Joy Lait

Joy was born in Bay City, Michigan She spent most of her childhood in Alexandria, Indiana. After attending college at Valparaiso University for a couple of years, she spent 10 years in Indianapolis working for a pharmaceutical company. She moved to Denver, Colorado in 1977, and then on to Monterey, California in 1987. She returned to the Midwest in 2000 settling in Louisville, Kentucky.

At this time she started flameworking and seriously devoting time to her craft. She joined the Louisville Artisans Guild where she met artists who later became her partners in Gallery Janjobe from 2006 until 2016.

Joy has evolved from small jewelry to larger glass and stainless steel wire sculptures. These sculptures are now expanding into mobiles which explore movement on a larger scale. In addition, Joy also has a series of glass and steel wire bonsai trees which, due to the time involved, are very slowly being created. Joy currently lives in Louisville with her two four-legged companions.

Joy’s fascination/obsession with glass began over a decade ago when she took up flameworking. After creating handcrafted glass beads and one-of-a-kind jewelry, Joy had a desire to go bigger. At that point she began incorporating her glass work with other materials.

Unlike glass beads, there were very few (if any) classes or books to lead the way. It was trial and error from the beginning. With each failure came new insights into working with and around wire. By incorporating the two disciplines, wire sculptures were created.

Joy’s work has been juried into the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program, the Louisville Artisans Guild and the Kentucky Guild of Artists & Craftsmen.

Each creation is unique and individual and will become a treasured piece for its owner.

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