Career change adds more meaning to life for Beaverton woman

By jennifer priest-mitchell

The Times, Nov 23, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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(Jennifer Priest Mitchell is a freelance writer in Beaverton. She can be reached at jnjmitchell@yahoo.com.)

“I guess you could say that my hobby is trying different stuff … I like to try as many different things as I can. In the end of your life, that’s what you end up with is your memories, so I want to have a lot of them to reflect upon,” shared Carli Schultz Kruse with a relaxed smile.

You might think someone who is so open-minded would lack focus, but that is certainly not the case with Kruse. For a woman in her mere 30s, she has experienced quite a lot, and she recently had the courage (and, she admits, great support of her husband and fiends) to make a dramatic career change, and she is making the most of it.

After a decade of web design in California and Oregon, this East Coast native decided to follow her heart and turn a much-loved hobby into a business.

“There are so many different ways to work with glass!” she said. “I am doing two of them a lot right now, one of which is lamp working, the older term, or some people now call it flame working. I create glass beads. Then I also do glass fusing, and with that I make small necklace pendants and plates and bowls, and components of jewelry, as well as plates up to 15 inches in diameter.”

Kruse does more of the lamp working these days and confesses that it is her current favorite style of glass working.

“The fusing is great, but it can take 12 hours of time to make a bowl or a plate’s first phase, and it can take up to days or weeks to finish a project, depending on what it is. You must be a lot more exacting in that type of work — as in baking.”

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