About

Barbara Rumberger relishes in an art form with ancient roots. She takes the elements of earth, fire, and air and combines them to make ethereal works of art that replicate the contours of nature, the flash of color on a koi fish, an autumn landscape, or the clouds of a sunrise glowing on the horizon.

A glassblower who has honed her craft over decades of practice, experimentation, and play, Barbara creates blown and hand-formed glass vessels that elicit a mysteriousness through light and color. Her art flows through her as a feeling first, then develops into tangible sculptural pieces.

"Most of my work happens organically, but people tell me they see nature in it," says Rumberger. "So many of the designs are complex and abstract. I love it when others read into it, something that is meaningful to them."

Barbara began her art journey over twenty years ago in the Visual Communications program at Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD). In her first year, she took a glass elective and was instantly addicted to the medium. In her second year, she switched majors to glass.

As she developed her skills, Barbara chose to remain faithful to traditional techniques, putting aside newer developments like the glassblower's noodle in favor of creating through the force of gravity, using the perfect heat, the angle of her pipe, and the mastery of her breath.

"For me, it's more about creating by feel, layered with years of experience," she says. "I once had a mentor show me how to spout water while breathing simultaneously. Like playing an instrument, with practice, I could come back to this powerful breath every time to create newer, more demanding pieces of glass art."

Using techniques sharpened over the years in the studio, Barbara crafts unique glass pieces like curvy vases, delicate flowers, and intricate paperweights. To showcase the medium's dynamic optical beauty, she combines thinly layered colors and thick clear glass. This layering creates a textural depth that defines Barbara's distinctive style.

Barbara graduated from ACAD with distinction in 1996, and in 1997 was selected for the ACAD Entrepreneurial Training Program offered to only a handful of emerging artists. Since then, she has had many honors as a glass artist, including demonstrating her fire-polished vase techniques at Sheridan College (Ontario) and Espace Verre (Montreal) as well as pole turning at the Pilchuk Glass School (Washington).

Barbara divides her time between researching and managing glass product designs with an architectural decorative glass company in Calgary and glassblowing as a partner in the creative studio of professional artists at Fireweed Glass Studio in Canmore, Alberta.