These handmade glass raspberries are individually sculpted in the flame of a torch from rods of colored Italian glass. This particular color of glass has a property referred to as “striking”. This means that the tone may be a light pink, a deep raspberry red or anything in between, depending on how hot and how long the glass is heated and cooled. I use this selective heating and cooling process to make some of the raspberries lighter in color than others, and to vary the color of the cells in a single raspberry.

Natural raspberries do not have a shiny, glasslike surface. The matte surface on these glass raspberries is achieved by chemically etching each finished berry in a sodium biflouride solution. When the raspberries are used in jewelry and are handled, the natural oils from your skin enhance this soft sheen.

The glass raspberries you see above were the original inspiration for my whole line of glass berry jewelry. After I had discovered how to make the hollow raspberry shape, I noticed that I could deliberately enlarge the spacing between some of the cells. I made three raspberries with the holes strategically placed, and threaded them on fine beading wire to make my first necklace. When I wore it strangers actually stopped me on the street - they wanted to know how I kept the raspberries from staining my blouse!

I wore that necklace to a flameworking seminar taught by world-famous glass artist Loren Stump. When Loren bought the necklace as a gift for his wife, I knew that the raspberries were convincing and that others besides me would enjoy wearing them. Since then I have perfected the method for placing the holes up through the bottom of the raspberry cup. This vertical hole arrangement works best for hanging the berry from a head pin as you would do in making earrings. If you would like to purchase individual berry beads to create your own jewelry, I would be pleased to make them in the sizes you prefer.

I make many raspberries with no beadholes at all for collectors who want to display groups of them as sculpture. I enjoy making each glass raspberry unique, with variations in the shape, size and degree of ripeness. It's extra fun to include one or two with outright imperfections - one berry might be slightly crushed and leaking some juice, or another might have a touch of mold starting on the side. Their owners love the extra degree of realism and enjoy surprising their friends with it.

My recent efforts to develop some of the beautiful new colored raspberry cultivars in glass have met with success. The lovely Fall Gold was extremely difficult to mimic since any individual berry often displays several shades of color including golden, apricot and a pink blush, but I think I have succeeded. Unfortunately, the photos above do not show the full range of coloration that's visible in person. Ongoing experiments are focusing on the purple raspberry varieties.

I make and sell several kinds of glass raspberry jewelry which can be seen on this page, and beads which can be found on the Raspberry Beads page. If you would like to have a unique piece of glass raspberry jewelry designed especially for you, I would enjoy doing so. The Custom Jewelry page shows a few examples of what is possible. Please contact me by email or telephone as shown on the Ordering and Contact page so we can discuss your ideas.