Mimi Huszer Fagnant has been a professional craft designer and craft teacher since 1977.Early on, she specialized in quilting, stenciling. For 17 years, she worked as a designer at a bead manufacturing factory where she learned the jewelry business, worked with colorists developing bead colors, worked with mold makers and model makers to create new products. Kit design, direction writing and demonstrating was a big part of her job to promote exciting new products and ideas of what to do with the beads.
All along this journey, her love for glass was obvious, having a marble collection, blown glass ball collection and a paper weight collection. Well, glass and beads finally collided about in about 2004, when Mimi started making her own glass beads. This technique is called lampworking. Mimi uses a propane and oxygen torch to melt glass rods of many colors. The molten glass is coaxed into limitless shapes of beads.
Mimi spends much time creating sculptural glass pieces as well as beads These mini sculptures are used in fairy gardens, mobiles, ornament, and sun catchers. Many of her beads are used as a pendant, such as her trumpet flowers, sterling lined large beads and hearts. Having spent much of her childhood on the ocean and on Cornelius Island, her love of the ocean is evident in the ocean themed beads she has created.
Mimi has found her true passion in lampworking. Every time she sits at the torch there is something new she loves to try or further develop, thus her product line is ever changing. Her line also includes beads for jewelry makers to make their own jewelry, her own jewelry pieces using these one of a kind beads. She sells an assortment of kits using her beads as a component for the project. Most of her work is sold at bead and craft shows, Artists Cooperative Gallery of Westerly.
