Glass

Glass

Melodie Beylik

Melodie Beylik received her BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts where she learned how to blow and form hot glass. She continued her studies in art at Mills College where she received her MFA. Melodie went on to the Bildwerk Factory School in Germany, then to year scholarship study in Sweden. Melodie has continued to travel and study with many masters of glass. She uses her designs and knowledge to create her current work.

Bill Burch

I was introduced to glass blowing by a friend who was attending art school. One look and I was hooked. I was a potter at the time so the transition to glass was easy, especially in that it was all I wanted to do. I still get excited about making new pieces and continuing with the work that I originally started with.

James Friedberg

During his early years James attended classes at Pilchuck Glass School and Pittsburgh Glass Institute, where he studied under a number of artists including Cesare Toffolo, Robert Mickelson, and Emilio Santini. After several years James decided to go deeper into glass and the creative arts and entered the BFA program in studio class at the California College of Arts from which he graduated in 2009. After college James settled in San Francisco joining Public Glass, a non-profit glass studio.

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Jon Oakes

I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in North Dakota. As a boy in the mid-west during the 1970's, I had limited exposure to the arts. Sitting down at the potter's wheel for the first time in a high school ceramics class, I immediately felt comfortable and know I was meant to throw clay. I've been doing just that since moving to California about thirty years ago.

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Carol Rose

My Studio and home are in Martinez, California. I have been a glass artist for over 30 years, working with various techniques. These tempered glass mosaics are made with mostly recycled materials. The colors seen are paintings and pigments on the piece itself, and then broken tempered glass is adhered to on top of the painting. I am also a glass bead maker. Some of the mosaics have glass beads embedded in them to give more of a 3D appearance. Translucent pieces allow natural light to shine through displaying colors and movement, and as light hits the opaque pieces, the reflection and refraction of light changes the pieces all day long.

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Judy Rosenfield

Bright color and vivid images from nature – those are the hallmarks of my stained-glass mosaic artwork. A longtime writer and editor, I find the process of assembling mosaic pieces strangely similar to creating written pieces with words. I love the mix of structure and improvisation – and that mosaic work is a tangible, long-lasting gift to those who collect pieces. I’m based in Louisville, KY, but have family in the Bay Area and visit often.

Mark Schatz

Near the end of the recent recession, I was feeling creatively stifled in my career as an architect. My children picked up on this and gave me the gift of a series of glass fusing classes at Stained Glass of Marin. After three sessions I was hooked, and here I am, 6 years later, still continuing to play and experiment with the media. Cutting, assembling, and fusing glass is great therapy, and I continue to feel inspired as I explore new techniques and approaches in my work.

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Michael Sosin

My work emphasizes the process of blowing and forming hot glass using design elements that can be incorporated into the molten material. The long tradition of working with the material in its "purest form" is compelling. My challenge is to add these elements into the pieces and still maintain the integrity of the process. I want to capture the beauty that can be implicit in the simplest form, line and color.

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Dave Strock

Dave was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He first discovered glassblowing while studying music at UC Santa Cruz, and went on to earn a BFA in Glass from CSU Chico. While in school Dave supplemented his education by attending various workshops at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, where he also worked as a seasonal staff member. He currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Kim Webster

Glass has been used to contain what is precious for over 5,000 years. This knowledge, combined with her love of the garden, has become a foundation for Kim’s pieces that celebrate themes of nurture, memory, light, and fecundity. An Honours graduate of Canada’s Sheridan College School of Craft and Design, Kim’s work has been recognized internationally for its narrative content and sense of whimsy. Kim makes her glass in Berkeley, finishes it in Oakland and exhibits most often where glass and gardens meet.

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