Betty's fascination with the work of Josh Simpson led her to take a beginning lampworking class, in 2003, at the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts. Since then she has studied with Pati Walton, Larry Brickman, Jennifer Geldard, Kristen Frantzen Orr, Kate Fowle Meleney and James Yuan.
Drawing her inspiration from nature, that ageless silent witness to the creative process at work in all of us, she finds the challenge the glass presents to be a satisfying one and takes great delight in discovering new techniques for both fused glass and the botanical beads for which she is best known. She fashions her jewelry using her glass pieces in combination with the ancient Japanese braiding technique of Kumihimo.
Betty, a member of the ISGB, teaches for William Holland School of Lapidary Arts, the Crafts Center at North Carolina State University, and the Southeastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies. With her husband, Betty participates in arts festivals throughout the Eastern Seaboard.
John works primarily with silver, gold, and titanium. The techniques he uses include anticlastic raising, casting, chain making, etching, fold forming, forging, and stone setting.
He finds chains and chain mail particularly interesting because they combine art, mathematics, and construction techniques into each different chain pattern. There is art in the way the finished chain jewelry decorates the body. The mathematics comes into play in calculating the new ring size to use when changing the wire gauge in a particular pattern or creating a new pattern. The techniques needed to properly construct a pattern are like solving a jigsaw puzzle.
John teaches chain and chain mail classes at The Crafts Center at North Carolina State University, the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris GA, The ArtsCenter in Carrboro NC, Interweave Bead Fest shows, and for the Southeast Federation of Mineralogical Societies and the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies. Three of his designs appear as projects in "Chain Mail Jewelry: Contemporary Designs from Classic Techniques", by Terry Taylor and Dylon Whyte, ISBN 1-57990-723-7, and two of his project articles have been accepted by Art Jewelry magazine for future publication.
His mentors have included Mary Ann Scherr, Blaine Lewis, Thomas Mann, and Betty Helen Longhi.