Illuminata

Julie Conway is the owner and designer of ILLUMINATA, a design studio of hand-blown glass. Julie first touched hot glass in 1997 and continues to explore the boundless forms of her medium. As a glass artist, Julie works in many forms of creating glass. One is the ancient art of blowing hot furnace glass as popularly practiced in Venice, Italy and elsewhere. The other is lampworking, a style of sculpting or blowing glass with the use of a torch and small tools. Julie has recently added glass casting to her repertoire of glass techniques. All of these methods offer the artist a versatility and variety in the creation of glass art.

Since 2004, Julie has been invited to work with international glass masters from Murano, Venice, the Czech Republic, and Paris. These connections have expanded into teacher assistant positions for these masters in Venice, and Istanbul, Turkey. Because of her many opportunities to apprentice with world-class glass artists; and her perseverance to learn as much as possible about glass as her chosen medium; Julie constantly pushes her limits to keep her work dynamic and revolutionary.

With the combination of many styles of glass making, she custom designs chandeliers, light fixtures, cabinet knobs, lamp finials and unique sculpture. These are featured in design showrooms, art galleries, and art-museum shops nationally. Besides the custom interior decoration of functional glass art, a range of sculpture, ornaments, vases and vessels express JulieÕs use of vibrant color and light.

Studio ILLUMINATA is now located in San Francisco, California, where the artist currently resides. While presenting, creating and lecturing worldwide; Julie is a vital member of her regional San Francisco Bay Area glass artist community. Her artisan line of luxurious functional glassware, and lighting are collected and featured in award-winning show homes, public spaces, museums, and private collections around the world. Julie collaborates on an ongoing basis with architects and designers to create extraordinary lighted glassworks. She now features green, sustainable, low-energy LED components in many of her lighting installations. Julie”s unique style has attracted several awards for design, lighting, and artistic accomplishment.

Julie is currently using her skills to develop the use of alternative, bio-sustainable fuel sources to produce glass and develop community sharing of resources; therefore bringing a new awareness into the glass art world.

“illuminata”, is my expression of the magical and alchemical process of creating glass art and design that ignites my soul and demonstrates my innate sensibility and wonder of the world. ÐJulie Conway