Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Early in his career, Paul Stankard used to trade paperweights for gasoline and car servicing with John Graeber. In 1989, through his uncle John, David Graeber wound up casually visiting Stankard's studio and weeks later was invited to come and work with him. Young Graeber started learning about glass in the deep end of the pool. Thirty-five years later, he continues to work with Stankard about a day a week. Having mastered numerous glassmaking techniques and having developed his own working style and visual aesthetic, in 2009 Graeber started his own art glass business. One thing he shares with his mentor Stankard is a deep appreciation for and interest in imagery from the natural world. His paperweight subjects include Chysanthemum, so life-like you want to reach out and pluck them from their crystal orb. Fall Harvest, including pumpkins and blueberries in floral arrangements that celebrate their season with color and vibrancy. And Fruits of Discovery that pays homage to the enchanting yellow lemon trees of Italy. Graeber says: "My stories in glass have evolved over time. However, one fact, my love of nature, remains constant. Many of my creations celebrate the memory of a loved one or the joy of a special event. All capture nature's elegance and remarkable diversity." In order to create paperweights that reflect nature precisely, Graeber studies his subject matter carefully. A major source of natural inspiration is the million-acre Pinelands National Reserve, which has served as a living laboratory. He is always trying to "find a new illusion," a new way to express the transcendence he experiences in those environs. Despite his stunning and widely collected artworks, Graeber prefers to be regarded as a craftsman continuing the South Jersey glass tradition into the 21st century. A life-long "Jerseyman," Graeber honed his craft under the watchful eye of teachers, mentors, and friends including: the late George Vail, who introduced him to the world of architectural reconstruction and forensic sculpture; William "Bill" Marlin, Ed.D., a dedicated teacher and established painter; Stankard, the internationally acclaimed glass artist who encouraged him to strike out on his own; and the late Ed Poore, a renowned master cutter whose skill has enhanced several of Graeber's paperweights. Graeber has created both a life and a living from the magic of glass. His intricate glass paperweights and impressive flameworking techniques are on display and can be accessed through the L H Selman website as well as Graeber's own website. He is careful to always keep in mind how much more there is to know and that you always need to be learning something new to expand your horizons as an artist. He is restless and often makes no more than a few paperweights of a particular design before he needs to explore another direction. Two years ago, Graeber met filmmaker Dan Collins at an event, and the two decided a documentary film was needed focusing on the paperweights and artistic contributions of Stankard. Graeber took on the role of executive director and began fundraising for the project in earnest. Since January, Flower and Flame has thrilled hundreds of viewers at packed regional venues, including the Morris Museum, Perkins Center for the Arts and Salem Community College's International Flameworking Conference. The next showing will be at the Paperweight Collectors Association convention May 15 – 18 at the Warwick Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. Plans for national distribution are ongoing and will be updated on the film's official website as they develop. The film is an official selection of the G.A.S. Film Festival in Berlin, Germany (May 16, 2024), and the Jersey Shore Film Festival (June/July, 2024). Considering art to be a vehicle for sharing and giving back, Graeber started a glass program five years ago at the nonprofit Perkins Center for the Crafts in Collingswood, New Jersey. There, he recently organized a showing of Flower and Flameto raise money for veterans – a group to whom the artist is particularly interested in teaching glass. Graeber has also given his time and energy to the nonprofit Project Fire, located on Chicago's West Side, and helmed by glass artist Pearl Dick. He states: "I have a passion for the simple gifts of nature: the timeless beauty of a rose, the industriousness of a small bee, or the untamed wildness of a sunflower. Working in glass allows me to explore this passion, and under the tutelage of master glass artist, Paul Stankard, I refined my passion to the art of capturing nature – frozen for eternity in a paperweight." More about Flower and Flame 1. Film Reviews Andrew Page of Urban Glass: REVIEW: An exquisitely crafted film examines Paul… | UrbanGlass Richard Pope, The Independent Critic: https://theindependentcritic.com/paulstankard 2. Upcoming Screenings | Many not listed here are in planning stages. The updated list is at www.flowerandflamefilm.com/screenings 4/18 Levoy Theatre, Millville, NJ

Said Blown Away Season 4 winner, Morgan Peterson, "I'm not just the creepy weirdo lurking in the background anymore. I'm right up front." As champion of Netflix's 2024 glassblowing competition series, the Seattle-based artist received a whopping cash prize of $100,000, a paid residency in Venice, Italy, with glass legend Adriano Berengo, and a residency at the world-renowned Corning Museum of Glass. Growing up in Boston, MA, Peterson's watched horror films and Unsolved Mysteries with her Godmother, introducing her to the unnerving and creepy style so associated with her unique work that uses metaphor and imagery to address themes of pop culture and addiction. On Blown Away 4, from her initial bathtub-toaster combo titled Best Friends to a knife thrower's impeccably made knives, black and white targets, and puddles of blood to her unforgettable monster mushroom, dark humor and twisted style set Peterson's work apart- not just from other artists on the show, but from other artists making work in glass today. Her final gallery, 6 Crime Scenes, included 80 glass objects and was described by guest evaluator Berengo as "fresh, new, and very contemporary." The crime scene installation was based on six murders that occurred in Chicago during the 1920s and inspired by the artist's obsession with the musical Chicago. Peterson graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a dual degree in 2006. Upon completion of her degrees, she relocated to Seattle, WA, to pursue a career and continue her education and advancement in the arts. She has worked for many notable artists including Buster Simpson and Bruce Mau, and is a full-time team member for Dale Chihuly. Heavily involved with Pratt Fine Arts and Pilchuck Glass School, she is not only a member of the staff but also an instructor. Included in The Young Glass Exhibition, hosted by the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, which is an international competition that only occurs once a decade, Peterson has also participated in multiple group shows in 2019, including Pittsburgh Glass Center, The Habatat Invitational, CHROMA (Nashville, TN), Traver Gallery (Seattle, WA), REFRACT (Seattle's Glass Art Fair), and the Irish Glass Biennale (Dublin also in 2023). In 2020 and 2022, the artist exhibited virtual solo shows through Habatat in Royal Oaks, MI. Her first in person solo exhibition was held at Method Gallery, Seattle, WA, in October 2021. Since winning Blown Away 4, Peterson says she has been "very busy in the best ways possible." Her latest work will be on view in Once Upon a Crime In Hollywood, opening Saturday, April 13, 6 p.m. -10 p.m. at the new Nathie Katzoff Art Gallery, 8900 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood. PLEASE RSVP – [email protected]. Her Corning residency takes place April 22 – 28, and she'll participate in a group show at Traver Gallery in Seattle this October.

