Hi! I'm Maryanne and I live with my supportive husband, Bob, and sometimes with our college-student son, Rob, on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania. Oh, I almost forgot our Sheltie, Rudy the Wonder Dog and the Chickens, Sven and the girls.

After a lifetime of pursuing various and sundry interests including ventures into the corporate world of sales and advertising, crewelwork and cross stitch, quilts (collecting, buying and selling), gardening, operating an herb shop for 8 years, & finally a wholesale soapmaking business (phew!), I returned to jewelrymaking, one of my favorite areas of study as an art major.

This hobby expanded, from seed bead work to stringing semi-precious stones and silver work. After attending a bead show and discovering lampworked beads, I was fascinated and when I returned home, signed up for a beginner's class.

After only one class, the hypnotic effects of spinning molten glass onto a steel mandrel to produce shining, colorful beads had me in its spell. At night, as I closed my eyes to sleep, the vision of a torch and honey-like glass was all I saw. The siren's song of the torch had done its work.

Creating the beads and then making them into something even more beautiful and precious with the addition of silver and other beads is quite satisfying.

Now it is time to take the next step and bring my creations into the outside world through my studio and this website, Torchsong Studio. I hope you will enjoy looking at my work, working with it and wearing it as much as I enjoy creating it.