Tisbury was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1977. Her parents were passing through on their way back to the Caribbean, where they owned and operated a 100ft charter schooner. Tisbury and her brother grew up on this boat with their parents, helping with the daily chores and living the life. They would sail in regattas, deliver boats and run day charters, living primarily in St. Thomas and the Lesser Antilles. In 1983,her family moved north to Massachusetts to be with family and start a sail making and boat surveying business on the island of Martha's Vineyard.

Tisbury grew up on the island and attended high school near New Bedford at Tabor Academy, a boarding and day school which was once a Naval Academy. Tisbury experimented with all types of classes ,there, when she met an influential art teacher who told her if she didn't go to art school she would regret it for the rest of her life.

Taking her art teacher's advice she moved out to California to pursue her college education in 1994. She studied at California College of Arts and Crafts, in Oakland where she experimented with many mediums. Watching friends blow glass at the school hot shop she knew it was something she had to try. She studied all types of glass working there; blowing, fusing and casting as well as some metal and ceramics.

Tisbury moved to Seattle in 1998 to pursue her glass education by working in the field. She worked at a few hot shops around town and took more local classes before opening her own business and creating her original designs.

She now has her own home studio where she can create her unique work. Using primarily borosilicate glass for her medium, her work is evokes her life experience. She is influenced by her colorful childhood of living on a boat in the Caribbean, and the way glass and light are symbiotic with each other.

Click here to read about and view a short video of my process.


Quicktime 7 or Flash Player 9 required for video.