Lance McRorie

Mr. Beady

I started lampworking in the fall of 2000. I was new to lampworking then, but I’m not new to the art. I started drawing at the age of six. My loving mother saw my fascination with art and quickly enrolled me in art classes where I studied many different mediums of art, among them oil and water-color painting. I was always sketching something. As the years passed by I fell away from art as medium of expression with the brush or pencil, and delved into the world of martial arts, very different, but art non-the-less, I guess.

As the years passed by life had taken me down many roads – some good, some not so good – but I learned from them all. My most recent endeavor was that of the world of real estate. Anyone who knows real estate knows, back then there was lots of money but it came with a lot of stress. It was this “stress” from my work which acted as the catalyst that led me back to art. My wife Maureen said to me one day when I got back from a hectic day of real estate, “Honey, you need a new hobby! You’ve always loved glass, I mean the house is full of vases, paperweights and such, why don’t you take up hot-glass somewhere?” At that moment, my life’s passion, which I had yet to find, emerged – glass art – and, in particular, hot-glass art. I’ve been hooked ever since. As a child I was always fascinated with glass blowing and any kind of hot-glass work. Among the first lampworkers I ever saw were the Arribas Brothers at Orlando’s Disney World. I was about the age of eight or nine. My parents always knew where to find me – nestled up to get a good view – from which they always had to pull me away.

My first lampwork marble teacher was Gerry Colman who became one of my best friends. Gerry always has been quick to share his immense knowledge of lampworking and hot-glass with me. I will always be grateful to Gerry Colman for that because it was he who helped get me started in lampworking.

Since then, I have studied with the following lampwork teachers: Mary Weiss, Sylvie Landsdowne, Christa Loagan, Larry Thornhill (who teaches lampworking marbles in North Carolina at A Touch of Glass, and most recently with Loren Stump. I am a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, and the Glass Art Society, and I am now very honored to have contributed to The National Marble Museum.

My wife and I run Mr. Beady Glass Art Studio in Orlando, Florida, in which we teach lampworked beads and marble classes for beginners. and are planing to open a hot-glass supply as well here in Orlando in the very near future.

I use cheery wood marble molds made by Gerry Colman as well as graphite marble molds to make my contemporary lampworked marbles. I use borosilicate puntys and/or steel puntys in my marble work. I lampwork all my marbles that are made with “powdered glass” and silver foil. My main glass of choice is soft Italian moretti glass, but recently I’ve started experimenting with borosilicate glass as well. It is most earnest desire that my contemporary lampworked marbles make everyone happy who sees them!

The Museum of American Glass in West Virginia wishes to thank Lance McRorie for donating to The National Marble Museum. We are as happy as he is that his designs are a part of the marble display.

Lance can be contacted at Flame Tree Glass in Historic Roswell Georgia
lmac@flametreeglass.com