Principally a sculptor who employs cast glass and drawing as primary methodologies, Clifford Rainey creates work that is interdisciplinary, incorporating a wide spectrum of materials and processes. A passionate traveler, his work is full of references to the things he has seen and experienced. Celtic mythologies, classical Greek architecture, the blue of the Turkish Aegean, globalization and the iconic American Coca-Cola bottle, the red of the African earth, and the human figure combine with cultural diversity to provide sculptural imagery charged with emotion. A British artist whose work has been exhibited internationally for 50 years, Rainey was born in Whitehead, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in 1948. He began his career as a linen damask designer and worked in William Ewarts linen manufacturers from 1965 to 1968. Later, the artist studied at Hornsey College of Art, the Walthamstow School of Art, where he specialized in bronze casting, and the Royal College of Art, where he received his MA and specialized in glass. Between 1973 and 1975, Rainey ran his own glass studio in London and won a commission for a small sculpture to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II. In 1984, the artist moved to New York and established additional studios there. Rainey's sculptural work has been exhibited internationally including: The Ulster Museum in Northern Ireland, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Kunstmuseum in Dusseldorf, Germany, The Millennium Museum in Beijing, China, and the Museo de Arts Contemporaneo in Monterrey, Mexico. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums including: The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, The DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, California, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Art and Design, New York, The Fine Arts Museum of Boston, and The Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Canada. Rainey has realized a number of public art commissions including: The Lime Street Railway Station in Liverpool, England, the Jeddah Monument in Saudi Arabia, and the 911 Communication Center in San Francisco. He is a recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Award, Chicago, and the 2009 UrbanGlass Outstanding Achievement Award, New York. Balancing his commitment to studio practice with his desire to share knowledge, Rainey has lectured extensively around the world. He lectured at The Royal College of Art in London for seven years and was a Professor of Fine Art and Chair of the Glass Program at The California College of the Arts from 1991 through 2022. On October 8, 2017 at 10:30 p.m., Rainey and his partner, Rachel Riser, were awakened by a neighbor's frantic telephone call warning them that a wind-driven wildfire had kicked up and was blazing toward their shared Napa, California, residence. They needed to get out immediately. Far more devastating than the destruction of his home and studio was the complete loss of all the artwork on the property — not only two year's worth of work for an upcoming exhibition, but the artist's archive of drawings of every project he'd ever done, as well as a collection of his strongest work he was planning to donate to a museum. Rainey still resides in Napa, California, and in March 2024 took time away from rebuilding his studio to participate in an artist residency at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma. There, he advanced ideas and processes originally seen in works he lost to fire.

Enjoy this stained glass panel discussion with top industry professionals and educators Judith Schaechter, Stephen Hartley, Megan McElfresh, and Amy Valuck. Topics addressed include: what is needed in stained glass education; how the massive number of Instagrammers making suncatchers and trinkets affect stained glass; how to promote stained glass in a gallery setting; and how to stay relevant as stained glass artists. The panelists: By single-handedly revolutionizing the craft of stained glass through her unique aesthetic and inventive approach to materials, Judith Schaechter championed her medium into the world of fine art. The content of her work – some of which gives voice to those who experience pain, grief, despair, and hopelessness – resonates with viewers, leaving a profound and lasting impression. Schaechter has lived and worked in Philadelphia since graduating in 1983 with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design Glass Program. She has exhibited her glass art widely, including in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, The Hague and Vaxjo, Sweden. She is the recipient of many grants, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Crafts, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, The Joan Mitchell Award, two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts awards, The Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Leeway Foundation grant. Her work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Hermitage in Russia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Corning Museum of Glass, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and numerous other public and private collections. Schaechter's work was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, a collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2012, and she is a 2008 USA Artists Rockefeller Fellow. In 2013 the artist was inducted to the American Craft Council College of Fellows. The Glass Art Society presented Schaechter with a Lifetime Achievement award in 2023, and this year she will receive the Smithsonian Visionary Award. Schaechter has taught workshops at numerous venues, including the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, the Penland School of Crafts, Toyama Institute of Glass (Toyama, Japan), Australia National University in Canberra, Australia. She has taught courses at Rhode Island School of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the New York Academy of Art. She is ranked as an Adjunct Professor at The University of the Arts and Tyler School of Art Glass Program, both in Philly . Born in Philadelphia, Stephen Hartley began his craft career working on a variety of historic buildings and monuments throughout the region. In 1999, he moved to South Carolina to attend Coastal Carolina University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in History. He then relocated to Savannah, Georgia, and continued to work in the traditional crafts and conservation fields while attending graduate school. After