About the Artist

Well, officially my name is Shirley Warner, but everyone knows me by Charlie. Originally, I’m from Texas and had such a strong Southern drawl when I left home, that everyone thought I was saying "Charlie" when I said "Shirley", so the name stuck. I personally like Charlie better, so that’s what I use now. So now that you know my name, I’ll tell you a little bit about myself.

I live in Culver City, Ca, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, with my sweetie, David. David is the official photographer for my website, now that we have the new digital camera figured out. It’s fun for us to work together on our projects.

I have always dabbled in art projects thanks to my mother, who is a watercolor artist (among other media she uses). I quickly found that I don’t have much talent with a paint brush, so I tried ceramics. I loved working with the clay, took classes for several years and was becoming a decent ceramicist. But all that changed when I happened to take a beginning class in Lampwork beading offered through one of our local colleges. That was all it took to hook me. I can now “paint” with glass stringers and have much better results with the glass than I ever did with watercolors,.

Since I work full time and my time is limited, I had to make a choice between ceramics and making glass beads. The Lampwork beads won. I am fascinated by the endless possibilities that glass offers. I spend most weekends making beads and blowing miniature perfume bottles with a hollow stainless steel tube. Each time I’m at the torch I have this practically-endless choice of colors, enamels, frits and foils to combine and can’t wait to see what comes out of the kiln after each bead making session. It’s like Christmas when I open the kiln and see what color combinations worked and what didn’t. Lampworking has taken over my thoughts and any free time that I used to have, and I just love it. It is quite addicting.

I hope you enjoy my website and all my Lampwork beads and glass bottles. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Just email me. Thanks for checking out my work.