About
the Artist
All
glass items featured on this site are made by me,
Tatia Johnson of Memphis, TN. The
photo on the left is my beadmaking demonstration
at a craft show using my portable hot head torch.
I have always
been a creative person and became intrigued by glass
beadmaking when I bought a kit at the local gem and mineral
show back in 1993. I am self taught and started out making
enamel glass beads using copper tubing as a base and
layering enamel frit (granulated glass) onto it with
a hand held propane torch. Those first beads were very
primitive, but they got me hooked on beadmaking. I have
since upgraded my studio and booth displays significantly.
Perhaps someday I will learn to blow glass.
I am addicted
to lampworking and prefer to spend as much time as possible
in my studio, but I spend a large part of the Spring
and Fall seasons at various shows and festival throughout
the Southeastern United States.
In
a previous life I was a theatre major and spent
many hours upon the stage. The photo on the right is me
in a Kabuki-style production of Medea under the
direction of Kabuki Master Shozo Sato. I played the young,
beautiful,
and spoiled Princess of Kyushu (the woman Medea
was spurned for and who never appeared onstage
in the original script.) Although not truly evil, she was villanous
and corrupt. This character was a lot of fun to play. She
had a great flaming "death dance" and
the back of her large (and very heavy) kimono
opened up to reveal
yards and yards of intricately sewn silk and cloth.