completing his MFA in Historic Preservation at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Hartley was employed as an instructor at various colleges within the Savannah area. He earned his PhD from the University of York in 2018 where his dissertation thesis studied the historical and modern frameworks of trades training in the US and the UK. Hartley eventually returned to the Philadelphia area and accepted the position of Head of Building Arts at Bryn Athyn College, where he formulated the first Bachelor's of Fine Arts (BFA) in traditional building within the United States. Hartley, currently an associate professor in Notre Dame's School of Architecture, wants his students to have a deeper appreciation for the work craftspeople do to fulfill an architect's vision—by learning the vocabulary of the trades, understanding their history, and, when possible, trying out the tools. Executive Director of the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA), Megan McElfresh has dedicated her professional life to community service and the art and science of stained glass. With a background in fine arts and operations management, she joined the Association as a professional member in 2015 and became the Executive Director in the fall of 2017. Growing up in small stained glass studios, McElfresh continued to build on her technical skills in the medium by seeking mentorship opportunities throughout college. Some of the highlights of her glass studies were traveling to Pilchuck Glass School and time spent at the nationally recognized kiln forming resource center, Vitrum Studio. Prior to working with the SGAA, McElfresh worked in a variety of roles from operations management at a life sciences firm in Washington, D.C. to IT and web support for small non-profit art organizations. In 2011, McElfresh moved from Northern Virginia to Buffalo, New York, and founded her studio, McElf GlassWorks. With a passion for her professional career as well as her new community, she never turned down an opportunity to collaborate with neighborhoo

Kazuki Takizawa's 2015 installation entitled Breaking the Silence represents the artist's interpretation of a person's breaking point and the juxtaposition of balancing inner struggles with oppressive external forces. The installation incorporated performance aspects and sound, where slanted vessels filled with water until submitting to the liquid's weight, falling over onto a table. Takizawa's work provided a new perspective for interacting with glass, going beyond form and technique to provoke a deeper level of engagement. Impressed by how humble and open Takizawa was when discussing the deeply personal experiences reflected within his art, Emily Zaiden, director and curator at Craft In America Center, Los Angeles, offered the artist a solo exhibition. She states: "I was drawn in by Takizawa's metaphorical use of the material to articulate new themes through new forms and new applications. He is dealing with subject matter that has been untouched and under-represented, particularly in his medium, and sharing this vital message through compelling sculptural works of beauty is perfectly in line with our mission." For Takizawa's 2017 Craft in America exhibition, Catharsis Contained, the artist designed and fabricated another unique installation, creating an aural experience produced by suspending colored glass bulbs enclosed in a swaying metal structure. The rocking motion of the work, entitled Breaking the Silence II, caused the blown bulbs to gently bump into one another, producing a soothing, tinkling sound inspired by the artist's visit to a temple in Thailand. Takizawa combined a sonic atmosphere with the rich visual experience of repeated glass forms in various subdued hues to inspire a conversation about a topic rarely addressed in art – suicide. The work was inspired by the artist's struggles to support his brother who has wrestled with mental health issues and suicidal ideation. https://www.kazukitakizawa.com/breaking-the-silence-2?pgid=j6vrle9h-71bf472c-84df-4a19-b456-59e74a495e43 As an artist who himself lives with bipolar disorder, Takizawa uses glass as a means to explore his inner reality and destigmatize mental illness. With an aim to give the invisible shape, Takizawa crafts elaborate vessels and installations, each with a unique story. Universally rooted in a dialogue around mental health, his series examines broad themes such as attaining minimalism among chaos as well as his personal narratives around the topic of living with Bipolar Disorder and suicide prevention. Takizawa has traveled to numerous communities in and outside the US to share his work and act as an advocate for mental illness. His practice offers an uncommon and inclusive space to increase awareness and start a conversation. Takizawa is a Japanese glass artist based in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a BFA in glass art in 2010 and owns and runs KT Glassworks, LLC in the historic West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles. Takizawa's work was exhibited in Monochromatic, which opened at Duncan McClellan Gallery (DMG) in St. Petersburg, Florida, on February 10 and included his latest Minimalist series. A few pieces from his Container series can be seen at Hawk Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, and additional sculptures are on view in an exhibition called The Optics of Now: SoCal Glass at Palos Verdes Art Center, curated by Zaiden from Craft in America Center. The show runs through April 13, 2024. From November 1 through December 25, Takizawa's work will be exhibited at the Glass Invitational exhibition at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina. In 2024, the artist endeavors to offer more artist talks with a focus on his perspective on mental health. Says Takizawa: "I started speaking about mental health including my experience living with bipolar disorder and suicide prevention back in 2015, wondering if I would ever regret this decision. But the entire journey since then has been nothing but empowering, and I don't regret this at all. I just wanted to be someone who could freely speak about things related to mental health without the stigma. And I felt the need to do something about helping someone who had suicidal ideation at the time. Since then, I have continued to make new work to support my story and to continue speaking." 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline We can all help prevent suicide. The 988 Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States. Just dial 988.

