Born and raised in Japan, Tomo Sakai discovered glass when she was a teenager. After graduating from the glass program at Tama Art University in Tokyo in 2002, she moved to a small town in the glassmaking region of the Czech Republic to study glass engraving. After three years of study, she moved back to Japan with her husband, Eric Cruze, to establish a public glass studio in Gifu. With the knowledge they gained, they moved to America where they currently base their practice in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sakai makes sculpture, tableware, jewelry, and has produced numerous public art works. She is also a free-lance cold worker and teaches engraving classes. In 2016, Sakai became the first cold-worker-in-residence at the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass. She continues to teach at Corning every year, often with glass artist Martin Rosol. Sakai’s work was selected for the New Glass Nowexhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass in 2019, and in 2021/22 her work can be seen at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.