I was born and grew up in Germany, in a small village in the Rhine valley. Nowadays I live and work in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, close to Redmond and Ames Lake, Washington. Our little family (my Belgian husband and my two little girls with our  pets) moved to the United States end of March 2006, after having lived for more than seven years in New Zealand.

My passion for beading began with simple stringed necklaces and within a short timeframe I set up my own showcase at Craft World in Auckland, NZ. At first I was using in my jewelry designs mainly sterling silver, semiprecious stones and Swarovski crystals. That was until I discovered lampwork beads! I still remember when I ordered for the first time artisan lampwork beads through Ebay and they arrived with the mail. I was hooked and started to read everything I could about beads and the ancient art of lampworking. I set up my own lampworking studio in 2006 after attending classes at Bellevue Community College. After much encouragement from my family and friends, I am now selling my glass art beads through Ebay, Etsy and here on my webpage. I have been published in "The Glass Bead" magazine, summer 2010.    In a nutshell, what is lampworking? Each bead is individually crafted using a centuries-old technique called lampworking (also called flameworking) in which molten glass is wrapped around a stainless steel rod to create glass beads. The beads are then cooled in a digitally-controlled kiln for strength and durability.   My studio This photo shows the main working area of my studio. On the left (light gray machine) there is the oxygen generator which brings oxygen to the torch. On the desk are two kilns (one shiny silver box and one red box with green door) who are important for annealing the beads. They cool down the beads at a very slow rate to ensure durability and stability within the glass. The torch is difficult to spot, as it's rather small ... but follow the green & red hose, and you can spot my GTT Cricket torch sitting on the table right in front of the chair. The green hose brings the oxygen to the torch and the red hose brings Propane (propane bottle is located outside of studio, you can't see it on this picture). The lovely shiny metal box hanging from the ceiling is the very important ventilation system which takes care that no dangerous fumes are staying in the working area. On the right side you can see part of my glass stash.
	This is a close-up of my torch and in the background you can see some of the many tools that I need on a daily basis ... presses, picks, shaping tools, mashers, rakes, mandrels and so on.
	I am a participant in the Self-Representing Artists community. Self representing artist guarantees that you are buying artist-made beads directly from the artist, not through a middle man.