Caroline Abbey.
Caroline Abbey works with glass, metal and light to create sculptural objects, vessels, wall pieces and lighting.
A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, her practice brings together a lifelong interest in making with a love of nature, color and movement.
Glass brings color, pattern and translucency. Metal brings line and structure. Caroline explores what happens when the two meet.
Background & practice
- Education
- Laurel School, Shaker Heights. BFA, Craft & Design, Glass concentration, Cleveland Institute of Art, 2026.
- Further study
- The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass: kiln-forming with Ian Chadwick (2024) and hot glass with Jonathan Swanz (2025). Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Glass study trips to Berlin (2024) and Toyama, Japan (2025).
- Recognition
- Board Honorable Mention with Distinction for Dancing Pants at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s 2026 Student Independent Exhibition.
- Exhibitions
- Cleveland Institute of Art; Kent State University Downtown Gallery (Aggregate and Aggregate II); SPACES, Cleveland (Uplift).
- Teaching
- Hot-shop technical assistant at the Cleveland Institute of Art, 2023–2026.
- Studio
- Caroline Abbey Glassworks, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, with a hot glass shop and a metal shop.
- Work
- Glass centerpieces for homes and businesses: chandeliers, sculpture and commissions. Glass first, with metal and other natural materials.
Process
From hot glass to finished piece.
A look at shaping glass, pulling patterned cane, and adding a pumpkin’s stem. Select a video to watch. These clips are silent.
Studio / 35 sec
Shaping hot glass
Caroline turns the pipe as she works the glass. The clip shows her rolling it on the table and blowing into the pipe.
Cane pulling / 52 sec
Pulling candy-striped cane
Glassworkers pull hot, striped glass into a long cane. The red-and-white stripes look like candy canes.
Explore the cane-glass collection ↗Autumn / 39 sec
The finishing curl
Hot glass is drawn into a stem, cut, and shaped above the pumpkin.
Explore autumn glass ↗The studio
Working with the sun.
Solar power supplies much of the energy used in Caroline’s studio. Some natural gas is also used in the glassmaking process.
The studio is where color and pattern become finished glass, shaped by hand at the furnace.
Get in touch ↗