How I got started
People sometimes ask me how I got started doing fused glass. Well…I have always had some kind of artistic pursuit. Before FOXY Fusions, I did a lot of paintings and pastel drawings. If you’re interested, you can check these out at www.kerrilawnsby.com.
When I moved to the Austin area in 2005, I wanted to try something new. Since I had been known to spend copious amounts of money on dichroic jewelry, I was very excited when I saw an introductory class for glass fusing in the University of Texas Informal Classes listing. Turns out, that class was taught by the Art Glass Fusing Center in Austin (http://www.artglassfusingcenter.com/). I enjoyed this class very much, and highly recommend instruction at AGFC if you live in Austin and want to find out how to do fused glass. If you don’t live in Austin, you can also check out warmglass.com–it’s a great resource of information about fused and torchwork glass!
After the first couple of classes, I started generating such an inventory of jewelry that my husband asked “What are you going to do with all this stuff?” So I decided….sell it to pay for my hobby! After 2 months of making and selling jewelry, I was able to afford my very first kiln–a Paragon Caldera (http://www.paragonweb.com/)–which I still use today for small production and test runs.
I’m so glad I spotted that class! I love fused glass!