Jessica Loughlin's work is characterized by a strict reductive sensibility and restricted use of color. Fusing kiln formed sheets of opaque and translucent glass together in flat panels or in thin, geometric compositions and vessels, she alludes to shadow, reflection and refraction. Loughlin's work is influenced by the flat landscapes and salt lakes of South Australia, and the recurring motif of the mirage appears in much of her work. Each piece makes its own poetic statement. "My work investigates space, seeing distance and understanding how wide-open spaces, particularly of the Australian landscape, affect us. I am fascinated by the unreachable space. The view we look upon, but can never reach. In this minimal landscape, all elements are stripped back, light becomes the landscape, and I am left looking at space, the space between here.…and there. This viewed distance is a place we can never reach, never get to, for as we move towards it, it moves away from you. Is this a real place or is it a projected space of the imagination. My work does not aim to represent this landscape directly but rather induce a state of looking inward and outward simultaneously." Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Loughlin is a graduate of the Canberra School of Art under the tutelage of late Stephen Procter. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, the National Gallery of Australia, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh GB, and the Musee de Design et d'Arts Appliques Contemporains in Lausanne, Switzerland. A studio artist for over 20 years, Loughlin has exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 2020, she was only the second Australian to have work selected as a finalist in the Loewe Craft Prize. In 2018, she was awarded the Fuse Glass Prize, and in 2004 and 2007, the Tom Malone Art Prize. She is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney, Australia, and Caterina Tognon, Venice, Italy. A committed and passionate artist who is highly regarded both in Australia and internationally, Loughlin combines her thoughtful and instinctual approach with extraordinary technical skills. With a gentle color palette of soft muted hues, her work often explores ideas of evaporation, space and distance, all inherent in the Australian landscape. Loughlin's work was on view in late 2023 in a solo exhibition near | far at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney, and her piece of light is on national tour as part of the Jamfactory Icon series, accompanied by a monograph of her art Jessica Loughlin: from here published by Wakefield Press. In 2024, Loughlin was selected for and will participate in the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, March 29 through June 2.

Apollo 8, which launched on December 21, 1968, was the first mission to take humans to the moon and back. While the crew did not land on the moon's surface, the flight was an important prelude to a lunar landing, testing the flight trajectory and operations getting there and back. Capt. James A Lovell, Apollo 8 astronaut, shared his memories of that historic mission: "Then, looking up I saw it, the Earth, a blue and white ball, just above the lunar horizon, 240,000 miles away…I put my thumb up to the window and completely hid the Earth. Just think, over five billion people, everything I ever knew was behind my thumb…I began to question my own existence. How do I fit in to what I see?" Inspired by this wonderment and interest in perspective, glass artist Josh Simpson embarked on his own exploration of the cosmos. Born on August 17, 1949 and educated at Hamilton College, in Clinton, New York (1972), much of Simpson's career in glass has been dedicated to communicating his fascination with the earth and its role as our planet, first through entertaining demonstrations for middle schoolers, then with art lovers worldwide. He has enthusiastically shared his glass art in much the same way the astronauts shared their experiences – with any man, woman or child whose heart fills with excitement just thinking of the possibilities. Since the 1980s, Simpson has been hiding his glass Planets all over our Earth. In 2000 he launched the Infinity Project, which invites people around the world to hide Planets in exotic, mysterious, and sometimes even seemingly mundane – but personally meaningful – locations. Simpson's space-inspired glass art includes Planets, vases, platters, and sculpture. The artist has dedicated more than 50 years to inventing new glass formulas and making unique objects that embody his fascination with color, form, light, pattern, complexity, and the working of the universe. His iconic Planets evoke imaginary worlds that might exist in distant undiscovered galaxies. His New Mexico Glass suggests star-filled night skies and swirling blue seas, while Corona Glass evokes deep-space images captured by the Hubble Telescope. Simpson's work has been exhibited in the White House and numerous international museums. Select pieces are currently on permanent display at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum, Yale University Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and many more. Says Simpson: "I am moved by the beauty of the night sky and other astronomical phenomena. Physics and cosmology fascinate me, as does high temperature chemistry, powered flight, and all things mechanical. I am mesmerized by color, form, contrast, iridescence, tessellating patterns, and complexity." Located in the rural hills of Western Massachusetts, Simpson's studio can be found in a converted dairy barn beside his home. Every night, the last thing he does is walk from the house to his studio to check the furnaces. Seeing an aurora borealis, watching a storm develop down the valley, or looking at the sky on a perfect summer night, compels him to translate some of the wonder of the universe into his glass. This process doesn't happen in any planned way, but gradually and unpredictably. He never tries to replicate what he sees around him, and in fact often doesn't recognize the source of inspiration until someone points it out later. Simpson states: "Molten glass consists of sand and metallic oxides combined with extraordinary, blinding heat. The result is a material that flows like honey. When it's hot, glass is alive! It moves gracefully and inexorably in response to gravity and centripetal force. It possesses an inner light and transcendent radiant heat that make it simultaneously one of the most rewarding and one of the most frustrating materials for an artist to work with. Most of my work reflects a compromise between the molten material and me; each finished piece is a solidified moment when we both agree." In his most recent book, Josh Simpson 50 Years of Visionary Glass, 500 beautiful photos and informative (and humorous) narration by the artist, reveals the evolution of Simpson's evocative glass art over the past 50 years. In-depth looks at his several signature series and experimental works illustrate how the artist has continually explored new ways to express—in glass—his fascination with outer space, the natural world, and the workings of the universe. Text and photo spreads narrate the story of Simpson's glass, details of his life and process, and his contributions within the craft world. Text by experts in the glass world, including William Warmus, Tina Oldknow, Nezka Pfeifer, and others, supplies additional views. In addition, strategically placed comments from numerous museum curators, along with insights from astrophysicists and space flight professionals, present a unique perspective on the meanings and broad appeal of his unique glass. From playing the spoons, to winning story slams and

Wesley Fleming brings the fantastic realism of the microcosmos to life in glass. An ambassador for smaller denizens of the earth, his passion for nature sparks awe and curiosity in others. Growing up in the countryside, his favorite pastime was exploring beneath logs and rocks in the woods or reading science fiction and comic books. Hence the natural world and his own imagination became his muse. Says Fleming: "I hope to rekindle awe and curiosity for nature with my fantastic realism. I've focused more than two decades honing my flameworking skills and trying to capture the essence of actual species with intricate detail of tiny stamen or antennae. Today, I conjure plants, animals and mystical beings by merging the fantastical with the real through choice of color palette and referencing familiar archetypes. Regardless of the end result, I love the alchemical potential of sculpting glass – a brittle and cold substance transformed by fire into a pliable and molten material." In 2001, Fleming began working with glass, learning via apprenticeship under the tutelage of Italian maestros Vittorio Costantini and Lucio Bubacco in Venice, Italy. He subsequently gained valuable experience working for Josh Simpson and the MIT Glass Lab. His work has been included in numerous publications, exhibited around the United States and included in the permanent collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, Kobe Lampwork Museum, Tacoma Museum of Glass and Racine Art Museum. Recently, Fleming was commissioned by Wes Anderson to make glass flowers, which were animated by a studio in London for his 2023 movie Asteroid City. Along with his wife, Rebecca, the artist demonstrated his techniques at Denizli Glass Bienali in Denizli, Turkey, where she played her composed pieces on the cello while Fleming worked at the torch. In March 2020, his first solo museum exhibit was scheduled to open at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. Sadly, opening day the museum was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. Says Fleming: "Insects have been my main focus for many years, but recently I have been very inspired by the Blaschka Glass Flowers at Harvard and have been working on developing my plants and flowers. This was what was so exciting for me about the Brattleboro exhibit – that I was given trust and free rein to make my new passion and to focus on local wildflowers, which I see on the regular hikes I do around my home." In 2024, Fleming will co-teach "Bugs, Figures, Plants, & Beyond" with Emilio Santini at Penland School of Crafts, April 28 – May 3. He will also co-teach "Collaborative Soft Glass Sculpture" with Michael Mangiafico at Touchstone Center for Crafts, August 5 -9 .

