Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Glass Bead Artist Rebecca Schupbach to Demonstrate at Kentucky Artisan Center

On Saturday, July 7, Rebecca Schupbach of Louisville will demonstrate how she creates her lampworked glass beads from 10:30 – 3:30 at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea.

Rebecca took her first jewelry and silversmithing lessons from her father while still a teenager. She continued to pursue making jewelry while working as an attorney and in 1999, discovered the thrill of working with glass. She began to take glass bead classes and workshops with Louisville bead maker Bonnie Blincoe, and also studied with nationally known beadmakers Patti Walton and Shane Fero.

The ancient art of glass-working transforms earthy matter such as silica sand, soda, lime and metal salts into vitreous substances with an extraordinarily wide range of color, transparency, translucence or opacity. Rebecca uses colored rods of soda-lime glass which are made using traditional methods by Effetre one of the oldest glass manufacturers in Italy.

Traditional “moretti” glass is made by building up colored layers of molten glass and then pulling and stretching it out into thin rods. Rebecca strives to capture the idea of glass as frozen fire. Rebecca is a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, and the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program. Her work can regularly be found at the Kentucky Artisan Center.

The Kentucky Artisan Center is located just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 650 artisans from 90 counties across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov  

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Commerce Cabinet.