usan Matych-Hager recently retired with Professor Emeritus honors from Siena Heights University, Adrian, Michigan where she taught music courses, private voice lessons, directed choirs and served as Chairperson of the Music Department since 1973. Prior to her appointment at Siena Heights University, she taught at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and vocal music at all levels in both public and parochial schools in Michigan.

An art minor in college, she has always been interested in the visual arts. A glass bead course taken from Don Miller in Fall, 2003 at the Toledo Museum of Art was the beginning of her adventure in art glass bead-making, also known as lampwork, torchwork, or flamework. Matych-Hager is intrigued by the colors and myriad of textures created in her glass beads.The artist states, “I love the effect that occurs when one uses color to unify the myriad types of decoration available to the glass bead artist. I am fascinated by the rhythm and movement that can be created in an otherwise static form through the interplay of light striking the artist-created designs in glass. It excites me when glass is combined with other materials in jewelry such as crystals, metal and pearls to enhance the inherent beauty of the glass. I particularly enjoy the ability to work in a wide variety of styles of art glass beads and jewelry, exploring with great freedom all kinds of techniqeus and diversity of expression."

In the process of lampworking, the artist works in an oxygen-fuel torch where soda-lime glass is heated to its molten state. The molten glass is wound on to a metal rod, called a mandrel, that has been coated with a proprietary mixture similar to kiln wash. This mixture allows the bead to release from the mandrel when it is completed. The bead is then shaped using several techniques including heat, cooling and gravity, as well as pressing and stamping. Decoration is applied to the glass. When the bead is complete, it is placed into a digitally-controlled kiln to anneal (strengthen) so that it is less susceptible to stress cracking. After the bead has ramped down to room temperature as part of the annealing process, it is thoroughly cleaned with a diamond bit inserted into a battery operated bead reamer. The bead is then ready to be used in jewelry. Each bead is individually made. Although beads can be similar, no two beads are ever exactly alike.

In 2007, Susan was one of 44 contemporary innovative glass bead artists elected to exhibit in Metamophosis: The Life Cycle of a Glass Bead. The juried show, cosponsored by the International Society for Glass Bead Makers and the exibiting galleries, demonstrated how a glass bead is incorporated into jewelry. The show opened at the Heinz History Center, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May 5 - July 14, 2007 where it was featured by the Glass Art Society Convention, followed by the Evoke Gallery, St. Paul, Minneapolis, July 26 - September 8, 2007, where it was viewed by members of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers attending the annual 2007 Gathering. Her beads were also featured in the juried ISGB Fire and Ice bead show sponsored by the Bead Monkey in St. Paul.

In 2008, she was selected to exhibit two of her works, Wallflower and Fantasy Flowers, in Out of the Box: Pushing the Boundaries of the Glass Bead, a juried traveling show sponsored by the International Society of Glass Beadmakers. The landmark international exhibit featuring about twenty-five innovative contemporary ISGB glass bead artists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany and Israel is planned to open at the Ohio Glass Museum in Lancaster, Ohio, April 15-May 24, 2008; traveling to the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Bead and Button Show, June 1-8, 2008; on display at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda, California from August 1-31, 2008 where it will be a featured exhibit of the ISGB 2008 Gathering: Currents-Merging Culture and Creativity, in Oakland, California and finally completing its journey at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, Texas from September 19-October 19, 2008. More information on the exhibit is available at http://www.isgb.org/.

The artist is a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, GlassAct: Southeastern Michigan Glass Beadmakers Guild, and Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild.