Lampworking first entered my life through the wife of a friend. When I saw her work I was struck. It felt like magic, ways that glass could be transformed. There is striking glass, reduction glass, implosions, opals, etching, optic molds, strikers, Murrini, and on and on.

When I first first started out I made a few beads, but I quickly learned that I preferred off mandrel designs more. I challenged myself to make a vortex marble. It probably took me months to get a perfectly round marble.

The first ones shattered before I even got them in the kiln. The next set had little bumps over the area that I was puntied to. Slowly I got better and better. And boy you should have seen the smile on my face when I got it right the first time.

I brought that marble everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I recall having it at Disneyland once. I love looking at it and how the light shows through, I love the weight of it, and I loved spinning it. It was perfect and I was hooked.

I don't recall if my obsession with hearts predates me making them in glass, or if because I'm drawn to hearts, I started making them. Either way, I love making them. I wanted to find a style of heart that suited me. I wanted one with well defined heart humps, an elegant concave taper, and a bail that got out of the way of the design.