Dianne Zack

"Playing with fire and melting colored glass is a meditative experience for me, an experience more about process than product. Although making a beautiful bead is the intent, I have come to realize—and respect—that glass is sometimes unpredictable. Thus, I approach each bead as an opportunity to learn something new."

Glass jewelry artist Dianne Zack strives to achieve a balance of excellent craftsmanship and thoughtful composition by blending her own handmade glass beads with carefully chosen elements. Her design process draws on impulse, inspiration, and a love of color and texture.

Dianne Zack makes each glass bead by melting soft glass in the 2000 degree flame of a torch. She often adds silver or 23k gold foil, dichroic glass, or enamel to achieve a variety of surface characteristics and colors. Zack composes and assembles each of her jewelry designs using high-quality, hand-selected metals, semiprecious stones, and pearls.

Over the course of her thirty-five-year glass career, Dianne Zack has designed and fabricated architectural stained glass and owned a prestigious retail glass gallery. Her interest in using glass as adornment led her to beadmaking in 1998. Since then, she has studied with internationally recognized bead artists including Kristina Logan, Leah Fairbanks, and Stevie Belle.