Giving Firefly
One of the things I like most about playing pool, is the eclectic group of friends I have assembled. People I would never have come across otherwise. One of my good friends is Kristen Malone, not just a talented pool player but an amazing artist as well. A glass blower that produces stunning, one of kind pieces.
Kristen began blowing glass over 13 years ago when she did an old man a favor and gave him a ride home from a local pub. He showed her his work and from that moment she was hooked. She has since studied at the Pilchuck Glass School and with various mentors along the way including Kellmis Fernandez. She now practices her craft at Duckbill Studios in Decatur just outside Atlanta.
She is unorthodox in her technique by working solo, no assistants, she will juggle numerous batons at a time to get just the right combination of shapes and colors. Her unique blending of colors is what she has become known for. To watch her is awe inspiring and even a little scary. The heat involved in this process can reach upwards 2000ºF and burns are not uncommon. Kristen has the scares to prove it. 
Her work is sold through numerous galleries and I got to shoot her and and some select pieces for a feature in Atlanta Home Magazine. She has also taken on several commissions including a large custom chandelier and a special set of dishes for award winning Chef Jamie Keating. 
Firefly Candle Holder
Most recently she has created a line of candle holders she calls "Firefly"... there is a magical effect with a candle flickering off the specks of gold and other vibrante colors. They can also be used as a traditional vase or as an art piece displayed as is. They retail for between $200 and $300 and one lucky Pie reader will win a signed Firefly just by commenting on this post. Topic: Tell us about your most unusual job? ❀ One entry per person, deadline is midnight eastern time November 13th. Good Luck! ❀ 
You can find Kristen's glass at The Crescent Gallery in Spartanburg, SC and Farasha Spa and The White Orchid both in La Grange, Georgia. Duckbill also has annual shows and sales or you can just email her directly through her site with a request including your color, size and shape preferences and she will quote you a price. 
❀ One winner will be chosen at random using random.org
Just a note: You MUST enter a email address so I can contact you if you win! It is only visible to me.
all photos & content © Lara Rossignol
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 1:39AM
Reader Comments (37)
My most unusual job (so far) has been being a Segway tour guide in Savannah, Georgia : )
No worries, the winner will be picked at random, using http://www.random.org/" rel="nofollow">random.org. I just like giving a topic to make it more interesting to
read and to learn more about pie readers. Great story!
gorgeous pieces! :D
i have an unusual job right now.
i am a photographer for an appliance parts store in huntsville, alabama. i have a huge list of parts (we're talking tens of thousands of parts!) that i have to locate in a warehouse, open the packaging, photograph the part, place it back in it's packaging and place it back on the shelf. i then upload the photos to their website so when people go to search for a part, they can see what they're ordering! it's an easy job and i work around alot of crazy, odd & funny folks - so that keeps it interesting!
My most unusual job was packing foam meat tray as the trays came down a line where they were formed and cut. It was boring job. I would pack these foam meat trays, 100 of them at a time, in a sleeve of plastic, twist the plastic closed, and place the sleeve on a dolly. I did this for 8 numbing hours. Oh yeah, it was the night shift.
Amazing!
I once spent a summer babysitting for the son of a school librarian - in the library. It was a school library and since it was summer, we had the whole place to ourselves to play in - a wonderland of books, secret hiding places, made up worlds - great fun. I hope that boy still remembers that summer as fondly as I do.
Oh, so beautiful! I think I need one right here above my desk to keep me company on the coming chilly winter nights.
Not THAT weird, but my most unusual job was as an asst. bookkeeper in a small office that served solely to track the money of one very wealthy, very old family in Pasadena, CA. Once in a while the matriarch would come blasting into the office, demanding to be reminded just WHICH safe deposit box some specific jewelry piece was stored. I was working there when Nixon died; the family was sent an invite to the funeral.
Interesting office, and I was paid pretty well for a lot of goofing off!
Love this topic! My most unusual job was that of a commercial turkey farmer. My husband and I in our naive 20's purchased ground and built barns that housed 44,000 turkeys at a time. We were former suburbanites with 3 children under 4 who pictured an idyllic quiet farm life with barefoot children and home baked bread. Needless to say that isn't how it turned out and after a 7 LONG years, sold the venture to the next naive 20 somethings with the same picture in their heads.
Now on to new ventures! Sign me, now a vegetarian - Kim
Those are beautiful!
My most unusual job was working as a lifeguard for two summers. There are some strange things and people you encounter on the job. My most unusual day was when a woman requested a life jacket for her infant. The smallest life jackets we had available were for children 35lbs in weight. She complained, saying her child was under 35lbs, and it would not fit her child. We told her we didn't have any life jackets that were smaller. She then screamed at us, and asked us how her child was supposed to not drown in the water without a life jacket and then stormed off. Really? An infant, in the water, ALONE?!
I encountered lots of crazies that summer, as well as the next.
I LOVE CANDLES AND THIS IS SO PRETTY WITH THE MULTI COLORS. I REALLY WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT WITH A LIT CANDLE IN IT. USED TO GO TO THE FENTON GLASS AND WATCH THEM WHEN I WAS SO SMALL. KRISTEN DOES INDEED HAVE A RARE TALENT. HOPE TO SEE SOME MORE PIECES.
I HAVE NO RARE OR UNUSUAL JOB. FOR THE MOST PART OF MY LIFE I HAVE BEEN A HOMEMAKER AND MOM. THERE HAS BEEN ALOT OF UNUSUAL MOMENTS WITH THE KIDS AND GRANDKIDS NOW.
KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK KRISTEN.
Her work is so beautiful!
My most unusual job was when I worked at a one hour photo lab. The job itself wasn't so weird, but some of the things people took pictures of were very strange.