Physically and metaphorically Robin and Julia Rogers put their minds, hearts and hands together to create sculptural works in glass – their chosen material because of its inherent qualities of luminosity, viscosity, and seductive flow. Their inspiration is drawn from the natural world, personal experience, family life, music, psychology, and science. Robin and Julia state: "Complex and mystifying, the human mind drives us, but the subtle inner workings remain, to certain extent, unknown. Delving into the psyche, our work explores the human mind to reveal a metaphorical interior of ideas, emotions, and mystery. Floating in the vast sea of our own thought we are alone. This solitude, both deeply haunting and beautiful, is ours to contemplate, conquer, and call our own. Our minds never stop imagining the possibilities of what can be explored, discovered, shared, and executed." In their series, Architecture of the Mind, heads are turned into buildings whose history and occupancy is contemplated. Each building has its own unique story, a background different from the one living next door. Community is formed, despite the differences, allowing life to thrive in this modern, fast-paced world. Thoughts from day-to-day life, memories, or even multiple personalities are reflected in these works. Animalia is also a driving and important theme in the narrative of the Rogers' work. Since the advent of human expression, animals have been ever present. The artists feel that animals have a certain wisdom and intuition that brings alignment with the natural world. There is something to be learned from the animal spirit; especially in today's fast paced digital life where it is easy to forget that we, ourselves, are inseparable from nature. Human Hybrids (Bioengineered) is a series of anthropomorphic humans, where animal and human DNA have been melded together. Imagine the possibilities of a not- so-distant future, where rapid breakthroughs in genetic research, advances in molecular biology, and new reproductive technologies, allow scientists to manipulate human DNA at the gene level to cure inheritable diseases. In this plausible future, parents can choose which of their own genes to share with their children and which to omit. One can even imagine how animal genes could be introduced to give heightened senses and new abilities to these superhuman species. Discovering how to translate their ideas into glass can be both challenging and rewarding. After scale drawings are made, Robin and Julia decide who will make which parts of the sculpture and hot work begins. Once all the parts are made, they work with a skilled team of assistants for the final assembly. The finished glass is often combined with other materials such as fur, wood, and steel to complete the sculpture. Currently, Robin and Julia both work at the Chrysler Museum of Art, where Robin is the Glass Studio Program Director and Julia is the Higher Education and Outreach Coordinator. They met in a small hot glass studio in Western Montana in 2001 at a glass shop called Cloud Cap Glass. As their friendship grew, their glass practices began to overlap. They both became part owners of the studio and worked together, operating the small business and creating glass works. In pursuit of Master of Fine Art degrees, the couple decided to leave their beloved Montana in 2005. They re-envisioned their glass studio and created a trailer-mounted portable shop. With their tools, dogs and one-year-old son, they set out for Southern Illinois. Following professional opportunities, the glassy family has lived in Carbondale, Illinois; Bowling Green, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Norfolk, Virginia. In 2010, after nearly 10 years of working together and assisting with each other's work, the duo decided to start creating artwork collaboratively. In these bodies of work, every step of the process, from conception to installing, is completed by both artists. This method of working has led to the creation of artwork that Julia and Robin are excited to make and proud to exhibit. Through the synergy of this collaboration, the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. The couple is currently working on new pieces to be shown in the Habatat International Exhibition in April 2024 at Habatat Gallery in Michigan. They are also starting a collaboration with Fabiano Zanchi, teaching at UrbanGlass in June, and will be the featured artists at the International Glass Symposium in Novy Bor, Czechia in October. Additionally, the studio at the Chrysler Museum of Art, where they make most of their work, is currently tripling in size. Phase 1 of the project ends in May 2024 and phase 2 will be completed by the end of 2024.

