Sponsored by Cole’z Peace

Lois has lived in Key West for nearly seven years. You may have seen her at the Key West Art Center where works as the assistant director and also oversees annual shows and festivals.

Lois has been making glass beads and designing jewelry since 2001 and takes inspiration from her travels, having visited many beautiful places including the Galapagos Islands, The Amazon Rainforest, New Zealand, Portugal, Italy and the island of Murano , as well as other parts of Europe.

Lois uses an age old technique called “lampworking”, to produce hand-crafted glass beads by winding hot molten glass around thin stainless steel rods.  A torch is used to melt the thin rods of brightly colored glass to a working temperature of more than 1500 degrees.  Although the tools have improved, the same basic techniques have been used to produce glass beads for more than two thousand years.