Daily Inspiration: Meet Amy Basini

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Basini.

Hi Amy, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Voyage ATL actually first featured me back in October 2019, not long after I’d started fused glass — so it feels fitting to be back here now, several years and a lot of growth later.

My path to glass began well before I ever touched a kiln. I studied fine arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology — sculpture, painting, and photography-based work — before going on to the Art Institute of Atlanta, where I focused on 3D modeling and computer animation, graduating in 2002. That same year, I began a career at Cox Automotive, where I still work today; this July 31st marks my 24th anniversary with the company.

Kiln formed glass entered my life eight years ago, and I taught myself the craft from the ground up. My husband and I converted our garage into a dedicated studio, complete with three kilns — the larger of which I named after Maynard Keenan, whose music has become inseparable from my process in the studio.

Glass offered something my earlier training had not: an element of heat and unpredictability, a material that asserts its own will in the making. I gravitated toward glass powder and vibrant, saturated color, drawn especially to techniques that allow the material’s own behavior to shape the final form rather than forcing a predetermined outcome.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not particularly, though my struggles have been more internal than external. I live with mental illness and chronic health issues — including an autoimmune condition and migraines — and building a creative practice on top of managing those has been its own kind of uphill climb. There are days the pain or the mental load makes it hard to even walk into the studio, let alone create something worth showing anyone. I’m also self-taught, which means every technique in fused glass came from trial, error, and a lot of ruined pieces before I found what worked. And I’ve built this practice around a full-time career, so the time and energy for art has always had to be fought for, not handed to me.

None of that is unique to me, but it’s real, and it shapes how I work — slowly, with a lot of self-compassion, and with real respect for the days things actually come together.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a self-taught fused glass artist working out of a home studio in Marietta. My work centers on vibrant, saturated color — I work almost exclusively with glass powder, which lets me build depth and gradient in ways sheet glass alone can’t. I’m especially drawn to organic, textural techniques that let the material behave unpredictably rather than forcing a rigid, symmetrical outcome.

Beyond finished pieces, I also design and sell 3D-printed tools for other glass artists — stringer holders and studio accessories — which comes from the same problem-solving instinct that drew me to animation and 3D modeling earlier in my creative life.

What I’m most proud of: in 2024, three of my pieces were selected as set props for a Netflix original holiday film, which was a surreal, full-circle moment — seeing work made in my garage show up on screen.

What sets me apart is probably that I didn’t come up through a traditional glass program. I taught myself this medium from scratch, which means my technique developed through a lot of trial, error, and stubbornness rather than inherited rules — and I think that shows up as a distinct, less-conventional hand in the finished work.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is one I now live by as a kind of personal motto: always be a student, sometimes be a teacher, never be an expert. Because I’m self-taught, I came into this medium without a formal program telling me the “right” way to do things — which meant I had to stay endlessly curious, and I had to get comfortable being a beginner over and over again as I pushed into new techniques.

That mindset has kept me from ever getting complacent. There’s always another technique to learn, another way the glass can surprise me, another artist doing something I’ve never seen before. And when I do get the chance to teach or share what I know, I try to hold it loosely — because the moment you call yourself an expert is usually the moment you stop growing.

If there’s one thing this journey has taught me, it’s that curiosity is more valuable than mastery. The learning never actually ends, and I’ve come to love that instead of finding it frustrating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://amybasiniglass.com
• Instagram: amybasiniglass
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abasini/