About The Artist

Growing up, most kids in my neighborhood had lemonade stands. I tried selling painted rocks and gave the lemonade away just to get people to stop and look at my creations. Things haven’t changed that much. Welcome to my website.

My name is Paula McDonough and I’m a typical Gemini. I love birthdays, and I love to dress up and go out. If there is a party anywhere, I want an invite. My friends think I am a fashion queen and a clothes horse but actually I’m a great bargain hunter. I love color and I’m comfortable in everything from a ball gown to shorts and a tank top. I accessorize all of it, of course! I live in New England and I cannot imagine ever living away from the ocean. Other than glass bead making and jewelry design I love photography, scrapbooking and geocaching. I’m an animal lover who has had, at different times in my life, dogs, cats, lizards, a potbellied pig and most recently two Vietnamese black breasted leaf turtles named Oscar and Daphne(which belong to my son but, of course, I take care of).

In 1994, on my first wedding anniversary, I walked into a little bead shop in Boston's Haymarket Square and picked up a polymer clay bead. That was the start of a bead obsession that has changed forms several times but has never waned. For four years following that day, I made Polymer clay beads and jewelry and did the craft show circuit. When I got pregnant with my son, Thomas, I put the clay away and started designing Bali silver, Swarovski crystal and semi-precious stone jewelry. My “family name bracelets” were born shortly after my daughter Emma and I have been doing home jewelry parties ever since.

The glass bug hit in early 2005 while I was reading a Bead and Button magazine article about a Borosilicate bead artist who started glassing in her 40's. I had never seen Borosilicate glass before but I felt drawn to it. After that, I started buying little Boro (for short) beads on E-Bay to incorporate into my name bracelets. Then it occurred to me that I could probably learn how to make them myself. In the spring of 2005 I took a wonderful nine week lampworking class at the Worcester Center for Crafts taught by the very talented Jennifer Geldard and in July 2005 I set up a glass studio in my home.

I am a clinical social worker and I work part time for an employee assistance company. I bear witness to a lot of sadness. In order to put that away at night I have always had an art or craft as my own therapy. Now in my spare time, which is the precious few hours each night after the children are in bed, I am found on my torch in my basement studio. I am melting Borosilicate glass rods in the flame of a torch and winding them onto steel rods called mandrels. The beads are then slowly cooled or “annealed” in a kiln for strength and durability. Borosilicate glass is a hard glass that has the same chemical composition as Pyrex. Boro has some wonderful color changing properties due to its high silver content. One glass rod can become a rainbow of colors within the bead due to the heat of the torch and kiln. Borosilicate glass beads are best viewed in bright sun or fluorescent light where the colors are most vivid.

When strung together, these luminous Boro beads make beautiful jewelry. My website has been recently updated to include all my new designs. As always, I am open to suggestions and will customize specific pieces. If you see something on this site and would like me to customize it to suit you taste or you are looking for one of my older designs and don’t see it here, please e-mail me so that together we can create the perfect jewelry piece for you or your loved one.

I have a truly wonderful life. I am blessed with a supportive husband, Tom, who has put up with all of my hobbies and never knows what is next. I have two healthy, smart and beautiful children ages 9 and 6. I have a wonderful family and great friends who have supported my hobby and helped turn it into a business. I am having so much fun and anyone who knows me will tell you they have never seen me this excited about anything. My heart is singing. Can you hear it?