After graduation, I focused on leaded glass. I went back to Italy and did a stained-glass apprenticeship in Siena. We did a lot of restoration work and painted glass panels. When I got back, I moved to Raleigh NC (for the weather!) and got a rather short-lived job in a stained-glass shop. I also joined The Antfarm, which was a small local collective of artists working in an old run-down mill. It was great to be around other artists doing a lot of different kinds of work- metal sculpture, wood working, printmaking, painting and jewellery.
Time passed- I got married, then divorced… A year or two later, I took a beginning jewellery class at Meredith College, and I liked it well enough. Silver was fine, but I wanted colour! Then I took a cloisonné enamel class, and it was love at first sight. I can’t describe the joy I felt when I discovered enamels. I bought myself a little kiln (which I still use!) and set it up in my kitchen and just started going crazy with it. My good friend and fellow enamelist, Lillian Jones, was my lifeline. I would constantly call her up and ask silly questions- “why are my enamels cloudy?”, “why does red hate silver so much?”, “What are these splotches?”
(You know you’ve all asked those same questions). Eventually, I started figuring it all out, and my technique started to improve.
That was a few years ago. Now I've got a lovely studio at Artspace in downtown Raleigh, a wonderful and supportive husband, and i'm still working on figuring out all those enamel questions. Its never boring, and always a fun challenge. I look forward to many more happy years of enamelling.
