Joani Locke

Joani Locke’s creations in found glass are fanciful, elegant and mesmerizing. She has been working in crafts for many years, ranging from pottery to jewelry. During her recent years in beautiful Key West she started collecting pieces of sea glass while roaming the Florida beaches. Little by little, her creative nature took hold and she started building sculptures using pieces of wrought iron and found glass shaped in intricate patterns of floating designs. She spent the early years of her life in the Chicago suburbs and moved to Denver, Colorado when she was in her teens. She shifted to Colorado mountains as a young woman and spent 23 years as a Rocky Mountaineer. Finally, the extended winter and voluminous snow falls dampened her enthusiasm for continuing her residence in Colorado. Joani set out in her Volkswagen bus, having shed all but her most treasured possessions, and wandered east and then south, looking for the next place she wanted to call home. It was Key West. Like a gypsy, she lived in her Volkswagen bus at her final destination until she could see clear to making a life for herself in the Keys. She has painted many of the houses in Key West with her partner Jimmy and is an expert in faux finished as well. But the found glass captivated her imagination and has become the perfect manifestation of her talent as a crafts artisan.