FIND OUT A BIT MORE ABOUT ME AND MY WORK AT MY WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.ROWANBERRYGLASSART.COM

Hi! I'm Claire and I live in North Staffordshire, with my hippy "recycling and climate change officer" husband and 3 very demanding cats who I swear rule the house!

I am a full-time self-employed Lampworker/Glass artist. It doesn't make me rich (far from it) but I so love what I do which makes all of the difference!

I came to glasswork from my jewellery design experience (both self-employed and for a company) in March 2006 - I was becoming increasingly bored by beads on the market and found it so unethical to use mass produced glass beads (often these are made under VERY poor conditions and are not annealed etc) and also I wanted to move away from using gemstones/crystals in my jewellery because of the environmental impact.

One thing I love about glass is that theres always so much to learn and discover about it, its such an exciting medium to work with!

I am self-taught through books, DVDs and through help from other lampworkers on-line. Though I do hope to gain some new skills via some classes very soon.

The best part about being in the UK is the amazing amount of stunning scenery, myths, legends and history that we have here - this provides me with a great range of sources of inspiration, from mountains, to ancient forests and stone circles. I feel blessed to live in a land thats so rich in the Earth's bounties and with such a deep and varied history.

I am also a Pagan and environmentalist. My spirituality, pantheist beliefs, and love of nature and the earth play a big part in my inspiration.There is always a lot of "me" in a piece of my work. I really do enjoy the artistic progress, following the flow from inspiration to creation to completion - I get such a buzz!

I love getting out and about in the UK and "experiencing" and connecting to the landscape. It may be hard doing this living in an urban setting, but we are at least very lucky to live only a short trip from the Peak District, Cheshire and North Wales, so we try to get "out there" as much as we practically can. My favourite haunts at the moment are Silbury Hill & Avebury, Tal-y-fan in Conwy and Arbor Low in Derbyshire.

My hopes and dreams? To carry on lampworking full time, and hopefully have a shop or teaching workshop one day. And to relocate  to somewhere rural, either  Cornwall , Wales or Scotland where I could keep chickens  and grow my  own veg.  I think it's a way off yet - but it's nice to dream and have something to work for.