About the Artist

 

I was born and raised in a Chicago suburb, Evergreen Park.  I worked in downtown Chicago all of my adult life, most if it as a Legal Secretary.  Then in November of 2000 when I was living in BERWYN??? (inside Chicago joke), I met the sweetest person ever to come into my life, my husband, Craig Finnegan.  Craig lived in rural Staunton, Illinois - near St. Louis, Missouri!  After getting to know one another, we began commuting back and forth on weekends for a year and a half.  In June of 2002, I moved to Staunton with the gracious, patient, wise and always humorous help of Craig's Mom and Dad.  Craig and his family helped to make it a very easy and sane transition moving from Chicago to small town life.  I found a job within a week of moving here and lived a largely un-artistic life until a couple years later (more details later - read on).
 
Craig and I were married (more pics here - right click) on May 26, 2007.  In the picture above, behind our friend and officiant, Larry Miller, from the left to the right are:
  1. You can barely see her, but my junior bridesmaid, Carissa Campbell
  2. My sister-in-law, Holly Maynard
  3. My best friend, Nicole Roderick
  4. My niece, Maggie Machtemes
Then on to the guys on the right:
  1. Craig's friend, Mark Kramer
  2. Craig's friend, Brad Burgnone ("Gooney")
  3. Our brother-in-law, Chas Maynard
  4. Our junior groomsman, Craig's cousin, Joseph Del Signore
We were married in Edwardsville, Illinois at Crystal Gardens.  Friends and family from as far away as Atlanta joined us for our special day.  Our outdoor ceremony was lovely, brief, warm and breezy.  We then moved inside for our literally stormy reception.  We were having such a great time that we didn't even notice the thunderstorm until someone pointed it out.  For more pictures of our wedding, please see my links page for my Flipdrive address.  And yes, RUSH WAS PLAYED at our wedding - Time Stand Still from Hold Your Fire.  A fabulous time was had by all except our two Shelties, Sandy and Simba - they had to be boarded for the day as anyone who loved them was at the wedding and couldn't watch them for us.  Here they are:
 
 
On to my art.  I started beading in August of 2004.  My former boss, Jill Morris, was moving away to Kansas City and as a going away gift, she gave me a beaded necklace.  I loved it!  The more I wore it and studied it the more I realized - I could make that!  So began my part-time jewelry making career.  I started out making beaded necklaces and bracelets.  I then learned wire bending.  I became a complete beading addict and was always scouring the internet for the best deals on my materials.
 
I came to love the ancient art of lampworking through my love of beading.  I was introduced to lampwork beads through the Forum on www.beadandbutton.com -- a bead art community.  I happened upon a post entitled, "Have you seen these beads???!!!"  They were the amazing beads of Corina Tettinger.  I marvelled at the detail, shapes, textures and colors and the way Corina blended her beads with crystal and Bali sterling silver into stunning bracelets.  Corina's beads were the first lampwork beads I had ever seen.  She is, in my opinion, ONE of THE finest lampwork artists on the planet.  Through my thorough and insatiable quest of this often breathtaking art, I have become friends with some immensely talented local St. Louis Lampwork artists.  I've linked some of them on my Links page.
 
Further searching led me to the St. Louis Lampworkers' Society's website where I found out they would be holding their 5th Annual Glass Galore bead show the very next weekend!  My husband and I went to the show and I was amazed by all of the beautiful, colorful creations of the talented and gifted artists at the show.  We stopped to watch a world famous and local lampworker, Cindy Jenkins, perform her lampworking demonstration.  I wanted to keep watching but I also wanted to see more beads!
 
So I moved along and about two exhibitions later, my husband comes walking up with a box in his hands.  I said to the artist, "He's got a box."  She agreed.  Then I said, "HE'S GOT A BOX!"  In the box was a Hothead Starters Kit Craig bought from Cindy Jenkins.  I couldn't stop the joyful tears that came along with the laughter.  We asked at the show where was the nearest store where we could buy more glass.  It ended up being Glasshopper Studio in Creve Couer, Missouri.  We went and bought more glass and made beads the next day in our basement.  I took Lampworking I at Glasshopper Studio a couple of weeks later.
 
After an almost two-year hiatus away from the torch, I anxiously await the construction of my new studio.  My husband is building it into our garage.  I'll keep everyone posted as to it's progress.
 
My family is very creative.  My husband, Craig Finnegan, is a concrete finisher by day and in his spare time is a luthier - one who builds stringed instruments.  Craig's specialty is classical guitars.  You can see a few pictures of his first couple of guitars on his pages on my website.   My mother-in-law, Carol Finnegan, creates fun and stylish, hand-crafted purses and handbags.  Please see Carol's section on my website, D.O.C. - Design Originals by Carol.  
 
This website is a work under construction.  Thanks for stopping by!

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