Dressing like she is the princess of her own planet is only one aspect of Cleo Dunsmore Buchanan. Cleo shows a different side of herself in her artwork. Her wildlife glass artwork  speaks of calm, deep Natural forces that contradict her transient fashionista exterior.

Cleo studied fine art at Carnegie Mellon. She grew up creating creatures in clay in her mother’s ceramic studio. Cleo created and drove her own art car, wrote eight novels, and has designed jewelry and beads since 1991. In 2003, Cleo bought a hot head and some glass rods, and that was that. She happily tossed aside all other interests in order to devote herself to the glass studio. Cleo has taught at the International Glass Bead Society Gathering in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and at Something Phishy Studio in Massachusetts.  Her wildlife beads have appeared in books and in periodicals like Bead and Button Magazine, BeadStyle, SodaLime Times, The Bead Release, Bead Design Studio, and Lammaga. Cleo’s family includes a husband with a cape, a son who teaches her Buddhist principles, one collie, a special cat, and three tortoises.  She recreates herself from the ashes of the previous day in Ijamsville, Maryland.

email: gramatortoise@gmail.com