Welcome to the High Glass Studio website! My name is Bobbie Van Eck, and I am the artist and designer behind the beads and finished jewelry here at High Glass. I am located in Albion, Michigan with my husband, two children, two dogs, 4 sugar gliders, a corn snake and two horses. I have been working with glass for over twenty years, with the last ten exclusively devoted to glass bead making. I started with lampwork glass beads (beads made by manipulating hot glass around a rod using a torch), and moved to fusing (layering glass and melting it together using a kiln). I originally started fusing beads to add a new element of texture and design to my lampwork bead jewelry, and found that I actually favored the fusing technique and the options it gave me in designing my beads.
As you will see as you explore the website, I work mainly with bright colors, textures and lots of contrast. I also make my beads with dichroic glass backs and fronts so that no matter which way a bead is turned it will always be beautiful. Each bead is three layers of glass, handcut and designed, using a variety of techniques including etching, enamel highlights and embedding high quality cubic zirconias. Each etched bead is individually hand-etched, no stencils are used in the process. My beads are just that - beads. Not Cabachons. They have holes that are made during the fusing process (a method I came up with many years back) enabling them to be used like any other bead when being used in jewelry.
My work is available at several galleries in lower Michigan. The links to the galleries can be found on my Links page. Because I design and make the beads myself, custom orders are both welcome and enjoyable. I also have a new line of drawer pulls that lends itself easily to the custom design arena.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Since most items are in galleries, I will bi-weekly add a new item to the Available Items page. If you are interested in something you saw and is no longer listed, please ask me about it. It may still be available but was moved to one of the galleries.
Thanks for visiting High Glass Studio!
Enjoy!
