Connie Beckers took her first stained glass class for her 40th birthday -- in 1995 -- and is excited to celebrate her 70th birthday and 30th anniversary together this summer. After a long and illustrous career paving her own path in the arts world, she took retirement in 2020 and relocated to Elk River MN to be with family. She has really been semi-retired while adding gardening and antiquing to her favorite things to do.Connie and Krista connected first through Groupon in Connie's living room at the Funky Bungalow in about 2011. Krista was discovering glass and wanted to try fusing. While fusing didn't stick with her, she dove headfierst into stained glass and started The Artery Studio & Glass Arts offering kit-based stained glass workshops in Ramsey. Fast forward to the summer of 2021 when Connie offered her teaching tools for sale and Krista was first in line. Soon after, Krista relocated from Ramsey to Anoka for a much larger and better equipped space for her classes.Meanwhile, Connie was offering workshops in her garage studio in Elk River dealing with the cold in the winter and bugs in the summer. Krista to the rescue offering space to hold fusing classes in her new studio and going on a year later, it's absolutely perfect. She has found space to store all my class supplies (12 bins of scrap glass, etc.) and the set up is perfect for anywhere from three to 20 people at a time! She offers cameras and screens so everyone can see demonstrations, too!