Shari McAlarney, studied life drawing, oil painting and sculpture at the University of California at Fullerton. She has studied privately with many art teaches and attended the Laguna School of Art and Design. She has taken numerous painting workshops with artists, such as Marshall Merritt, Griselda Gil de la Torre, and Judy Sleight. Her oil paintings have been exhibited at the Fair Glen Art Show in San Jose, California. In 1987, her husband Gary encouraged her to enroll in glassblowing classes, fusing workshops, glass bead making, lampworking and glass casting workshops at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, Washington.

With glassblower husband, they have participated in many intensive seminar workshops with numberous reknown Pilchuck glass artists, Fritz Dreisbach, Dante Marioni, Richard Marquis, Richard Royal, and Dick Weiss. They worked as a team in independant studios until 1994 when they finally achieved their goal and opened their own glass blowing studio in Gig Harbor, Washington. They offered lessons on beadmaking, lampworking and glassblowing. She loves the way glass, when it is hot is so fluid and alive you can do anything with it. She always loved Art.

Her grandmother did oil portraits in Atlanta, Georgia and made sure she started early in life so she would love art and of course follow in her grandmothers footsteps. She started with drawing, then oil painting, then pottery and then glass. Her husband and she were greatly influenced by the glass renaissance in Seattle. Her latest endeavor, since moving to Florida is making glass bead seashell jewelry.

"Jewelry is one of my loves so that was a natural. I started making glass bead seashells in my studio 3 years ago and now I do beach/seashell themed jewelry. I hope you love it.