Loretta J. Wentzel, an artist who worked in beach glass, died Thursday of lung cancer at Sinai Hospital. The Timonium resident was 57.

Loretta Junghans was born in Baltimore and raised in Timonium. She attended Maryvale Preparatory School and graduated in 1970 from Dulaney High School.

During the 1970s, she briefly worked for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. before becoming a teacher's aide at Loch Raven Middle School in the 1980s, working with disabled children.

Mrs. Wentzel did faux paintings during the 1990s and contributed her artistic work to several Baltimore Symphony designer showcase homes. She also designed items composed of sea and beach glass that she had collected on the Eastern Shore and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

She also enjoyed attending auctions, collecting antiques and was an avid gardener and reader.

"Loretta was witty and creative, one of a kind," said a sister, Lisa Norris of Timonium. "Each year would bring a new creation and a new project. She died the night of the Blue Moon which seemed fitting."

She was a member of the Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 20 E. Ridgely Road, Timonium, where a memorial Mass will be offered at 11 a.m. today.

Also surviving are a son, Ben J. Wentzel of Timonium; a daughter, Amelia Erin Wentzel of Guilford; her mother, Marie Junghans of Timonium; a brother, Edward Junghans Jr. of Towson; three other sisters, Margaret Sandebeck of Timonium, and Paula Junghans and Mary Bowden, both of Baltimore. Her marriage to James Wentzel ended in divorce.

-Frederick N. Rasmussen