Born in 1951 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Robert Mickelsen's formal education ended after one year of college. He apprenticed with a professional lamp worker for two years in the mid-seventies and then sold his own designs at outdoor craft fairs for ten years. In 1989, he stopped doing craft shows and began marketing his work exclusively through galleries. Since then, his career has taken off. He shows his work in some of the finest galleries in the country and participates in prominent exhibitions each year. His work is also exhibited in many prominent collections including the Renwick Gallery of American Crafts at the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Museum of Glass, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Museum of Arts and Design, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Mint Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and The Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Village.