“My fascination with glass reaches back some forty-one years to when I would watch the lampworkers when they came to the mall around the holiday season. The small figurines captured my imagination as I watched them come to life from the fire. Fortunately both my parents supported my interest in learning to blow glass. My father was interested in ceramics as a hobby and knew about kilns and glazes. It didn’t take much effort to interest him in building a small makeshift glass furnace. We melted glass one day, and I was hooked. My interest in glass led me to an apprenticeship in scientific glassblowing at the University of Florida. As a young teenager I would spend afternoons, evenings, summers, anytime I could, hanging around the chemistry and physics departments learning about glass or whatever the topic of conversation was. I continued my scientific glass career in Memphis, Tennessee before turning my attention to college. I attended Western Carolina University, and received my BA in Philosophy and an MA in English Literature. After teaching English at WCU for five years, my thoughts of a career teaching English turned to thoughts of being a studio artist. Leaving academics in 1995 I never looked back.” – Roger Parramore
