Hi! It's me! *waves*

Kaeli Alyssa Graham - My Angel, My Inspiration

Hi there!  My name is Dana Graham, and I am a mother of three as well as lampwork artist/jewelry designer located in Indiana. I joke all the time that I came out of my mother's womb holding a crayon in one hand and a paintbrush in the other!;)

Seriously, though, I have always loved art from childhood on, and had both a desire and a dream to make some form of art my life and my living.  In the past, I've done everything from painting 10 ft tall wooden caricatures, photography, layout and design of monthly newsletters, creating company logos, making fimo clay charms, painting portraits and even painting elaborate murals for homeowners.  I enjoyed all of these activities, but I just never quite found the courage to really make art my life...and I never quite found the medium that held my interest fully.

So...how did I get started?  Well, this is a much more loaded question than it seems. Unfortunately, it's not a happy story...but I do know it will one day have a happy ending. I lost my baby daughter to a tragic accident in October of 2002.  My little girl was 14months old when we lost her, and as you might expect, it turned our world upside down. (PLEASE, if you have small children or know others that do, please visit Kaeli's website link for important safety information) A couple of months after our daughter died, my best friend brought me a book on bent wire jewelry. I started trying the different designs in the book, and it quickly became (VERY LITERALLY) an obsession. It kept my mind off of things...and it allowed me to stay sane in a time when I really didn't feel like life would ever be sane again.

After the initial months of compulsive jewelry making, I eventually began to actually enjoy what I was doing.  I found my love for it. As I continued to create jewelry, I eventually found a lampwork artist on Ebay and bought some of her beads.  We began chatting via email, and it wasn't long before I just KNEW I had to work with glass and flame.  In June of 2004 I took a class from Ann Scherm Baldwin, and in 2005 after completing my studio - I got busy!  Ever since, I've been in love with the mixture of art and science that lampworking provides.  I hope you enjoy my creations as much as I love making them!

Life keeps moving forward...and sometimes I'm more than a little mystified by where it's leading me. But I can say that I believe that everything happens for a reason...and most of the time I am content to just understand when the time comes.