Talking Out Your Glass podcast kicks off 2024 with our first episode of Season 9! This fascinating panel discussion on flameworking features four of the technique's most well-known artists: Paul Stankard, Carmen Lozar, Dan Coyle aka coylecondenser and Trina Weintraub. At different points in their careers, these four artists compare and contrast their journeys and experiences working glass behind the torch. Considered a living master in the art of the paperweight, Paul Stankard's work is represented in more than 75 museums around the world. Over his 52-year artistic journey, he has received two honorary doctorate degrees, an honorary associate's degree, and many awards within the glass community, including the Masters of the Medium Award from Smithsonian's The James Renwick Alliance and the Glass Art Society's Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a Fellow of the American Craft Council and a recipient of the UrbanGlass Award—Innovation in a Glassworking Technique. Stankard's current exhibition From Flame to Flower: The Art of Paul J. Stankard can be seen at the Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey, now through February 4. A documentary film titled Paul J. Stankard: Flower and Flame by award-winning filmmaker Dan Collins, premiers on January 31. On March 16, the film will be shown at Salem County Community College, Carney's Point, New Jersey, at the International Flameworking Conference, presented there by Collins. Born in 1975, Carmen Lozar lives in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, where she maintains a studio and is a member of the art faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. She has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Craft, Pittsburgh Glass School, Appalachian Center for Crafts, The Chrysler Museum, and the Glass Furnace in Istanbul, Turkey. She has had residencies at the Corning Museum of Glass and Penland School of Craft. Although she travels abroad to teach and share her love for glass – most recently to Turkey, Italy, and New Zealand – she always returns to her Midwestern roots. Lozar is represented by the Ken Saunders Gallery in Chicago, and her work is included in the permanent collection at Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin. Besides continuing her work at Illinois Wesleyan University, Lozar will be teaching workshops at UrbanGlass, June 4 – 8, 2024, and at Ox Bow School of Craft, Saugatuck, Michigan, August 4 – 10, 2024. Menacing monkeys. Peeled bananas. Bad-tempered bears. Uniquely original Munnies. Daniel S. Coyle's whimsical, toy-inspired aesthetic in concert with mind-blowing skills on the torch have earned the artist a hefty 116K following on Instagram. The artist recently celebrated 12 years of being a full-time pipe maker. Coyle's work has been displayed in galleries around the world, and has been seen in print and web publications including Vice, Huffington Post, NY Times, and in the books This Is A Pipe and his self-published Munny Project book. Now residing in Western Massachusetts, he works alongside some of the state's top pipe makers. Coyle's 2024 events include: Community Bonfire (Maine), January 27; Michigan Glass Project, June 21 – 23: two-week intensive class at Corning Studios, Corning, New York, June 24 – July 5; Parlay Philly in September TBA; and Bad Boyz Do Basel 3 (Miami), September TBA. Creating playful objects and curious scenes inspired by childhood memories and dreams, Caterina Weintraub uses glass, a fragile and heavy material, to recreate iconic toys or re-imagine personal memories that evoke a sense of sentiment, wonder and discomfort. She utilizes a variety of techniques to create sculptures and installations in her Boston-based studio, Fiamma Glass. From intricate torch work to large-scale kiln castings and hot blown pieces, she chooses the process best suited to realize her vision. In 2024, Weintraub will participate in Habatat's Glass Coast Weekend, Sarasota, Florida, February 1 – 4; Glass52, International Glass Show, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan, May 5 – September 6; and the International Glass Show, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana, December 2 – February 18. Enjoy this panel discussion about how these four artists crafted careers using the techniques and appeal of flameworking and where the process is headed into the next decade and beyond.

Master Glass Painter at Judson Studios in Los Angeles, California, Indre Bileris earned a BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design and became involved in stained glass conservation during that same time at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity's conservation program. Having been a conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters from 2007 to 2012, the artist arrived at the Judson Studios with an extensive body of design and painting work for liturgical, educational, and residential installations. Her hand can be seen in much of the painted work that comes out of the studio today. As a replication painter since 1996, Bileris has learned her craft from masters no longer bound by earthly constraints. Their work remains, part legacy, part teacher, and in learning how to recreate their style and imagery she is now able to incorporate elements of each master into her own artwork. The artist has created new work and done replication painting in equal portions, with a side of autonomous work made for art shows and donations to the American Glass Guild (AGG) auction. With a Masters in education, for a time she countered her solitary life as a glass painter by working with young children as an art teacher. Bileris began her training as a stained glass replication painter while still attending and completing undergraduate work at Parsons School of Design. As a funded Kress Fellow and conservation apprentice at St. Ann's for Restoration and the Arts, Inc. in Brooklyn Heights, New York, she recreated numerous damaged or destroyed painted works. Following her apprenticeship she did internships at Canterbury Cathedral Stained Glass Studio, England, and the Cologne, Germany Cathedral Studio. Early in her career Bileris was employed by Jack Cushen Studio Restoration, East Marion, New York, to replicate the painting and staining of The Four Winds stained glass window for the Stanford White Cottage, Tick Hall, Montauk, New York. Some of her other freelance projects for Cushen include painting and staining work for the Church of the Ascension, Fifth Ave, New York, and painting two figures in a Tiffany Studios window (circa 1900), which was in the possession of a private collector. "As a replicator, it's not about you, but the people who came before. It's detective work. You have to figure out what the artist did. It's never gotten any easier. Now that I know more I realize how challenging it is to do. Part of what I love about stained glass is that it's handed off from generation to generation. Replication allows you to be trained by artists who are no longer with us." Her career as a replication painter has allowed Bileris to work on prestigious commissions with many of the best stained glass studios in the country. She co-designed and created watercolor sketches and cartoons for Venturella Studio, Union Square, New York, for the studio's 68 square feet of designed and fabricated stained glass for The Ivy Club, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. These windows commemorate the inclusion of women into the club through the imagery of migrating butterflies and ivy. Another project for Venturella Studio involved designing and painting windows for a synagogue in Maple Glenn, Pennsylvania, home to 70 windows created by Benoît Gilsoul. Like many glass painters, Bileris' process begins with a trace and matte. She started out working with gum and water for tracing, but eventually switched to clove oil because it's much more forgiving