"I also enjoy using my glass skills as a kiln fuser and a lamp worker to enhance the funky Witch and Halloween themed items. I even use teeny glass 'straws,' and my candles will actually burn, though only for less than a minute. It's the minutia, the details, that draw me - how can I make something in scale that could actually 'be' in the Real World?"

And where could she make these detailed things? Barb's former jewelry studio workroom has now been transformed into her mini studio, with customized work tables made to suit her needs - and her height.

"I'm almost six feet tall. My work table is actually an old kitchen base cabinet from the 50's that is on blocks to make it tall enough for me. The doors are off, and I cut the middle drawers out to make room for my knees. The top has a long narrow shelf where I keep odd pieces of fused glass and other sample projects as well as old coffee cups full of jewelry tools and other things I use for making miniatures."

Helping Barb bring her ideas to life is a little gadget that might otherwise have found its way into the trash bin.

"The strangest, most outlandish tool I use is a lamp-worked hatpin reject that I use for opening glue holes, poking holes into items, etc. Of course I also have a small U.V. light as I'm working on a project that uses vintage beads made from spent uranium that glow like mad under black lights - perfect for a Witches' Haven of Gloom!" she chuckles.

As you may suspect Halloween is one of her favorite times of the year, along with Christmas. Barb also enjoys collecting vintage jewelry, especially glass beads, funky art and unusual hand-painted plates.