Jenna Bertschi (Spruill Arts Staff) | July 16, 2026
In Fall 2016, four Spruill team members drove through downtown Atlanta in a U-Haul carrying a sculpture of a giant crow. They returned to Spruill towing a 350-pound fused glass kiln named Bertha.
The team in question that day consisted of then-CEO Bob Kinsey, then-Education Director Kristin Wilder, metalworking instructor Tom Beard, and fused glass instructor Kelly Thames. The giant crow was Spruill’s (winning!) entry in that year’s scarecrow competition at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.
Spruill's winning entry in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens' 2016 Scarecrows in the Garden competition
After dropping off the soon-to-be prize-winning crow, Bob, Kristin, Kelly, and Tom made one more stop. They parked their U-Haul on Moreland Avenue to pick up Bertha — a glass kiln they had recently purchased second-hand from an artist who was in the process of moving her studio from Atlanta to Austin, Texas.
“…when we went to go get [Bertha], because everybody was so tight with money, I had to piggyback off of getting the crow,” said Kelly. “…Bob was really no help. Kristen, Kristen’s pretty strong, but Tom did it all.”
Bertha in the new fused glass kiln room
Bertha’s added capacity transformed Spruill’s fused glass program, which has since acquired several additional kilns. This year marks a decade since Bertha’s arrival to Spruill and, better yet, her 40th birthday — which we will be celebrating on July 23.
In asking Kelly about Bertha’s origin story, I also learned a little bit about some of the other kilns maintained by the program. Spruill Fused Glass operates nine kilns, each with different namesakes: Bertha, Dick, Marge, Prince, Jane, Malcolm, Dobby, Carol, and one that has yet to be named.
Bertha came to Spruill with her name, which the fused glass department has since attributed to Baroness Bertha von Suttner, an Austrian noblewoman and author and the first female recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Directly behind Bertha in the kiln room is Marge, the only other fused glass kiln to rival Bertha in size.
“I kept calling her ‘Large Marge,’ so we named her after the Pee Wee Herman Marge,” said Kelly.
Marge was almost named after the arguably more famous Marge Simpson, Kelly told me, but it was ultimately decided that the character’s iconic blue hairdo would have caused confusion between the kilns.
“…that would be confusing, because Bertha’s blue,” she pointed out.
Dick the kiln, though officially named for television icon Dick Clark, earned his name for causing problems.
“…Dick is usually broken or doing something weird,” explained Kelly. “He’s not working right now so we’re using him as a table.”
The name “Dick” was put forth by fused glass instructor Starr Petronella, and, despite attempts by Spruill’s ceramics director to change Dick’s name to Richard (for propriety’s sake), it seems to have stuck.
Jane is named for Jane Goodall (but inspired by her proximity to Dick), and Carol and Dobby are named for the women who donated them to the program — ceramics instructor Carol Brull and Spruill student Michelle Dobbins (although Michelle technically shares namesake status for her kiln with Dobby the house elf from the “Harry Potter” series).
Prince the kiln tends to run at a cooler temperature than the others, earning him a very “cool” namesake in Prince the musician. Malcolm the kiln sits right between two others and was thus named for “Malcom in the Middle.”
As for the newest kiln, who has yet to be named, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what sticks. In the meantime, help us celebrate Bertha (and all her friends) next week at her very own 40th birthday bash. We can’t wait to see you there!
