Hi and welcome to my "About Me" page! My name is Jena and I'm a professional pyromaniac. I caught the firebug around the age of 8 - playing with matches in my backyard while trying to figure out how to "smoke" bamboo with my childhood friend, Cathy. A few years later, I was playing with some oil lamps my grandmother had brought back from a dig in Israel and managed to set fire to the drapes in the upstairs bedroom. Luckily, the fire was quickly extinguished with no casualties - unless we're counting the horrid polyester drapes that were so ugly they deserved to die anyway. Several years passed with no further flame-related incidents, most likely because no one was willing to leave me unsupervised around anything remotely flammable...

High school came and I found a new love in Art. Drawing, painting, jewelry-making, ceramics, sculpture, needlework, etc... If you can name it, I tried and enjoyed it - but nothing seemed to feel truly mine. Then one day many years later, I was browsing in a bead store with a jewelry-designer friend when I noticed the handmade lampwork bead display. I fell in love with lampwork beads the first time I picked one up. Turning it over in my hand, marveling at the intricate details and artistry captured forever in glass, I knew I had discovered something amazing. I did some research online and ordered a couple books on making glass beads. As soon as I discovered that FIRE was involved, my fate was sealed. My 2 great passions, flame and art, combined to create the perfect artform for me - lampwork beads!

Convincing my husband and nervous family to let me play with fire again took a little time and a big leap of faith, but I've been making and selling beads for over 5 years now. (Unsupervised, even!) My favorite style of beads to make are florals and you will see LOTS of them from me. I do, however, make many different types of beads and I invite you to click the link below to visit my webpage to see or purchase more of my work!

www.jenagirlbeads.com