Spotlight on Liz Blood
I have a profound love for the natural beauty of Mother Earth and all the creatures that share her oceans, marshes, woodlands, and wetlands. This love has been a central motivating force in my scientific and artistic life. After completing two degrees in science, I received a doctorate in Ecology (the study of living things and their environment.) My research included the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, South Carolina coastal wetlands, and southwest Georgia karst wetlands and streams.
As a scholar, academic, and federal civil servant, my scientific endeavors have sought to understand the relationships between people and the natural world and linking science, management, and policy to address critical societal challenges.
I brought this same fascination of nature into my glass art, art glass beads, and jewelry. Raised in the Southeast, my glass art is inspired by the lush beauty of southern gardens and coastal wetlands, the magnificence of the piney woods and the enchantment of the animals that occupy these areas. My glass art includes fish, ocean life, seasonal landscapes, lush vineyards, floral gardens, floral cactus, earth minerals, water and wetlands, and wetland wanderers.
My journey with glass began with the purchase of an abstract necklace in 1985 that contained Venetian beads. Fascinated by their design and origin, I began collecting beads, books on beads, and incorporating them into jewelry for friends and family.
In 1994 I attended the Bead Expo in Santa Fe, NM to continue my education about the history of glass beads. It was there that I learned about contemporary lampwork beads and the newly emerging contemporary lampwork bead movement from Brian Kerkvliet. I purchased my first lampwork bead from Brian – his first in a series of mosaics that reminded me of wetlands.
Later that same year, I met two young beadmakers in Albany, GA who taught me how to make beads in their garage. From that first time on a torch, I was hooked on melting and shaping the glass and playing with fire. The next year I attended the Society of Glass Beadmakers meeting where I purchased my first equipment and supplies from Frantz and Arrow Springs.
I spent the next few years developing my skills and attending the SGB (later renamed the ISGB) gatherings. I expanded my skill through classes from James Smercich, Tom Holland, Loren Stump, Leah Fairbanks, and Sharon Peters.
At the encouragement of Sylvie Landsdowne, we shared a booth and I sold my first beads at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. I established my first company, Piney Woods Beads, after participating in a wholesale market (Rosen Show) to sell retail and wholesale to galleries and bead stores. During this time, I taught glass bead making at several studios and with the Florida Goldsmiths annual retreat.
In 2003, my time at the torch was put on hold when I took a position with the National Science Foundation to assist in building the first ecological research observatory in the world – the National Ecological Observatory Network. This all-consuming task along with being a single mom left no time for melting glass. However, the itch for fire and melting glass kept simmering.
After my daughter left for college, I decided it was time to return to the torch and start attending the ISGB gatherings again. The re-entry has been humbling but through some wonderful teachers (Bandu Dunham, Margaret Zinnzer, Jeri Sheese, Heather Trimlet, Marcy Lamberson, Floor Kaspers, Deb Crowley, and Shelly Woolvin) and great fellowship at the Gatherings, I am beginning the second phase of my glass journey.
After retiring two years ago, my friend Mary Ann Borkowski and I established Glassy Ladies Studios. We are just beginning our journey in selling our beads and jewelry locally in South Carolina and at the Gatherings. Currently my studio is in a room in my small beach cottage. This spring I am having a proper glass and craft studio built so that I can return to teaching this wonderful art form to a new generation of glass bead makers.