Bo and Abby are the artists of Entwined Designs.
Married for 15 years now and parents to two teenage boys. Nick who is 15 and Jared who is 13. Busy with their academics, events, and sports this family is always on the go.
They love to travel and have lived in many different places courtesy of the United States Army.
Bo is a Registered Nurse at Bassett Army Hospital and Abby is dedicating her time to raising the boys and taking time for her arts. She taught math and science before taking a break.
If you do not find them at the boys sports events like football, wrestling or track, you will find them hiking, fishing, traveling or creating glass works for jewelry.
Even in the early years Abby dabbled in art. It was part of her inner soul that yearned to be set free.
Life went on and a marriage and two children happened that made her world a little hectic to have time to even sit and read a book. So her creativity came out through her journal writings whenever she had a spare moment.
When time allowed she finished college at University of Alaska Fairbanks with her Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology and Minor in Biological Sciences. She taught for 2 years in Kentucky and spent most of her time volunteering in the school, coaching the Academic Team, supporting her boys in their sports and her husband in his military career.
The years in between was spent traveling and moving with the nomadic lifestyle of a military family.
Now as years has passed, the boys are older and with the support of her husband it gave her time, freedom and opened up the door to finally dive into her arts.
Making jewelry with glass beads and fused glass became a passion. Her husband joined in with learning how to make glass beads and is now the artist of her lampwork beads in her works. She learned how to fuse glass from a local glass store (Expressions In Glass in Fairbanks, Alaska) and with that new skill a hobby turned into a passion to create.
She also divides her time to work with mixed media art and collages that she decorates her house with. She also dabbles in photography and uses the beauty of nature as her inspiration to all of her works.
Her works have reached the glass cases of a gallery to the show floors of a bazaar and also won awards at fair exhibitions.
Artist's Statement:
Even when I was a small child art took many forms for me. Creativity was always in me even if I did not have the time to explore it.
When I recieved my first camera at the age of 11 I used up so many rolls of film just taking pictures of anything. I saw beauty in even the most mundane subjects.
When I learned how to create jewelry which came about by a whim, I did not realize how hooked I would be. Not in just creating wearable art but going further into the realm of playing with glass.
Glass has the freedom to move from a solid to an almost fluid state back to solid. That transformation and the process can be mesmerizing and relaxing. The end product is such a rewarding piece that I can't see any other way of displaying it other than to wear it.
I hope to add more skills under my belt and to continue my journey into this art medium. For now, I hope others enjoy what I see in the pieces I create. I am very honored for others to wear my creations.
Abby has since learned metalsmithing techniques and is now experimenting with Precious Metal Clay techniques.
Dedicated to his family and his career did not give much time for Bo to even realize he had a creative side to him.
Enlisting in the Army at a young age, the family life came fast for Bo. Married at 19 to Abby and fathering two baby boys 15 months apart within the first years of marriage made his priorities obvious. Family and career came before anything else.
As the years rolled along he was given the opportunity to change his career path and he did. With the acceptance into the Army nursing program he was able to finish college with his Bachelor's of Science in Nursing graduating Suma Cum Laude and going back to serve in the Army as an Officer and Registered Nurse.
His start into the creative world started when he came home one day from classes and played with the thought of tinkering with the propane torch called a hot head that he bought his wife to create glass beads with. From the moment the blue flame shot through and the glass took it's molten shape to attach to a mandrel and he succeeded in making a glass bead he would be back to the torch numerous times to experiment and play with the glass.
With only less than a year of torch time under his belt, Bo has been able to create pieces that are the focus of Abby's jewelry. It has gained attention and are proudly worn by friends and family.
Life can be hectic at times carrying 12 hour shifts at the hospital, still fulfilling his duties as a soldier, and making time to be supportive of his wife and his boys sports and school. Time at the torch is his getaway from the busy world. As he pops his earphones of his IPOD into his ears and flames up his torch he disappears into molten glass, color and shapes.
As time permits he will be experimenting and exploring different techniques and new glass. He enjoys the peace he has at his torch and is rewarded with beautiful pieces of art.
First Creations
Bo's lampwork beads turned into Jewelry in Kentucky 2006
Abby's fused glass -Alaska 2007
To see a gallery of some of the recent works and other pieces you can visit Abby's Flickr site. There you will also see her passion for photography.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arcticgirl/
If you are local and want to see their work in person their jewelry resides at The Stash downtown on 3rd Avenue and Somethin' Special at River Mall on College Rd.
I hope you enjoyed learning about us. With new techniques and more designs in mind we hope to continue on with our work and hope to put more pieces in different stores and galleries.
Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
~Norman Podhoretz~
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