Sara Sally LaGrand has had the great fortune to study with many gifted teachers

both in Italy and the US. She has been melting glass since 1996. In that time

she has won numerous awards and has the great privilege to teach workshops

all over the US and Europe.

She earned a BA in Glass Formation at Park University of Missouri with the

collaboration of the award winning public glass artist,  Dierk Van Keppel.

She continues to study and grow, pushing the limits of the glass and combining

it with unconventional materials for an eclectic look at nature, life and pop culture.

Wesley Fleming began working hot glass at the furnace in 2001 and gained valuable

experience working for Josh Simpson and the MIT Glass Lab, among others. He has

always had an eye for detail and enjoys working for himself, so the switch to

flameworking was a logical step. Wesley began sculpting with borosilicate but preferred

the more full color palette and longer working time of soft glass, after having become

accustomed to it at the furnace.

In 2005, he was afforded the chance of a lifetime to study with Vittorio Costanini and

Lucio Bubacco on the Venetian island of Murano. Upon gaining knowledge of the Italian

technique of sculpting soft glass, Wesley focused his attention solely on creation

in this medium, primarily making glass inspects for the next two years. After becoming

comfortable with these techniques, he began branching out to other phyla of the animal

kingdom. As a result of his experience, Wesley was again given the wonderful

opportunity to work with Vittorio Costanini, but this time as his teaching assistant at the

2008 ISGB Gathering in Oakland, California.

Wesley is inspired by nature and seeks to instill this curiosity in others through his

re-creation of the more spectacular examples of the animal world, especially

insects and birds. Growing up in rural Butler County, Pennsylvania, he spent his days

exploring the space beneath logs and rocks or reading science fiction. As a result the

shapes and colors of the natural world, as well as his own wacky imagination, are the

primary sources for his work.

With his glass beetles for example, Wesley tries to capture and mimic an actual species

with intricate detail on the tiny legs and thorax. While in other pieces, he attempts

to bring into being creatures from his inner reality or a dream. In some cases, Wesley

merges the fantastical with the real through choice of color palette or by referencing

familiar images in a mythical work. Regardless of the end result, he finds great joy in

sculpting glass – witnessing the transformation of a brittle and cold substance into a

molten and pliable material then back to a solid form again.

From my earliest recollections I’ve enjoyed “making stuff,” but always with a functional slant –

beautiful traditional objects that could and would be used in some everyday way. In particular,

I enjoy pattern and color and the challenges of incorporating that into form and function.

I made my first glass bead in 1995, to my utter delight, and from then on until most recently,

I’ve considered myself primarily a glass beadmaker. Beads are elemental, and are used as a

means to an end in other genre, such as jewelry-making.

More recently, I find that glass beadmaking has naturally morphed into a broader category

of glass working and is becoming one component in my repertoire of media that I

now use to “make stuff.” I’ve been expanding on the strict definition of bead and creating

more and more “glass components” that I can use in my latest work. I find myself inventing

ways to use glass components structurally that I can in turn combine into finished pieces

using other art and craft techniques that I have studied, explored, and practiced to create

fully integrated, functional, beautiful pieces. Oftentimes this forces me “off-mandrel” or

forces me to look at mandrel sizes and shapes in different ways and for different uses.

I have also been making glass art that is an end unto itself rather than a means to an end.

I graduated from college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Arts and a

Minor in Chemistry. In 1999, I became a full time glass beadmaker, and started my company,

Dyed in the Fire Designs. I sell my work at as many as 30 shows each year and online.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Patti Cahill • P.O. Box 1659 • Mars Hill, NC 28754 • plcahill1@gmail.com

          Lewis C. Wilson was born in Roswell, New Mexico. He was part of a military

family. Moved to Dallas, Texas in 1954, then lived in Sidi Slamane, Morroco,

North Africa from 1956 until 1959, and then moved to Riverside, California.

In 1960 he moved to Goose Bay, Labrador, Nova Scotia Province, Canada.

While in Goose Bay (age 11) he taught himself how to eat fire, juggle,

throw knives and do various magic and circus tricks.

              In 1973 Lewis got an old book on scientific glassblowing from a local library

and taught himself how to make small glass figurines by using the Bunsen burners in

the medical lab. In October of 1973 he approached the Arribas Brothers who held the

concessions for the glass blowing at Walt Disney World. Lewis worked for the Arribas

Brothers for 3 months under a transition program from the Air Force.

    Lewis left the Air Force on January 20, 1974. The next day he went to Busch

Gardens in Tampa, Florida to try to get a job as a glassblower. He wasn’t able to be their

glassblower, but they did have a vacancy for a juggler and fire-eater. For the next 2

years Lewis worked with tattooed belly dancers, a magician, and an organ grinder

and his monkey.

      In 1987 Governor Gary Carruthers presented King Juan Carlos of Spain

with one of Lewis’ limited edition Eagle dancers as a gift of state. The State of New

Mexico later used a limited edition Eagle dancer as an inaugural gift to President

George Bush and a limited edition Red Tail Hawk dancer as an inaugural gift to

President Bill Clinton.

    In 1993 Lewis produced his first glassworking video, Glass Bead Making.

Crystal Myths has now produced more than 20 titles on glassworking.   Crystal Myths

promoted their first show in 1996, The Best Bead Show, in Tucson, Arizona.

This was the same year that Robert Lui, one of the editors of Ornament Magazine,

called Lewis the P.T. Barnum of beadmakers.

     In 2002 Lewis promoted the world’s largest hot glass competition. It was called

the Albuquerque Flame-Off. There were 300 glass workers from the U.S. and Canada

and 6 torches running for twelve hours a day for 2 days.

    In the 2003 winter issue of Ornament, Robert Lui once again granted Lewis a

title, “The Impressario of Beads”.

    In 2005 Lewis demonstrated at the Kobe International Lampworking Festival

in Kobe, Japan. Lewis taught himself Japanese and only spoke Japanese during the

demo.          

Among of the highlights in Lewis’ career were the dedication of a building named after him

at Art Glass Invitational in September of 2005, and winning the ISGB’s Hall of Flame

award in 2008.

Lewis is a founding member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, and a

member of the Glass Art Society.  In Feb of 2009 Lewis sold the Best Bead Shows and 

is now a consultant to the shows. He has returned to being a full time lampworker and

glass teacher.

The Soft Glass Invitational retreat is his latest adventure and encompasses his love

of the glass world and artists.