At the moment lamp-work does not really have an artistic reputation, it still needs the furnace like a raw, crude or primitive flow which bolds together something more refined, elements in motion, details, etc. I used to use bright colors, lately I have discovered that black is able to express the strength and energy of imagination much better: Ivory is beautiful too, but it isfragile to work with.

How about your experience with schools? They actually came about by chance, thanks to the work I showed in my personal exhitions. They were mostly collaborations both in Nijima (in 1994), and twice at Pilchuck in 199 7 and 1998. In Japan I collaborated with William Morris in making several vessels while I attempted to teach the basics to the younger students. To teach you must be able to regress to the origins of manuality. In the United States we included lampwork in sand-casting procedures. First we made soft-glass figures with some students, then with otbers who had furnace experience we would make applications or inserts with a three-dimensional effect.