Karli Sears

Karli Sears is a Canadian glass artist born in 1975, Guelph, Ontario, that works with glass to create sensual, botanically inspired sculpture and elegantly playful jewelry. The organic qualities of hot glass – it’s fluidity and luminosity – drew her to the glass studio at Sheridan College where she graduated in 1999. Since then, through artist residencies, project grants and masterclasses, she has developed her unique work – often a union of structured pattern and lyrical form.

She has served as resident artist at the Living Arts Centre following similar residency at the Harbourfront Craft Studio. Her work draws inspiration from the natural world and her pieces are soft sculptural renditions that are reminiscent of seed pods and ocean anemones. Her recent foray into textiles includes working with glass and felt to create new pieces that can be seen and purchased at Toronto’s Sandra Ainsley Gallery. The addition of a range of jewelry brings Karli’s soft color palette and translucent glass forms to a more intimate space. Sears’ nature-inspired creations also take shape in oversized rings set in sterling silver. Here “Microcosm” series’ interest in “the microscopic parts of plant life” which are then enlarged and extracted forms that are rendered art for your home, office, or finger. This is where art meets practicality; what could be better than portable art for “the wearer’s private contemplation”? Here ‘Glass Flames” fixture is a hand-blown glass pendant chandelier where each pendant is hand-blown and finished in an opaque white, opaline or translucent smoke finish.

Karli’s sculpture is found in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark and the Ernsting Stiftung Glass Museum, Germany as well as many private and corporate collections.  She shows her work in galleries across Canada and the eastern United States. She has also received a multitude of awards, honors, and publications throughout here career.