About Tammy

Aussie-Down-Under

As Deb mentioned, I am originally from the Midwest.  I was born in Sioux City and, after college in Boston, I moved to Chicago where I worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for 15 years.  While traveling in Israel, I met my future husband, an Aussie living in Israel.  DH moved to Chicago and graduated from the School of the Art Institute majoring in animation.  We moved to Homewood where DH was working as an animation producer.  We loved Homewood and had the greatest neighbors in the world.

DH was out of work and sent a resume to an animation studio in Sydney and they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.  We moved 6 weeks later and have never looked back.  Life has been great in Australia for our family.  The quality of life is much like it was growing up in Sioux City.  People are very welcoming and extremely laid back.  Plus, I love the weather.  A cold day here, I put on socks.

I have always been intrigued with glass and loved the idea of playing with fire.  I used to get my fire kick each spring when I got to burn my ornamental grasses in my garden. Since we aren’t allowed to burn for fear of setting the country on fire, I had to find a way of soothing my pyromaniac desires.  I kind of stumbled into lampworking when a couple of my friends were looking at the brochure for the local arts council classes. We signed up for the “bead making” class and I haven’t been able to get out of the garage for the past 3 years.

Sydney has some very talented lampworkers and we meet monthly for a show and tell, lunch, swap shop, and a laugh.  If you come to Sydney, try to schedule your trip for the 3 weekend so you can join our great group of Sydney lampworkers.