President

Our benevolent, adamantine overlord, and occupant of the the S.O.G. presidential suite; Lorraine Austin. The creator of Snake Oil Glassworks, Inc.,Lorraine is a Glass Artist and Assistant Professor of Art. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Glass Program at the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology. Possessed of an enviable range of skills and knowledge, she describes herself as: snake oil peddler, designer, head glassblower, equipment builder, maintenance supervisor, janitor & artisan-philosopher. All of the furnaces, ovens, and most of the other pieces of equipment utilized in our studio were designed and built by Lorraine. When she’s not in the hot shop taunting the gods of bodily degradation (namely; Arthur, Carl, and Reggie), you may find her out in the parking lot aspiring to the throne of Queen to the crows, brooming her cat, Hazel, or off nurturing an enhanced sense of existential angst in college art students.

Head Assistant

Our doughty head assistant, Jessica is Lorraine‘s right hand gal at the bench and Sergeant at Arms to the shop n00bs. Possessed of a steely glare, she plays the part of Lorraine’s bad cop when it’s necessary to compel compliance. Our longest serving and most valuable assistant, she has been hanging around for around ten years, (depending on how one counts…). The condition of the interior of her locker will attest to that. In the hot shop she has the honorary title of Bit Queen, for her accuracy and reliability with a punty. She delivers the bits for many of our more complex pieces and keeps Lorraine on her game with her quick wit and wickedly warped sense of humor. Having a seemingly poor sense of self-preservation, she is nearly fearless when trading barbs with Lorraine. Jessica’s only real flaw is her alternative sense of time. Operating on something she calls “Pilowa-time” has gotten her invited to the HR office more than once. But we always forgive her :-).

As a creator of many things real, imaginary and/or wonky, (her words...) and when not hanging about the Snake Oil studio, Jessica is an accomplished ceramic artist and teacher as well. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in metal and glass from Alfred University, and a Master of Science in Art Education from Syracuse University. She operates out of a local high school where she attempts to inspire her students to create art, while also keeping their hands too muddy to play with their cell phones.

When she is not playing with molten glass or mud. Jessica is usually moshing with her dogs at home, snowboarding, and/or developing plant based recipes and baked goods.

Assistant/Creative Director of Social Media & Marketing

Unbeknownst to her at the time, when Laura bought the original location of Snake Oil Glassworks from Lorraine, her fate was sealed. After months being haunted by the ghosts of glass blowers past, she found herself in the new hot shop, under the tutelage of her spectre. Laura is originally from New Jersey, but don’t hold that against her. She earned her BA from NYU in Art History and her Master of Architecture from Syracuse University. Her day job is as an architect in Skaneateles, working on local residential and commercial projects. She is in the process of completing her hours to pursue architecture licensure. Laura lives in the shadow of the hotshop with her husband, Jimmy, her dog, Chubbs, and her cat, Nanu. When she’s not working on homes or fouling up in the hot shop you can find her enjoying a local IPA, swimming in anything bigger than a puddle, or hiking the high peaks in the Adirondacks (she’s been on 29/46 for an embarrassingly long time now). Laura was made the Creative Director of Social Media and Marketing in 2021, because she was the only one who knew how to use TikTok. Also she made the website you’re looking at right now.

Assistant

The Gumby is not born; he is forged. He is both fun and flexible. His power barely exceeds that of the lowest noob. It is his destiny to sweep the floors.

The Gumby is a long term lurker around the hot shop (est. 2014). He has studied long and hard to learn the intricacies of bringing puntys, opening doors, closing doors, and blowing in a pipe. Other responsibilities include brooming Hazel, slogging buckets of water to and fro, shoveling the parking lot, and putting out the flag. He wears the title of The Gumby with pride and strives to be as flexible as possible at all times, which is sometimes impeded by his rather tight hamstrings. When he isn’t performing his Gumbily duties, he can be found reading an ever-increasing collection of comic books, writing for his blog, or repeatedly lifting heavy weights up and down in the name of vanity. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre from SUNY Geneseo and is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime to The Big Apple to pursue his lifelong dream: acting.

Quality Control

Hazel is perhaps the luckiest cat on the planet. Although her early years were characterized by abandonment, strife and starvation, she was rescued by Lorraine from under a friend’s front porch. Emaciated, wild, wormy, distrusting, ill-tempered and lightning fast, she was at first a challenge to live with. But Lorraine has a way with cats. After two years of patience and TLC, She would finally deign to help herself up into Lorraine’s lap to curl up and nod off into a nap, purring loudly. She’s almost a total softy now, always lobbying for a scratch or brooming. We tried to appoint her as Head Rat Catcher in the studio, but, deeming it beneath her (and too much work), she eschewed the honor and took up a hedonistic existence of herbal dissipation (catnip) and assiduous inactivity, she can usually be found stretched out, sleeping behind the glass furnace or, in warmer months, the studio’s back porch. Last summer we observed her calming watching a red squirrel that had gotten into the studio run right past her as she sat in the middle of the studio’s hallway. She lazily watched the squirrel go past and yawned. Good thing we have no rats….

Assistant

Originally from frozen northern Minnesota, Kim Waale revels in the 2300 degree heat radiating from the glory hole as she operates the doors for Lorraine. Kim is a relative newcomer to Snake Oil, arriving during the peak of Covid to spend her sabbatical from Cazenovia College learning hot glass from the master. She’s still there in spite of frequently falling short of Lorraine’s exacting high standards! Kim, who teaches and uses warm glass techniques, is enjoying expanding her experience with the medium of glass. She is the first to acknowledge that the learning curve for hot glass is steep!

Kim is a Professor and the Chair of Art and Design at Cazenovia College where she teaches Sculpture, Kiln-Formed Glass, Figure Drawing, Contemporary Developments in the Arts and History of Photography. She earned an MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University and her practice involves drawing and constructing installations and objects from a wide-variety of media.