I apologize for my hiatus as I was packing up my studio and moving out to Seattle, Washington!
The transition has been a huge endeavor involving many boxes of glass & loads of bubble wrap, but I have found myself in one of the best glass communities in the world!
I am now working with fabulous glassmaking teams to help me execute my large pieces.  The timing and coordination needed to make hot glass is an artmaking dance with molten fire.

I am also a new faculty member of Pratt Fine Arts and LOVING it!  I am thrilled to be part of the family at Pratt.
We have an upcoming auction and party celebrating 30 years of artmaking @ Pratt.  
Click here for more info and attend the event on May 5.

I am equipped with not only the best shops and teams, but packers and shippers that can bring art glass to any corner of the world.
All glassworks and art glass lighting is signed and dated by the artist– moi! It is part of the ILLUMINATA collection.

Get in touch to chat about custom art glass!

Julie Conway 
Studio Illuminata

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New Contact Info:
Studio:1952 1st Ave South #3
Seattle, WA 98134
(206) 623 1420

Contrast and unexpected effect are elemental in my design process.   My glassworks reflect these natural tensions in our universe.  I enjoy the contradictory effect of combining raw industrial material with the smooth elegance of blown glass.   Or perhaps interrupting the surface of glass with sandblasting or metallic coatings.

Creating effect in a space is the goal of great lighting.   Helping us feel at one with our world is the goal of making great art.

Function meets sculpture with the NEST pendant light.     All glassworks and art glass lighting is signed and dated by the artist– moi!

I would be happy to discuss any projects you have in mind that call for unique glasswork.

Transform your interior space with custom glass lighting and site-specific glass installations.

Have an inspired day!

It can be heart-wrenching when you drop a piece after hours of work, and it can be thrilling to open the kiln to discover a new color combination.   As a glass artist, I stay in the moment where glass is transforming from a liquid to a solid, and I am there to guide it into shape with my breath.

People on our planet have been making glass for over 4000 years.  I am honored to be a glass maker in the lineage of this great history.   I am inspired by nature, contemporary design, and ancient traditional glass- making techniques.   I love world travel and have spent time learning my skills from glass masters from Italy, Turkey  the Czech Republic, and the US.  I am influenced by my contemporary colleagues and by my mentors.

I appreciate the talented glassmakers and accomplished metalsmiths that help me to create my work.  I am very grateful to work with such creative clients who admire my work and allow me to bring it into the world.

Creating glass art is my passion.  Designing functional glass art is my business.How can I help you to transform your interior space  with site-specific glass installations?

Have an inspired day!

One of the best parts about my business is the challenge to create something unique for a specific location, and bring transformation to the space.

What is my process?  How do I make the project a success?

I collaborate with architects, designers & clients to bring my glassmaking and design skills to meet their desires.

Each project has its own complexity that allows me to draw from previous experiences and to invent new creations.

By tuning into the surrounding environment, I am able to create a solution for my clients and transform interior spaces with glass and light.

Please contact me if you would like further information about any of my art glass and custom lighting.  Each piece is a functional, collectible piece of lighted sculpture signed by me, the artist.

I can work from any location with material samples, colors, and architectural plans.

Have an inspired day!

Pioggia  custom commissioned by Leyla Hilmi Design in California

Venetian glassmakers, although secluded with their secret trade, and forbidden to leave the Republic, had privileges of wearing swords, and marrying their daughters into nobility.

Today, Murano, only 1.5 km across, inhabits about 5,000 people and hundreds of glass furnaces.  You can hear their fuel-driven hum and see the orange glow in the ancient window panes as you come across the lagoon at night. Glass sparkles in every storefront. Mecca for a glass artist.

I first came to Venice as an art student while studying in Avignon, France.  Getting lost in the maze-like streets and the sounds of the canals lapping on the ancient stones of the buildings, made a deep impression.  Glass was not yet the passionate material I pursue today, but a side interest.

In 2004, I first worked as a teaching assistant for Maestro Fabio Fornasier at the Abate Zanetti Scuola del Vetro in Murano.  I returned again to work with Fabio, and Maestro Lucio Bubacco in 2005, and 2006 at Lucio’s private studio & school.   I have also befriended and worked with other maestri on the island.

I would not even have these opportunities to work with and learn from Venetian glass masters had it not been for the relationships made by Dale Chihuly and other foreigners who visited and worked in Murano in the 1960’s and 70’s.   For this I am so grateful.

While visiting this dream-like world, I am allowed the opportunity to learn from masters who pass on centuries-old traditions of their trade.  Their depth and knowledge goes beyond this realm drawing from thousands of years of practice.  I bring to Murano, my entrepreneurial spirit, my love for foreign language and culture,  and the drive to create beautiful blown glass. No, I don’t have 13 grandfathers who worked with glass, but I have the desire to invest in Murano, and to keep returning to one of the best glassmaking centers of the world.      August 31, 2011

Glass can be molten liquid, solid, and gaseous.  It flows from one state to another and becomes another form, as though it is effortless.    Artists and athletes look for this state of flow– or being in the zone– to optimize their talents and produce fantastic results with seemingly effortless efforts.

