Ellen Mitnick has been working with glass for nearly 10 years, specializing in fused glass and flame work. Prior to exploring the endless possibilities inherent in glass, Ellen pursued almost all forms of art-making from painting to ceramics to fiber-arts. Her formative training and education is in nursing; one of the aspects of glassmaking she enjoys the most is the meditative quality. She loves the process of disintegration and reintegration—bouncing from solids to liquids and back again to an entirely reimagined solid. The final object is a result of atomic alchemy: an object that, while tough and strong, is also in fact brilliantly fragile and potentially breakable. One of the greatest rewards of discovering glass was also discovering her love of teaching and the wonderful challenges and rewards in both teaching and learning from her students.