Well, my life of glass has followed many paths. Many years ago, at the beginning of my career when I thought glass was a nice hobby, I dabbled in stained glass. I made trinkets for family and friends and filled my home with glass. Eventually I heard about people getting together and putting on shows of their work (craft shows). What a great idea...so I sent in my $10, bought a table and tablecloth and was in business.

Through the years shows became more sophisticated and expensive. Artists couldn't just show up with a table and their wares anymore. Now you had to send in pictures or slides of your work and have a "booth", a traveling storefront, and of course the price went up!

About 4 years after I discovered stained glass fusing was 'invented' by Bullseye Glass. I remember being one of the first fusing artists in the New York area at the shows. My largest sales were in button earrings. I bought a piece of styrofoam, rigged up the back so it would stand, and pushed earring studs through it. That was my jewelry display, and did I sell earrings...no one ever saw fused glass earrings before. There was no fused glass jewelry at all. Well that's all in the past.. Now every other booth at a craft show has beautiful fused jewelry with lots of dichroic glass. If I ever showed up at a show with the kind of display I first used, I'd be asked to leave!

I did shows for about 12 years in the Northeast area. When all of our kids, 4 of them, moved out on their own, my husband Irv and I decided to move to Florida. What a great move! I never thought I would move here, or maybe I would eventually live here when I was 95. We told the kids, sold everything, packed up the car and left.

We moved to this little sleepy town called Sarasota, opened a glass gallery with room for a studio in the back and were in business. This was around 1991. I sold my work in the gallery, no more shows, Thank Goodness (too exhausting) and was building up a following in the gallery.

Through the grapevine I heard about this glass called frit, granuals of glass in different weights. I bought some and it opened up a whole new way of looking at and working with glass. I started "Painting" with frit. I sent a picture of my work to Corning Museum of Glass and was chosen as one of 100 recipients for the "Neuw Glass Review", a very prestigous award Corning presents every year for inovative work. There are thousands of entries and only 100 winners chosen worldwide.

Throughout the years I have owned and operated a glass gallery with my husband Irv, International Glass Art; a studio, Firelite Glass now SZQ Designs; I've done arts and crafts shows and trade shows, started a school in 2000 Sarasota School of Glass; started a slumping mold company in 2000 called Future forms, which our daughter has taken over and renamed Firelite Forms; written the best little fusing book ever "Everything You Wanted To Know About Fusing...But Had No One To Ask", and in my spare time (spare time?) I build websites which includes: Firelite Forms www.fireliteforms.com which features slumping molds and display stand for the glass artist; YourGlassman www.yourglassman.com, which features Mah Jong jewelry and accessories; Shelby Art Studio www.shelbyartstudio.com, showing her pastel paintings and mosaic art; Sarasota School of Glass www.sarasotaschoolofglass.com the fusing school I established in 2000. I have also, out of necessity at the time, invented a fusing glue, SureStik, a special adhesive for glass fusers that is easy to apply when the project is finished and leaves no marks on the glass when fired.

Lets just say -- who knows what new idea will pop into my mind -- I'm always following another dream.