture you'll see there is a minor and major in one torch, I only use the minor, the small one). The glass is melted in an oxygen and propane flame, wrapped around a metal stick (mandrels) you see sitting in the blue can, and when I am done making the bead it sits in the annealer (made from a mail box) for several hours before slowly cooling down to room temp.

Currently I make my living making and selling glass beads, and also making fine art pieces in fused and cast glass.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Figurae

http://serenasmithlampwork.weebly.com/