Paul And Carol Willsea O'Brien

Willsea-O'Brien Glass is a husband and wife team working together since 1983. We are glassblowers who took years of fine craftsmanship in a direction of painting and sculpture. Interesting mistakes became a point of departure from traditional functional forms to asymmetrical groupings for wall mounting or single deeper oblong forms well proportioned to tabletop.

Paul BA History Alfred University 1981 Senior year concentration in glass after asking the Head of Glass program (for three years) to let a Liberal Art student take some classes.
Pilchuck summer intensive class with Bertil Valien 1981
Employed with Randy Strong Berkeley, CA Fall 1981
Employed with Ira Sapir Oakland, CA 1981-84
Carol O'Brien BA in Art Hamilton College 1981
Apprenticeship with Penelope Fleming Elkins Park, PA 1981-82
Employed with Jeanne and Ikuzi Teraki of Romulus Ceramics 1983-86
Ceramic Assistant Artwork Lewiston, NY 1982

We did some gallery consignment shows back in the mid 80's. What paid the bills and helped us hone our craft was to show at the American Craft Council and Buyers Market of American Craft from 1985-2018. Galleries and Fine Craft stores place orders for resale. You learn to be consistent and excel at design for home decor. In 2008 that market shrank a lot and Paul started traveling and showing at Art festivals and showing to the public. That made repetition not as important and gave us freedom to experiment.