Yvette received a Bachelor of Arts in visual communications and spent years working in two-dimensional art as a Layout Designer for a book publishing company and a Graphic Designer for a multimedia company in Chicago. Later in life she went on to earn a Master's Degree in health education and business administration and moved to the New England area in 1997. On the east coast she worked in public health and human resources and continued making glass art and selling her work. In 2025, she retired from her full time job and is now devoting 100% of her time to creating new pieces, showcasing her work at galleries and selling her pieces at craft shows on the east coast. Her passion is shaping glass with heat; either behind the torch or using the kiln as her crafting tool. “Heating glass to create various shapes, sizes, patterns and textures is a medium that offers endless possibilities and is spectacularly fascinating. Working with glass rewards careful planning, creative thinking and technical expertise of how glass responds to heat and cools.”
Yvette is a Massachusetts glass artist and her lamp-work beads can be found in her jewelry designs and custom serving utensils. To view and purchase her work her kiln-formed serving dishes and handmade glass tiles, please visit one of her participating craft shows.
Coldworking glass: grinding and polishing a dish
My newest work is using the Sgraffito method with glass powders and glass frit on glass - creating unique handmade glass tiles. Adding enamel paint to my tiles allows me to move from a drawing to a painting on glass. Each fused glass Sgraffito drawing and enamel painting requires roughly 6-7 painting sessions and 6-7 firings in my kiln. It is a lengthy process, but in order to achieve depth and a specific mood, I add many layers of glass powder, frit and opaque and transparent paint. My handmade glass tiles are mounted on a wood frame and are ready to be hung on the wall. For custom tiles for your kitchen or bath, they are not framed.
I have been working with glass for over twenty years and started as a stained glass mosaic artist making wall hangings. I became fascinated working with molten glass and that led me to lamp-working/flame-working making glass beads for my jewelry and serving utensils in addition to small glass sculptures. Glass fusing and kiln forming is the next stage of my art journey with endless possibilities for new creations. All of my work that comes out of the kiln is refined with some cold working. Depending upon the design, I may hand sand it or use a wet belt sander to reshape a dish for a more dramatic finish. For more complex designs, I will grind and shape pieces of glass and fuse it to glass or trim saw a finished fused glass piece to develop a new pattern.
Working with glass is an artistic process and extremely technical craft. My love for glass and years of training allows me to keep exploring new techniques, developing new ideas and creating unique artwork that is both artistic and functional.
Making a glass bead in my studio