Dinah Ihle

www.dinahihle.net

Artist's Bio

I have been primarily a torch worker and jewelry artist for 12 years. My favorite medium is glass. My life's work is not about shocking or traumatizing the art patron, but rather about bringing beauty and comfort into lives, I want my art to show this.

I have always considered education to be important and have strived to take the best classes available to improve my work and skills.

I was raised with art all around her home, so that art has always been a crucial part of my life. Once our children were raised, I needed something to fill the void, and glass was it. In 1994, my husband and I, along with our daughter opened a bead store in Salt Lake City. As always, I wasnít satisfied with just owning a bead store,it had to be the best and most unique, which is why I began lampwork or beadmaking and teaching beadmaking to interested students.

I have always said that "GOD lies in the details,"and have given all my pieces the cold work and finishing need, be it a fine piece of jewelry, or a glass bowl. I find a great deal of satisfaction in finishing the pieces so that glass has a sharp and shinny edge, as opposed to the rounded edge that it has when it just comes out of the kiln.

I have received much national recognition for my beads and jewelry. My work can be found in The Bead Museum in Glendale, AZ, and also the National Bead Museum in Washington, D.C. I have also been featured in such national publications as Lapidary Journal, Beadwork, and Glass Art magazines.

Fascinated with texture, color, and the transparency of glass, I have been exploring the medium of fusing and casting glass. I bring my expertise of the torch into much of my work, creating additional elements, if needed.

Quite a bit of my work is created so that the patron not only lives with, enjoys and takes pride in the beauty of the art work but also can utilize it as a functional element of the home, e.g., as plates and platters or using beads to adorn purses.

I feel presentation is everything and have been fortunate to marry well. I have enlisted the aid of her husband, an engineer by trade, to create many of the stands for my larger pieces.