 Artist-glassmaker
David Hopman returned to Amador County in California's Sierra Foothills
after many years in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate in zoology
from U.C. Davis he was working at Stanford when he focused his artistic
interest on glass. Several years ago he began studying glassblowing
at San Jose State. In 2000 he decided to devote full time to his
art. As a zoologist and avid scuba diver he is strongly influenced
by the natural world. It inspires the colors and patterns he utilizes
in the classic and freeform blown shapes he creates. Using a state
of the art electric furnace he melts glass batch brought in from
the Netherlands. He then adds colors that come from as far away
as New Zealand. Working the glass at over 2100 degrees, he blows
and hand shapes the piece to achieve a wide array of forms. Many
of the color patterns he has devised depend on complex and ever
variable interactions between the compounds used in the different
color stocks. His work is presently showing in Northern California,
Ohio and Florida galleries.
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 Heather
Hopman works in a variety of mediums including lampworked soft glass
beads, ceramics, gourds, metalworking, blown glass and watercolors.
She was born and raised in Amador County.
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