Creations In Glass

Hello, and welcome! My name is Laurel Rigoulot-Diebolt and I am a glass artist. I use the ancient technique of winding glass on a steel mandrel to form my glass beads and small sculptures. After the glass is annealed in my kiln and removed from the steel rod it is formed on, the steel rod leaves a hole and that is how a bit of glass becomes a bead. I then wash them, clean the holes with a diamond dremel and rinse them once again to be certain they are as clean as possible.

I've been interested in beads and beading my entire life. I was introduced to hot glass and making beads about a four years ago. A friend of mine had started making beads and was completely enthralled with the medium. I watched Andy make beads for about three years before I got the courage to try making a few myself. I loved the idea, but never thought I could learn the art myself, and frankly fire and hot glass was a scary thought.

Well, all that changed one nice Spring day when someone asked me what I wanted to do for the rest of my life as a career. All I could think of was making beads! So this is the result of that epiphany. I jumped in with both feet and have never looked back!

I love working in glass! It's been so rewarding for me on so many levels. This is just the very beginning of my journey into glass. It's an astonishing thing to see something so hard become so fluid with just a little bit of heat. Amazing really.

My glasses of choice are Lauscha, Ornela Pearl Glass, Moretti, Vetrofond, and Czech. I use a MiniCC torch and a Chillipepper kiln to anneal my beads so that they last a very, very long time!

So, sit back and relax. There's lots to see and tons of eye candy to enjoy in the galleries!