Maria D and I took the same Business Plan Boot Camp last month. She makes jewelry and has curly hair, which means that she knows how to make earrings that look good with curls. (Curly hair is also a sign of future business success, as I wrote about here.)

I’ve been looking for earrings the color of the blue beads in her necklace ever since I lost a pair on the subway years ago. She made a beautiful pair for me that I picked up last Sunday. The best part of picking up the earrings was that I got to see her in action at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. You can see the pics I took after the jump, and you can find HER PIECES FOR SALE HERE.

Maria D begins by choosing colors from sticks of glass like these.

Sometimes she’ll use metal. I watched her use pieces of the copper wire below.

Here you see Maria at work. She loved playing with fire as a child, and at some point as an adult, she “finally realized that what she wanted to do was glass.”

Once finished, she places the beads to cool between two layers of thick insulation. The bead she created while I was there is in the forefront. She used a white glass base with copper wire and a smoky clear glass on top. I wish the picture did it justice.

I got to watch glass blowing as well. It’s mesmerizing.

Below are pieces that other artists have created. Sometimes Urban Glass will hold a sale of pieces that their creators have abandoned or that are slightly imperfect. I put myself on their mailing list to find out when the next sale will be!