Young glass blower featured at Dancing Tree Creations

Its not everyday that a high school student has artwork featured in a gallery and is training with skilled professionals—but it does happen.

Dancing Tree Creations is now featuring glass pumpkins and gourds blown by 15-year-old Sabrina Kennedy of Emmaus.

Kennedy began blowing glass three years ago through a program called Glass Sampling as the Banana Factory in Bethlehem.

Once the Glass Sampling class came to an end, she pursued a private teacher to further develop her skills. The next summer she volunteered as a demonstrator at Musikfest and has been doing demonstrations once a year ever since.

The art of glass blowing originally struck Kennedy’s intrigue in the sixth grade, after reading the book called ‘Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village,’ by Laura Amy Schlitz, filled with monologues of characters. Kennedy was assigned the glassblower.

“I was a little disappointed at first, but after I did a little more research on glass blowing, the art became much more interesting, especially the science behind it,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy now attends The Hill School, and participates in the Afternoon Arts program. She enjoys many other art mediums such as oils, watercolors, sculpting, and other arts that involve glass.

This year she has been working as an apprentice at Taylor Backes Studio in Boyertown, and continues to take classes to enhance her skill level with others.

“It’s all about working together and having respect for one another. Glassblowing is seldom practiced as a solo art.”

Kennedy plans to pursue aerospace engineering once she graduates, while maintaining glass blowing as a hobby. “I could not imagine myself without this art form,” said Kennedy.

Dancing Tree Creations is featuring Kennedy’s work through their Budding Artist program. Twice a year, an individual under the age of 16 that is serious about their craft is chosen by a committee to display their work for three months. The program was inspired by Gillian Leigh Moser, designed to encourage young artists to develop their craft and to provide an experience of the business end.