A little about me ...

My name is Tracy Thomas, and I live in Troy, NY,  a once-thriving industrial city along the mighty Hudson River that retains its Victorian charm, and is now reinventing itself with a lively arts scene.  I raised three kids on my own, enlisted them in the glass cause, and have been rewarded -- so far --with two baby grands (now 3 and 6).  Back in the late 20th Century I came across Cindy Jenkins' book, Making Glass Beads, and  I've been playing with fire, earth, air and imagination ever since.  It started in my cold damp basement -- that I now avoid like the DMV -- but at the time I was so taken with the melting, color combining and shaping of beautifully colored glass rods, I hardly noticed.  Winter or summer, I dressed accordingly, occasionally working over the flame in hat and fingerless gloves.    I built a studio off my first floor perhaps three years into the obsession, and haven't gone in the basement again, unless absolutely necessary (which usually means plumbing issues).   I've sold my work online at Etsy and Ebay,  at local and regional craft shows throughout New England, at farmers' markets,  fine art shows, regional arts centers, shops at Mohonk Mountain House, Departures at the Albany Airport, and at the Albany Institute of History and Art, among others.    I've collaborated with other artisans, creating beads and buttons to enhance their own projects, and organized an open studio show for several local artists.  I taught lampworking at the Arts Center of the Capitol Region, and in my home studio, and have hosted make-your-own jewelry parties at my home as fundraisers.

And a little about lampwork glass . . . .

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

Lampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps. Although the art form has been practiced since ancient Syrian (1 Century B.C., B. Dunham) times, it became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. In the mid 19th century lampwork technique was extended to the production of paperweights, primarily in France, where it became a popular art form, still collected today. Lampworking differs from glassblowing in that glassblowing uses a blowpipe to inflate a glass blob known as a gob or gather, whereas lampworking manipulates glass either by the use of tools, gravity, or by blowing directly into the end of a glass tube.

Early lampworking was done in the flame of an oil lamp, with the artist blowing air into the flame through a pipe. Most artists today use torches that burn either propane or natural gas, with either air or pure oxygen (which I produced using an oxygen concentrator).

Lampworking is used to create artwork, including figurines, trinkets, curios, Christmas tree ornaments, beads and much more. It is also used to create scientific instruments as well as glass models of animal and botanical subjects.