This glass work is amazing!
Gorgeous glassware. I love the colors!
I haven't had very many unusual jobs, but certainly one of the most unique tasks I've gotten to do at a job was shelf-reading (and reorganizing) the locked stacks at the university biology library where I worked for a summer. Shelves and shelves of beautiful oversized natural science books -- many more than 200 years old and so fragile that they were kept in special boxes -- which lived under the stairs and had accumulated a thick coat of dirt. To make matters more interesting, Google has recently come by to scan a number of the books for their Google Books project, and they'd put everything back in the wrong order. :-/ Plus you had to lock yourself in to work in there. So it was like working in a cave. I'd come out blinking with my arms gray up to the elbows from handling some of the larger books. But it was totally worth it -- getting to handle such beautiful texts was a thrill, and the illustrations in some of the volumes were just stupendous, especially in the older lepidoptery texts. Contemporary photographic methods of cataloging butterflies and moths just don't live up to those gorgeous full-color illustrations.
Love her art! It is beautiful!! My most unusual job was when I was 20 years old, dropped out of college and moved back to my small hometown. I lived with my parents and the only job I could get was at the local mortuary. I have sooo many great, funny stories from that time period in my life!! I worked there a year and that year was what motivated me to get back to college!
Her work is beautiful!
My most unusual job......Strawberry picker. I didn't make much money as I always ate more then I picked. One day, I ate so many strawberries I broke out in hives.
MaryDeluxe
The first two photos of Kristen's glass are totally breathtaking. I love her fluidity of color and the sculptural aspect. Oh, how I'd love a piece of her blown glass! The Firefly Candle Holder is exquisite; a classic design showcasing her talent of working the glass to let the color be the focal point of the composition. To watch glass being blown is so fascinating. It is amazing that she works solo.
Probably the most unusual job I had was an independent project I did for an ophthalmologist. I was referred by my college to draw charts described to me by the doctor. He theorized that the use of the charts would allow him to assist pediatric patients by 're-training' their vision. (Now, this was before Kinko's or FAST signs & similar firms.) I lettered the charts for him ... it was about a two month project.
Have no idea how effective they were or his theory. Now, after thinking back and and writing this ... I have to wonder if they were helpful. This is the first I've even thought about that job since I finished it!
I have been an optician most of my working life, but working in Japan and barely speaking japanese was one of my most unusual experiences, sticking with it for 6 months was quite an accomplishment!
I love this!
my most unusual job so far has been working in an old warehouse with 1 man who bought old walmart returns by the truckload and would have me list all the broken electronics on ebay.
My most unusual job would have to be in the ginseing fields, where I worked during the summer and fall during my last couple of years of high school. Mostly what we did was weeding the ginseing, which was a dirty, tiring job and I was pretty sore at the end of each day- we spent all day scooting around on our knees. The really cool part was when they would harvest the ginseing- it was awesome to see these little white nubs coming out of the ground after having been planted so long before and taken care of all that time.
I had a lady send me used blue jeans from her kids to make them handbags out of. They were funky but cool.
I have have many weird jobs, some that were normal jobs for weird people. I would say that one of the most unusual jobs I have had was developing paint finishes for a company that made steel furniture. The company was based in Pennsylvania Furnace, PA, (the best name for a tiny crossroads!) I made the furniture look like aged copper or chinese lacquer, etc. It was rather toxic and probably scrambled my brain cells even though I wore a respirator!
Thanks for the great giveaway!
My most unusual job was working the deli counter in my college cafeteria. Might not sound that strange, but I'm a vegetarian. It was a loooong year.
Bummer...I was one of the first few to comment on the old blog that didn't transfer over. I don't feel like typing my unusual job over again so good luck to those who have their's listed ;-ppp Some of them have been interesting to follow.
Lara, I wish they would come up with an option to follow the comments like your old blog. I'm missing out here on some great stories :-(
Do not worry Christine, I save ALL comments in a separate folder, it does not matter which blog you posted on your are entered and will be part of the final drawing!
Wow! How amazingly beautiful. I hope I'm randomly chosen(:
My most unusual job was being a quality control officer for a company that made computer chips. We had a clean room and had to suit up every time we went to work and I was a total hack at the computer system. I was a total amateur and didn't last long at it, but it continues to be the more oddball thing on my resume in a sea of real estate law oriented jobs. :)
Many years ago, my former college roommate and her housemates cleaned condos for part-time work. (Condos at the end of construction, but not ready for move in.) On an extended visit, I offered to assist them. The job wasn't what I expected. Our job included combing the place for nails, screws and wood debris. Vacuuming and/or sweeping up all drywall dust and grout particles. Picking caulk off the inside of the bathtubs and sinks with our fingernails. Removing cardboard, plastic sheets, empty cans, etc. Of course, surface cleaning came last. We had a blast. We listened to music, talked and laughed.
Kristen's work is amazing. I have been fortunate enough to see it and hold it in my hand.
My father owned a large candy wholesaling business. When I became an adult I worked there and was eventually, treasurer.
I guess the interesting part is that I am NOT a candy lover. I don't even care for chocolate! My kids all think that it was a total waste; especially when I was a young girl. My sisters and brother all were candy lovers!
This is a breathtaking piece. I hope the winner enjoys it.
She rocks. Her art rocks. The photo of her rocks.
My strangest job (And I have had a few!) was probably stripping tobacco in a cold barn in Amherst, Mass.
Kristen Malone's work takes my breath away!
My most 'unusual' job was being sent to the rooftop of the leather goods shop I worked at in my 'teens. With a shovel and rake it was my 'job' to collect all the dead pigeons and other birds.
Now many years later... I do NOT like to have to pickup even a dead sparrow in my yard.
Kristen's work is amazing ...