Meet the Artist
Elise Strauss
Glass
Elise Strauss and her husband moved to Salem, Oregon in 2015 after living in Anchorage, Alaska for 45 years. She has been making glass beads since 1995. At first enjoying it as a hobby, she began devoting more and more time to learning the craft, culminating in the decision in 2007 to quit her job and career at Providence Alaska Medical Center to indulge her passion on a full time basis. She has taken numerous classes, taught classes and workshops, and has been exhibiting in shows for over 20 years. She has been featured in articles in Soda Lime Times; the International Society of Glass Bead Evolution; Hot Glass; and Glass Line magazines. She has also written numerous tutorials for these magazines.
Elise is a Lampworker and makes sculptural glass beads as well as small, stand-alone glass sculptures. Two years ago she started studying the art of micromosaics and now makes all of the filati (small cut glass pieces) and tesserae (animals) featured in her mosaics using soda lime glass from Italy. She melts the rods of glass in a 2,000 degree flame with her propane/oxygen table top torch. The molten glass is mixed and manipulated free hand or with tools to create beads, sculptures, and mosaic pieces.