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Lenexa artist reflects on the evolution of glass art in KC

Posted at 11:35 AM, Feb 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-24 12:35:53-05

It’s a passion fueled by flame.

“It's fluidity, and it's transparency and all of those beautiful things about glass," said Sara Sally LaGrand of Lenexa, Kansas.

LaGrand has been flameworking for more than two decades.

"I had no idea when I got into this, the torch was going to take me all over the world, but it did."

She fell in love with glass art when she traveled to Santa Fe for a bead show in 1996.

“There was someone there demonstrating and I thought it was pretty cool,” she said. “I thought I’ll come back to Kansas City and I’ll go to the library and get a book or take a class or something and when I got home, no one seemed to know anything about it.”

She found an ad in a magazine, which led her to Mike and Patricia Frantz of Washington.

“I called them up and it was the same person that was demonstrating in Santa Fe,” she said. “ He and his wife use to sit on the phone and try to talk me through it because there were no teachers.”

She later joined the Bead Society of Kansas City where she met two other flameworkers that had studied the craft in Chicago.

“We were the ones that started teaching the classes,” she remembered. “Suddenly you start to get invitations to teach in other places like France and England and then you think ‘OK maybe I did kind of pioneer this.’"

LaGrand has also taught in Denmark, Canada and Italy as well as studios across the US. She also teaches at her studio in Lenexa.

“In the glass world I’m mostly known as a bead maker, but I’m also known for making little bird sculptures,” said LaGrand.

“It’s gotten bigger all over the US,” she said. “All over the world really, but since I got started so early in 1996 I’ve been able to travel around, teaching what I know, too.”

While flamework has spread quickly since the 90s, LaGrand said there’s still more work to be done in Kansas City.

"I would like to see glass classes be as available as painting or ceramics or any of the other majors you can get into."

If you would like to see LaGrand in action, she works at Moon Marble Company in Bonner Springs every Friday.

She is also one of the featured artists at the 17th annual Marble Crazy event at the store on the weekend of March 3.

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Jade DeGood can be reached at Jade.DeGood@KSHB.com.

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