{"id":804837,"date":"2026-05-18T10:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T10:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/804837\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T10:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T10:17:28","slug":"julie-burton-creates-glass-jewelry-ceramics-by-hand-in-her-l-a-adu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/804837\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Burton creates glass jewelry, ceramics by hand in her L.A. ADU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just about every corner of Julie Burton\u2019s Silver Lake studio is filled with sparkling glass jewelry \u2014 some real, some symbolic \u2014 and whimsical ceramic figures inspired by Midcentury Modern design. <\/p>\n

Elegant hand-blown glass vases sit beside ceramic crater pots on warm cherry shelves. Bright teardrop earrings hang from metal tins filled with Japanese cooling beads. In the kitchen, hand-carved ceramic birds, whales, elephants and owls look out from the counters, surrounded by lidded cache pots and heavy candlestick holders that feel good in your hand. Nature shows up everywhere in her studio: rocks in glass jars, pieces of driftwood and tiny \u201cforests\u201d she\u2019s made from glass, brass and walnut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a full-time hallucinator without drugs,\u201d Burton says jokingly about her wide range of work. \u201cIf I\u2019m not making something, I\u2019m always looking around and thinking about what to make next.\u201d<\/p>\n

A metal desk she found on Craigslist anchors the 546-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, where she works. Architect Peter Kim <\/a>designed the space, attached to her garage in Silver Lake, to be private and full of light, with 10-foot ceilings, skylights and glass doors that open onto a large patio with seating.<\/p>\n

Her workspace shows how productive she is. Long, colorful glass tubes fill pails on the floor and her desk. Tools are scattered throughout the studio, including a plumber\u2019s torch for melting glass, crockpots for pickling and a dental tool she uses to stamp her logo, VM, short for Verre Modern<\/a>, onto her ceramics.<\/p>\n

At 56, the Los Angeles native took an unusual route to becoming an artist. After earning a degree in political science from UC Berkeley, she worked at Amoeba in San Francisco and later joined the fashion brand Esprit. \u201cI was supposed to be a data-entry person,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I taught myself Quark and became a pattern maker.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/a> <\/p>\n

In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who are creating original products in and around Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

She admits she didn\u2019t really know what she was doing. \u201cI have a habit of taking jobs and changing them a bit. I\u2019ve been lucky to be able to shape the jobs I\u2019ve had.\u201d <\/p>\n

At one point, she considered becoming a professor of legal ethics, so, as the daughter of two lawyers, she applied to law school. \u201cThat would be an interesting job today,\u201d she adds with a dry sense of humor.<\/p>\n

\"Artist <\/p>\n

\u201cBuilt-in desks, cabinets, shelves and a functioning kitchen with counter seating provide a light-filled artist\u2019s studio easily convertible to a spacious living space,\u201d architect Peter Kim says of the ADU.<\/p>\n

\"Burton <\/p>\n

Burton melts glass for jewelry with a plumbing torch.<\/p>\n

She had always loved art, especially glass-blowing, but classes were too expensive. On a whim, she also applied to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, or RISD. When she didn\u2019t get into her top law schools, she chose RISD instead. There, she majored in illustration and took a six-week winter glass-working course that changed her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately thought, \u2018This is the best. I want to do this,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t think, \u2018Can I do glass blowing for a living?\u2019\u201d When she realized she didn\u2019t want to create art glass, her professor encouraged her to leave and \u201csave $90,000 on tuition for something she wasn\u2019t 100% behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a RISD friend introduced her to a glassblower in Chattanooga who had blown glass on an oil rig, Burton moved to Tennessee and worked for the former merchant marine, making what she describes as \u201cfunky glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

She later moved to New York and worked at the nonprofit Urban Glass in Brooklyn. To pay off her student loans, she also waited tables and tutored kids for the PSAT and SAT. <\/p>\n

After a friend gave her a quick five-minute lesson in lampworking \u2014 a type of glasswork that uses a torch or lamp to melt glass \u2014 she got so excited that she decided to start a jewelry business, although she says she \u201cknew nothing about jewelry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Glass <\/p>\n

Glass necklaces, starting at $140, come in 135 different colors. <\/p>\n

After a brutal winter in New York and as her parents got older, she decided to move back to Los Angeles in 2003. In L.A., she met her husband, had a son who is about to turn 15 and continued to grow her Verre Modern jewelry line. Over time, her work expanded to include glass and brass mobiles and wall hangings, which are now sold in independent shops and museum gift stores across the country.<\/p>\n

Designer Carol Young<\/a> has carried Burton\u2019s jewelry at her Undesigned showroom in Los Feliz for 20 years. Young says that Burton \u201ctransforms humble glass into modern heirlooms \u2014 simple, elegant, quietly precious pieces for women who don\u2019t need the obviousness of gemstones or status jewelry. My everyday pair are her clear glass Valenti earrings<\/a>, which somehow go with absolutely everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she took a ceramics class in 2015, she started making vases, animals and decor, often hand-building and carving her unique vessels while watching TV in her living room. Like with most things, she says, she made ceramics her own. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was blowing urban glass, I didn\u2019t use traditional Italian glass-blowing techniques because I worked for a guy on a mountain in Tennessee,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about jewelry, but a five-minute lampworking lesson set me on my path. If someone who does ceramics for a living were to watch me do what I do with clay, they\u2019d say that\u2019s not the right way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burton worked in a studio on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles for 20 years before she and her husband added the ADU in 2023. \u201cIt was built with the idea that we might live in the studio someday or let a family member live there,\u201d she says, adding with a laugh: \u201cIt\u2019s embarrassingly nice as a working studio. That is definitely not how my studio downtown looked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Burton\u2019s kitchen features Inax Japanese ceramic tile and untreated cherry cabinets. <\/p>\n

\"Artist <\/p>\n

The cutouts in the fence around her patio just outside the ADU are lined with her ceramics, sand dollars, driftwood and rocks from Burton\u2019s travels. \u201cI\u2019m inspired by nature,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

The one-bedroom, one-bathroom ADU was built on an unused side yard of the large corner lot, so the two-car garage could still be used for storage and parking. Architect Kim says, \u201cWhile converting a garage to an ADU can add living space or rental income, they\u2019re often small, need a lot of structural work and take away storage.\u201d He adds, \u201cBuilding an ADU on unused space lets you keep the garage and, like with Julie\u2019s ADU, creates a spacious, private front patio connected to her studio and living room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burton looks back on her unique career path and feels grateful she can choose her own direction. When she studied illustration at RISD, she recalls being surrounded by talented drafters. \u201cI wasn\u2019t the best illustrator, and I remember the professor told me that half of illustrations are ideas. That was inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

That idea continues to inspire her art, even after many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried welding, woodworking, painting, drawing, glass-blowing, lampworking and working with clay,\u201d she says about working with her hands. \u201cGive me a medium, and I\u2019ll give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Artist <\/p>\n

Burton works on a facet bowl in her Los Feliz living room.<\/p>\n

(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just about every corner of Julie Burton\u2019s Silver Lake studio is filled with sparkling glass jewelry \u2014 some…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":804838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,133902,39012,18518,2327,56143,327682,327680,327681,2961,18302,224,2444,5337,327683,24651,327684,8066,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-804837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-ceramic","11":"tag-garage","12":"tag-glass","13":"tag-hand","14":"tag-illustration","15":"tag-jewelry-business","16":"tag-julie-burton","17":"tag-l-a-adu","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-living","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-times","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-silver-lake-adu","24":"tag-studio","25":"tag-torch","26":"tag-work","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116595068441009407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}