Linda Banks

Sharing my knowledge is very important to me. I’m a multi-media artist who works across glass, quilting, sewing, pottery, gourds, silversmithing, and beadwork — I’ve found that skills from one area always seem to overlap with another. My love of glass started in sixth grade in my hometown of Washington, CT, when Priscilla Porter brought in shoeboxes of glass for us to glue together, which she’d then fire in her studio. I was hooked. Later I worked for her in that same studio, during the very early days of flat glass fusing on the East Coast, when compatible glass wasn’t even sold there yet and almost nobody understood the technique. That limitation pushed me to start taking classes and attending shows to keep learning.

I’ve since expanded on fused glass, developing techniques for textures, iridescence, and shapes that reflect my own whimsical spirit — working with stringers, noodles, rods, confetti, and kiln casting, where a clay-built mold is filled with molten glass and fired. I even rigged up my own kiln on a ladder with a flowerpot, so molten glass pours out and I can shape it myself — my “squiggle machine,” now known more formally as a Vitrigraph Kiln. I love learning something new, and casting in particular has always been a great challenge: sculpting in clay, then figuring out how to translate that into a mold that will hold and reveal the glass piece inside.

I’ve taught art to children and adults for over 40 years, starting with three-to-five-year-olds, and teaching remains one of the most important parts of my life. I love getting people hooked on glass and sharing the joy of it — even with young kids, I’ve always hoped that even if they forgot me or what they made, they’d remember that art was fun. My path into teaching began at the Brookfield Craft Center, where I first took pottery classes before Kristen Muller invited me to teach there myself. I love the challenge of building a new class from scratch, and the people at Brookfield — a dedicated, inspiring bunch — make it a wonderful place to be. I’m not after recognition. What matters to me is giving back, helping students bring their ideas to life, and paying forward the joy that was given to me.