Turning Hawai‘i’s Flowers into Glass Art You Can Wear

Glass artist Arlie Pemberton creates her jewelry with 2,200 degrees of heat.

Arlie Pemberton’s collection of glass jewelry features earrings, necklaces, rings and lei designed to look like flowers and lei made from puakenikeni, plumeria, pua kalaunu and other flowers.

“I deeply admire Hawai‘i’s culture and find endless inspiration in the act of making and giving of lei,” she says.

Pemberton is from Virginia but moved to Hawai‘i with her husband in 2016. They live on O‘ahu’s North Shore.

In college, she majored in photography and film but a flameworking course solidified her interest in glass art. “I spent my entire senior year working in the glass studio every chance I got.”

Pemberton says she works with a Carlisle glass blowing torch that runs off a propane and oxygen mix and makes the 2,200-degree flame that she uses.

Her pieces are created with borosilicate, also known as Pyrex glass, that she melts and shapes in the flame using metal tools.

Her jewelry can be found at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Pua Hana in Kaimukī and at arlie-glass.com.