and flexible. In 2013, Bileris was awarded an AGG scholarship to study glass painting with Jonathan Cooke at Wheaton Village, Milleville, New Jersey. Cooke served a traditional apprenticeship at York Minster and started his own business in 1987. His book Time and Temperature was published early in 2013. Bileris' projects have included residential commissions, such as her work for a private wine cellar on Oyster Bay, Long Island. This commission included four windows: a plated window that mimics tile patterns and displays an iron work pattern on a separate piece of plated glass; a pair of sandblasted, painted, and stained glass windows that feature animals drinking wine; and a tessellating pattern window also featuring wildlife. "Those windows feel very much like me," she states. As a submission for the Corning Museum of Glass' New Glass Review, Bileris created her autonomous work The Show as well as a nursery window based on her love of English illustration. Fabricated at Venturella Studios, The Show was included in AGG's 2011 members' exhibition. "It's challenging to find an in-road to doing painted windows as personal artistic expression. Stained glass is not considered art because there are a lot of works out there taken directly from pattern books. The ecclesiastic tie reminds many people of houses of worship rather than galleries. And stained glass is dependent on light and environment and somehow is too crafty or pretty or religious. But it fits me. I want to keep growing and

Following her father's passing 10 years ago, Deanna Clayton's artwork took an unexpected turn when she found herself modeling clay into a figurative vessel rather than a decorative one. The translation of the clay form into glass symbolized glass' inherent life-affirming qualities. Soft, flowing edges at the bases of these sculptures add to the sense of impermanence; electroplated copper helps to ground the figures, enhancing their presence. Clayton states: "The inspiration for this new body of work is a true love of the life inherent in glass itself. To create a face in glass is a self-evident evocation of the material's life quality. Creating abstracted forms in glass that become believable as life is what is truly inspiring. This is what continues my quest to experiment and explore glass and its capabilities as an art form." Clayton started working with glass 35 years ago as a student in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She began as most glass artists do, by being introduced to a blow pipe and a furnace of molten glass. Her work prior to finding glass was primarily drawing and printmaking, with an emphasis on representing the human form. She earned her associates in fine arts degree at Bucks County Community College. Wanting to continue her education in glass, Clayton chose Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where the program taught by Henry Halem had produced some of the most successful glass artists working at the time. After two years, she moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where she graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor of fine arts degree in art history in 2002. While attending the University of Illinois, Clayton started her own glass studio with her husband, Keith Clayton. After 10 years in Illinois, in 1995 the couple discovered beautiful Door County, Wisconsin, where they moved with their three children. The studio was known for its pate de verre technique and electroplated copper vessels – a successful source of inspiration to her for over 20 years. Today, D.C. Studios LLC is designed to educate others in the ancient and rewarding process of pate de verre. Clayton has taught classes at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; The Cleveland Institute of Art; and Duncan McClellan Glass Project, St. Petersburg, Florida. Her work can be seen in public and private collections around the world. This year's exhibitions included a solo exhibition, Surging Forward, at Duncan McClellan Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida; Glass Coast Weekend, Habatat Fine Art, Sarasota, Florida; and Art Palm Beach, Mattsen Fine Art, Palm Beach, Florida. Artist awards include the 2019 Collectors Choice, 47th Annual International Glass Invitational, Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, Michigan; SAC Award, Professional Dimensions Group, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Most Unique Interpretation of a Vessel, Habatat Galleries, Boca Raton, Florida. Says Clayton: "I love the versatility and freshness of glass as an artistic medium. The potential for expression in contemporary glass is limitless."

Some might say that Daniel Clayman is more a sculptor using glass as his primary material than a glass artist. That is to say his sculptures would be successful from a formal point of view no matter what material they were created in. With one major exception: the play of light in Clayman's glass art enhances the objects dramatically in comparison with how they might appear in a solid, non-translucent medium. Born in 1957 in Lynn, Massachusetts, Clayman planned a career as a theater lighting designer, studying in the theater and dance departments at Connecticut College, eventually dropping out of college to work in the professional theater, dance and opera world. A chance class in 1980 introduced the artist to using glass as a sculptural material. In 1986, he received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has maintained a studio in East Providence, Rhode Island since then. ​Clayman's interests in engineering, the behavior of light, and the memory of experience, act as an impetus for much of his work. Having turned his attention to large-scale installations, he employs technology from the simplest hand tool to the latest three-dimensional modeling and production tools. Recent public projects include Rainfield, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Media Center Atrium, exhibition dates: January 23, 2017 – January 23, 2018; and Radiant Landscape, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township, New Jersey, exhibition dates: May 7, 2017 – February 28, 2018. Clayman is the recipient of several grants and awards and has had numerous one-person shows throughout the country to include the Tacoma Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. Works in glass sculpture by the artist can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Art in San Francisco, The Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. An artist/educator, Clayman has taught in Japan, Israel and Australia in addition to a robust teaching schedule here in the U.S. He has been a Visiting Critic at the Rhode Island School of Design and Artist in Residence at Tyler School of Art and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He lectures frequently and teaches workshops at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck and The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, among others. In 2018, Clayman became the first endowed chair of glass at University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Clayman states: "While I moved away from a professional career pursuit in lighting design, I have never turned away from my observations of light. Using glass as my primary sculptural material, I have spent the last 20 years developing a vocabulary of forms which describe volumes of light. Over the past four years, my studio work has centered around the creation of large-scale glass castings that thematically reference the capturing of light. One of the many mysteries of light is that it refuses to reveal any of its essence until it happens to reflect on something other than itself. For instance, the headlight of a car projects (reflects) light onto objects as the viewer approaches, but not until there is a foggy mist in the air does one see the shape and arc of the beam."

