Celebrate your Mom with a gift inspired by my Mom.

Have I ever told you how Smart Glass started? Before it started? It has to do with my mom, so I think it’s a good time to tell the story.

See I never knew I was an artist when I was younger because I grew up in a small town with a super crafty mom, and we spent a lot of time making things: she taught me...

• to sew
• to make soap
• to dip candles
• to bake
• to make jam
• to garden
• to do stained glass

The list goes on.

I thought everyone did this.

It was also great that my Dad was a former mechanic. I thought every house had a shop with tools where you could build things and fix car parts, or re-wire a light or solder a loose connection in the toaster (true story, my mom re-soldered a loose wire in the toaster she and my dad received as a wedding gift. I think they still use it 56 years later).

My parents also raised me with an organic garden, recycling, compost pile, and even a solar heated house! In a way I was almost destine to be a sustainable artist.

Fast forward a few years...

I really loved soldering up little stained glass sun catchers for my friends when I was visiting home from college.

And fast forward a few more years and I made myself a little attic studio when I was in graduate school so I could solder and play with glass with my hands while my mind was working on the next long paper or thesis. That’s how it really started, being a broke grad student and needing a gift. I realized how beautiful bottle glass was (and hey it was free) so I started making jewelry from it and Smart Glass Recycled Jewelry was born.

Now fast forward many years and I’ve been working with bottles for over 28 years. I’ve refined, invented, and patented unique studio techniques to transform the bottles into curves, and waves, and cubes, and mosaics.

And I’ve expanded from the expected amber and green to periwinkle, aqua, and antique clear creating fresh and unexpected Spring pallets.

Quality Mother Daughter Time

Some things haven’t changed. I still recycle and compost, love to solder things, and my mom is still super crafty. She even comes and helps me in the studio sometimes! It’s more for us to spend time together and chat while we work with our hands (on your jewelry!)

My mom is also still a super amazing gardener, and in honor of all things growing and blooming I created a few special pieces to celebrate Moms and flowers for Mother’s Day, like...

A little studio magic is added to hand-cut pieces of recycled clear wine or beer bottles to create movement and flow inspired by Dogwood. 

Reimagining Chardonnay and beer bottles to create a sunflower inspired necklace

Transforming post-consumer Sake bottle and Chardonnay bottle to create an Iris inspired gift. 

Take a look and see what is blooming at Smart Glass! Now is the time to celebrate your Mom with a gift inspired by my Mom!

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