Daniella Acciarito says that for creative people, there are no boundaries when it comes to working with glass.
Acciarito and her partner Michael run RuMa Creative Art Studio, which is based at Wyndham Art Works in Laverton North.
The site is run by the Wyndham Community Arts Alliance, to provide artists and cultural groups with working spaces and studios.
Acciarito, who has been president of the organisation for the past seven years, said she has always loved art.
“My mum would do adult art classes at Werribee Tech (now Wyndham Central College) in ceramics and she did a stained glass course with Reg Loats at his Werribee studio when l was in my early teens,” she said.
“I told my mum that one day I would learn stained glass too.”
Acciarito said she first learned the art of stained glass nearly 30 years ago.
When her teacher and mentor Annette Valentan retired 15 years ago, Acciarito started teaching Valentan’s other students.
Acciarito teaches at Wyndham Art Works and also hopes to start a class at the Wyndham Park Community Shed next year.
“The main reason I teach, as well as do demonstrations of the craft at fairs and festivals, is to help keep this very old craft alive – people in general find it all so fascinating,” Acciarito said.
“Stained glass is such a fabulous medium to work with, you don’t need to be particularly artistic or crafty to do it, it’s more about the skill and techniques.”
Details: www.facebook.com/RuMaCreativeArtStudio
Alesha Capone
