to Blown Glass Gallery

Marian Fieldson grew up in Meadville, Pennsylvania and has been fascinated with glassblowing ever since she was a child. At age 8, after accompanying her family to Corning, New York where Corning Ware and Stueben Crystal products are manufactured and where she watched glassblowers in action, she went home, picked up her father's blowtorch and attempted to melt a soda pop bottle. There was obviously more to it than she thought.

Determined that she could create blown glass sculptures like the ones she saw in shops and fairs, it wasn't until 1985 that Fieldson, now living in California, seriously considered pursuing her dream. She ordered a glassblowing kit from a scientific supply company. Without any instruction and after much trial and error and many pounds of glass, Fieldson finished to her satisfaction, her first piece, a hummingbird.

A few months later, talking with the owner of a stained glass store in Sacramento, California, Fieldson learned about the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School recently opened by Dale Chihuly in Washington. There she took an intensive two-week class taught by Ginny Ruffner, renowned for her abstract works of art. Fieldson recalled her words, "There will be no bunnies or wishing wells in this class." Although the course gave Fieldson a deeper understanding of the techniques involved in glassblowing it has taken her many years "and a great deal of practice" to gain the skills needed to make a beautiful glass sculpture.

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