Ann Klem likes to work hot and working at an oxygen-propane torch makes that happen! To start, the process of creating handcrafted lampworked beads often begins with an idea for a finished piece of jewelry. She can see it in her mind’s eye and how it will be worn. Sometimes this view becomes a sketch of the piece or of a particular bead. Then she gathers together the glass and other ingredients needed for the beads. Working at her torch, each bead is made or remade until the look matches the concept. The bead then goes into a kiln for annealing (strengthening).

All of Ann’s finished jewelry includes her handcrafted glass beads plus findings, accents, and often her own wire work that reflect the investment she has made in the beads themselves.

After a career in computers, Ann dove into creating lampworked beads in her studio in Fisherville (Louisville), Kentucky. She is a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers and a juried member of the Louisville Artisans’ Guild and the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program. Her beads and finished jewelry are showing at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Gallery, the Glassworks Gallery, and Kentucky Backroads in Louisville, KY, Gallery 104 in LaGrange, KY, the Kentucky Artisans Center at Berea, KY, Kittrill/Riffkind Art Glass in Dallas, TX, Straight Out of Harlem Gallery in New York City, Arts a Poppin’ in Indianapolis, IN, and Bluestem Missouri Crafts in Columbia, MO.