Amy Bond Glass

A joyful use of colour, bold shapes and an irreverent sense of humour, showcased with detailed craftsmanship set Amy’s work apart. Drawn to small details and the intimate nature of a piece that can become part of your personality or change your mood, Amy has focused her career on flameworked glass jewellery.

After studying flamework in her teens at The Corning Museum of Glass, Amy went on to study Craft and Design at Sheridan College. She co-fouded TANK studio in Toronto’s Historic Distillery District circa 2005, one of Canada’s only public flameworking galleries and teaching spaces at the time. Currently Amy enjoys working from her private, light filled, Toronto studio. Inspiration comes in many forms, colour and shapes, natural and not, from a drawing or a snippet of conversation. The physical process of making is when Amy is most inspired.  Glasswork itself is meditative; controlling molten glass, watching it change state, it’s reliably mesmerizing.
 
Flameworking
Flameworking or lampworking, is a process where rods of coloured glass are heated using an oxy propane torch flame at over two thousand degrees Celsius. Molten glass is wound around a coated metal rod (mandrel), to create the body of the bead (bead matrix). The glass may be manipulated and or decorated in countless ways with tools and techniques and by harnessing power of heat and gravity. Once complete, the bead is annealed in a kiln to stabilize the temperature then it is slowly cooled, cleaned and readied for fabrication or metalsmithing.  All of Amy’s pieces are created in her private Toronto studio.