Artist makes home at Glassworks

Johnston grew up on the Olympia Peninsula in the heart of the evergreen forests. She attributes her early artistic development to the encouragement of her parents as she developed interests in creative and scientific projects as well as subjects ranging from Middle Eastern dance, theatre set design, and marine and fresh water biology.

Over the years, she has worked in acrylic and polymer beads. Her real passion, however, is in glass and what she calls "the illusion of perpetual fluidity."

Her glass pieces all begin with a table mounted torch and a stick of colored glass. Here the base color is heated from a stick of glass and transferred to a stainless steel mandrel. The hot glass is then wound around the mandrel as she allows the inherent properties of the glass, heat, gravity and her artistry to combine to form the finished piece. The result is an amazing array of colored glass beads that may be grouped or gathered into finished jewelry sets.

Johnston's latest passion is the mini blow pipe. This type of glass blowing can also be done on the table top at her studio. The mini blow pipe is 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter. Hot glass is blown and manipulated bringing intricate detail to the designs.

She notes, "This is exactly the same process as full scale furnace glass. I just use smaller tools to make smaller things."

Rather than the big wooden blocks that the traditional glass blowers use, she shapes the glass with small hand held marble molds. These "smaller things" are hollow ware and vessels that include a line of beautiful perfume bottles.

Johnston is currently an active member of the Columbia Gorge Chapter of the Oregon Glass Guild. Her works may be seen at the Portland Saturday Market, the Harvest Festival in Hood River, and The Glassworks in White Salmon.