The flow state, was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a research scientist known for his studies of creativity, happiness and positive psychology.  When one loses oneself completely in the task at hand, in total concentration, it seems as though time stands still, nothing else matters.

How do you get into your zone?  The activity at hand must be challenging with a balance of having high skill level to accomplish it.  Flow can be found in any job situation, but as an artist, I feel I need it to thrive.

There are days that I can go into the studio and lose myself in a project til evening without need of much else.  Lunch, phone calls, social media all fall away while in the flow state.   As fluid as molten glass, my thoughts and actions are active and totally immersed in the project.

The challenge of working on something new to me and matching my talents to the task at hand is what fuels the project and self-perpetuates the energy into a flow state.  Sometimes this can be difficult in our modern culture of sound bytes and multi-tasking with splintered attention.  The flow takes some cultivation.

My fascination with self-discovery led me to find Jeffrey Howard of Visionary Business University, an online course for entrepreneurs.    Jeff, now a collector of Illuminata glasswork,  has kindly offered my readers his insights in this free video of getting in the zone.   Click this link for the Master Mind Mentor and enjoy!

I hope you can create your own flow state, and return to it as often as possible.

Please leave comments on how you get in the zone:  Running, painting, writing code?

Working this week as a volunteer for Therman Statom’s project camp for Native American kids in Omaha is a thrill.  Glass can inspire young minds and transcend cultures and prove dreams to come true.    The molten material can be formed into the kids’ ideas of their origin story and their power animals.

Weaving cultures and glass making into an inspiring activity for youth is so energizing and inspiring for both the participants and the teachers.

Glass is a dreamlike material.  It is a live substance with which one must dance.  To create the intended design, the artist must be in tune with the rhythms and the limits of the molten sand.

When I lived in New Mexico, I  had the opportunity to meet and assist Preston Singletary, who uses hot glass to express totems of his Native Tlingit ancestry.  I also   worked with two fantastic  local Native artists, Ira Lujan and Spooner Marcus.  I always appreciated how they interpret their native cultures in their glass sculptures, and the power of their story telling in glass forms.

With my connections, we brought Ira to Omaha to work with Therman in this camp to inspire the kids with his Native roots and stories as well as his accomplished glass making skills.

In our fast-food culture of consumption, we have lost the connection to our roots, the pace of tradition, and the importance of story telling.

I am happy to have the opportunity to meet these children and use my skills as a glass artist to inspire them to pursue their dreams.

The kid’s creations in glass making, painting and screen printing will be on display at an art expo this Friday, 22 July 2011 at the KANEKO in Omaha.

Come out to catch a dream.

In our busy world, it is hard to find time to carve out for pondering.  I was lucky to have a recent, unexpected road trip from Glacier National Park, in Montana back to the Omaha studio.  Ahhhhhh– space!  Literally!   for hundreds ( and hundreds) of miles!  I was able to just watch the landscape of the mountains with snow pack dissolving into rivers and wild flowers starting to bloom, the high peaks morph into rolling hills,  into the plains, and mysterious landscapes such as the Badlands.

I started out the journey, as we do with goals and things I would like to accomplish during my “free” time behind the wheel.   The 25 hours of driving seemed like a perfect opportunity to get things “done.”

Instead, I just enjoyed the   s   p   a   c   e

The landscape was a moving painting of natural beauty and I just absorbed what was next along the road.  Until abruptly interrupted by the blight of our contemporary society– strip malls, fast food, gas stations, and casinos.   As a designer, I think of the caravans who traveled across the desert to find a luscious oasis at which to re-fuel and relax.   These rest-stops of modern age make me anxious to get back on to the road.  I find them to be void of nutrition or relaxation.

I am back in the studio today with new inspirations.  Grateful for my time away, as every new experience feeds the soul of an artist.  How this space will manifest into artistic creation is yet to be seen.

Today, try to find a moment in which you can find a moment dedicated to space.

The opening of Pilchuck glass school in the 70‘s has attracted the best-of-the-best glass masters from around the world to come visit Seattle and teach glass programs. The school has inspired other learning facilities to open in the region, and allowed for other glass artists to establish successful studios. Another attraction is the Tacoma Museum of Glass, one of the best ways to experience glassmaking and viewing.

I belong to the Glass Art Society, an international alliance of glassmakers, collectors and gallerists that all conjoin for the annual GAS conference held in different cities around the world. This year’s Seattle gathering is expected to be spectacular with so many glass venues to enjoy!

I am thrilled to re-connect with my larger glass familia. This is truly the family reunion that I look forward to each year. My friend from Italy, France, Australia,Turkey, NY, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, North Carolina, California and New Mexico, will all be there! And, as always, I look forward to making new friends each year.

In 2003, I attended my first GAS conference in Seattle and I found my tribe. We are a crazy bunch who wants to play with fire at 2000 F and try to attempt the impossible. The demonstrations and lectures given b y my contemporaries working glass at new levels inspire me to no end.

Glass is both fragile and strong whether it is cast, lampworked, painted, fused or blown – it is amazing and addicting. Stay tuned for updates from Seattle!

To glass! Long live the tradition of 5000 years!