Exposing her talent

When a crew from HGTV descended on Michele Palenik's Land O' Lakes home in January 2007, she had no idea whether her segment would make it on the air.

Now, two years later, the married mother of two can say she was featured on the national cable television series "That's Clever." The segment aired March 25 and showed Palenik making a mermaid fused-glass collage.

"They were here for six hours and from that they gleaned the best six minutes," she said. "It was fun. I would do it again."

Palenik, a fused-glass artist who runs Purple Cloud Studio out of her Plantation Palms home, said she was happy to get the exposure for her art.

"All it takes is the right set of eyes to see it and say, 'Hey, I want her to do some things for me,'" said Palenik, 46.

Whether mermaids, sea turtles or penguins, Palenik's work often reflects an aquatic theme. With a degree in marine biology from the University of North Carolina, she melds her education with 20 years of experience creating and designing jewelry.

For several years, she has worked with Odyssey Marine Exploration turning broken pieces of glass bottles from the shipwrecked SS Republic, a Civil War steamship, into jewelry.

"There is all this history behind this glass, and then she turns it into something beautiful," said Kathy Salvant, product manager for Odyssey Marine Exploration. "In addition to being a great artist, she has a marine biology background. She likes to leave a bit of the sea in the pieces. Some have rust in them, some have sand."

It was a creation of a different kind that motivated Palenik, a former goldsmith and senior account executive for a jewelry manufacturing company, to transition into jewelry design. Simply, she quit her job to have and raise her daughter Rachel and son Ben while working from her home doing something that fulfills her creative side.

"I still had to work to maintain me," she said. "I thought, 'I have to find a material I can do at home.' We went to a craft show and I saw a cool little pair of dichroic glass earrings. It really attracted me, the science woman inside."

The earrings, which show two different colors depending on how you hold the glass, inspired a business that has kept Palenik busy for more than 15 years. She learned how to work with fused glass and began making earrings that were sold in boutiques and galleries around the world. She has since branched out to include necklaces, fused-glass collages and a line of glass bowls, from which a portion of the proceeds go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

"It's been fun watching how she's really evolved from making earrings to really interesting things," said husband Martin Palenik.

Currently, Palenik is working on making a fused-glass wedding-cake topper that can function as a fun piece of art long after the wedding couple's big day is over.

"I try to stretch myself," she said.

For information on Palenik's studio, visit www. purplecloudstudio.com.