PunkShopDragon

I grew up in Montana and started making scale models and miniatures as a teenager and was fascinated with the realism scale gives art. I also loved computers and electronics and programmed a CNC controller in 1979, working at my first electronics job. I was lucky that my company paid for me to attend college, where I majored in Chemical Engineering.

Then I moved to Seattle with my young son and husband (at the time). While working in the high-tech avionics industry in Seattle, living in a left-brained world, I found art creation relaxing and started to study painting and sculpture. Eventually, my son and I returned to Montana, still working in the high-tech field with lasers and electronics. That led me back to school to study Electrical Engineering.

As my son was growing up and about to move out of the house to attend college, he inspired me to get a life, and so I met a glass artist in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, who is also a mad scientist, and he showed me a new world in art and finding joy in the simple things.

In 2002, I left the corporate world for good and moved to the Bitterroot Valley to be with my now husband, Bill Grout. We live on a small farm with several buildings we work out of; they consist of a small glass-blowing shop, Bill’s electronics lab and man cave, and my Steampunk shop. Bill specializes in blown glass marbles, laser etching, blown glass electrified art, and astrophotography. I specialize in steampunk, graphics art, terrain building/scale miniatures, and electrified art.

Together, we strive to spread joy and love with every piece of art we create.
Thank you and cyber Huggies,
Rae