Hello, once again we have an exciting meeting coming up on December 3rd at Pacific Art Glass from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Don't forget everyone gets a glass goodie bag and Diane has some fabulous raffle items. Additionally we are having our bead exchange with a winter theme, so bring in your winter inspired bead and get one in return.

One of our demonstrators for the meeting will be Joyce Rooks. Joyce Rooks has been making glass beads since 1994. She was a potter for over 20 years and had worked in the music industry before taking up lampworking. Much of her work is sold to jewelry designers and collectors at bead shows and galleries around the world. Besides teaching glass bead making and fusing classes at the UCSD Crafts Center in La Jolla, CA and other schools and studios around the country, she manages to also find time to play the cello, record and tour.

Kati O'mear will also be demonstrating as well. In 1999, while studying Anthropology in college, Kati took a Stained
Glass class. That class was the spark that changed her focus from Anthropology to Glass Art. Kati spent several semesters studying stained glass under Ray Warner at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. In the summer of 2000, she had her first experience with hot glass casting. She fell in love with hot glass but knew she didn't want to work at the furnace full time. After researching hot glass, Kati had an opportunity to observe a glass bead making demo a local lampworking studio, and she knew she had found her life's passion.

In August 2000, Kati took her first lampworking class with Debi Willingham, the owner of BNC. She taught Kati to make her first fish bead, which
exploded into a obsession with sculptural beads. Since then she has studied under many of the best artists in the glass bead making community, including Lauren Stump, Deb Crowley, Patty Walton, Jim Smircich, Kate Fowle-Meleney, Kim Affleck, Leah Fairbanks, and Alethia Donothan. Kati works in both soda-lime glass and borosilicate glass and has studied borosilicate glass and has studied borosilicate with John Olsen, Nancy Nagel, and Henry Grimlett. She has also had the opportunity to observe workshops with Cesare Toffolo and Bandhu Dunham.

Kati began instructing basic lampworking, sculptural techniques, and introduction to borosilicate classes at Flame and Fusion, CA in 2002. In 2003, she and Pam Pitts, her best friend and partner in glass crimes, were invited to attend Glass Stock, where they learned and taught with 30 incredible glass artists. Kati has recently returned to California after attending Glass Stock 2004 and apprenticing Deb and Mike Crowley at
The GlassHive in South Beach, OR.

Kati's work can be found at Beadmakers of North County in Escondido, CA, M&D Designs in Chinook, WA, and Lampwork by Kati O'Meara at eBay.com.