Lisa Oakley

Lisa Oakley began blowing glass in 1994 when she immediately fell in love with the heat and fluidity of the molten medium. She knew this was the creative outlet for which she had been searching and went on to build the first hot glass art studio in eastern North Carolina.

Much of Lisa’s inspiration comes from the complexity of colors and patterns found in nature. Her work conveys a feeling of organic movement and texture, both visual and tactile.

Her work includes both decorative and functional vases, bowls, platters and ornaments. She is also one of the few American glassblowers making furnace-pulled glass beads, which she then uses to create her own original line of jewelry.

Lisa Oakley’s studio is nestled between a forest and group of buildings housing both glassblowers and potters on the grounds of Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, North Carolina. Her parents, Sid and Pat Oakley, both potters started the gallery with their own work in 1968. Over the last four decades it has grown to support more than ten resident artists and over 200 regional and national craftspeople. Lisa splits her time between creating art and operating the gallery.

Lisa graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina with a B.A. in Psychology. She has studied glassblowing at Penland School of Crafts with instructors including Robert Levin, Norwegian glassblower Willy Aanderson, Robert Gardner, Ken Carder, Joe Nielander, Charles Correll, Gary Beecham, and Dudley Giberson among others. She also studied techniques in Japan.