Each piece in Jack Storms' newest line of sculptures begins with the artist's unique and meticulously hand-crafted Infinity Core, boasting 30 times more intricacy and a mesmerizing sparkle that outshines anything you've seen before. Every facet reflects a world of colors, and each sculpture captures a symphony of light. Growing up in New Hampshire as a talented athlete and motivated student, Storms didn't discover his passion for art until his twenties, at the end of which he earned his BA in art with a focus on studio production from Plymouth State University. During his junior year, the young artist began apprenticing at the studio of coldworking artist Toland Sand, who was combining lead crystal and dichroic glass via a cold-glass process. Eventually Storms became a strong enough sculptor to branch out on his own and in 2004 opened StormWorks Studio. Storms' unique cold-glass process can take up to 10 weeks. He begins at the heart of the design by creating a core of lead crystal which is cut, polished and laminated creating reflective mirrors. When wrapped in optical glass, the refraction of light as it passes through the glass art creates rainbows of hypnotic color. The process requires repetitive cutting, grinding and polishing, and relies upon Fibonacci's theory of natural mathematics found in nature. States Storms: "Natural beauty is created, not manufactured. From the repetition of florets in a flower to the scales of a pineapple's skin, Fibonacci numbers are found in the pattern of growth of every living thing in nature." Both challenged and inspired by the notion that his artistic goals were impossible, early on Storms invented a cold-working lathe uniquely suited to his process. His invention offered the artist the ability to turn glass and sculpt shapes with curves and details like one would produce from a wooden medium. Early memories of studying his father's craftsmanship on a wood lathe provided him with the blueprint for his vision. Pioneering new trails in the world of fine art has always motivated Storms. Seen by the world in multiple viral videos featuring his kaleidoscopic and prismatic cold-fusion glass sculptures, Storms' pieces have also been featured in Marvel's film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1, and the artist created a life-sized bat to commemorate Derek Jeter's 3000th Hit. Storms' laborious process of repetitive cutting, grinding and polishing requires intense passion and rigid self-discipline, resulting in his signature works of contemporary glass art. Currently, Storms is developing new designs for wearable art. These wearable sculpture designs follow the same creative process and spirit as the artist's larger, more dynamic sculptures. He says: "My design philosophy revolves around creating something that fosters a closer connection with people. I want people to have a personal item they can take with them and truly fall in love with. I believe the future holds great promise for wearable art, and I anticipate seeing its prevalence grow in the coming years." Go to https://jackstorms.com?bg_ref=y1fqAS0f55for 10 percent off your Jack Storms artwork purchase! Use coupon code GLASS10.

The emitted light from a David Huchthausen sculpture is an artwork unto itself. For the last five decades plus, the artist has been captivating viewers through sculpture defined by its unique and other-worldly manipulation of light. A critic once described his work as "high tech spiritual," an observation the artist rather liked. Huchthausen once stated: "Creation is a continual and evolutionary process, constantly digesting and reevaluating past experiences and current perspectives. My work has always been deliberately enigmatic and mysterious. I constantly strive to generate a strange and curious quality that both tantalizes and challenges the viewer to develop his own response system. The work must have an existence of its own if it is to have any real significance." Huchthausen was one of the first artists of the Studio Glass Movement to emphasize cold working and fabrication techniques such as cutting, sawing, laminating, and optical polishing. Within his most recent crystal-clear geometric forms, the artist integrates complex shapes, concave lenses and intricate color panels, reflecting and refracting light as it hits the shapes and projecting colored glass patterns into the fractures and lenses below. Huchthausen's sculptural narrative has always been enigmatic by design, challenging the viewer with its curious and unknowable quality. Ferdinand Hampson, co-founder of Habatat Gallery, wrote: "David Huchthausen is one of an elite group of artists who have altered the history of contemporary glass. As a Fulbright scholar, university professor and museum consultant, his achievements over the past 50 years have played a vital role in the evolution of the material into a fine art form. "As an architecture student at the University of Wisconsin, Huchthausen gravitated toward the sculpture department, working with welded steel, wood and found objects. In 1970 he discovered an abandoned glass furnace in the corner of an old brewery building on the Wausau campus. After six months of struggling, he learned of Harvey Littleton's work in Madison 150 miles to the south. Once contact had been established, Huchthausen's career moved with rapid strides. He served as Littleton's graduate assistant in the early 1970s, ran the Illinois State University Glass Program during Joel Myers' sabbatical in 1976 and lectured throughout Europe as a Fulbright scholar in 1977 and 1978. During this period, he established vital links between European and American artists and galleries, organizing numerous exhibitions in both the United States and Europe. As curatorial and acquisitions consultant for the Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, he conceived and developed Americans In Glass. This important series of exhibitions in 1978, 1981 and 1984 documented the evolution of American Studio Glass from its early emphasis on blown forms and hot working to the explosion of sculptural and conceptual concerns of the mid 1980s. The landmark 1984 exhibition traveled to museums across Europe and provided the first major review of any glass exhibition by Art In America. "As an educator and art professor, Huchthausen has been a significant influence on a generation of glass artists. He was one of the first Americans to emphasize coldworking in the early 1970s. Large sculptural constructions such as Spider's Nest, which combined hot-worked, cast, and architectural glass elements, stand as historical landmarks of the period. Many of the specialized fabrication techniques he pioneered are widely used by other artists today. "Throughout his career, Huchthausen has remained a strong advocate of increased aesthetic criticism of contemporary glass. His outspoken and often controversial positions have helped articulate a basis for today's increased level of critical dialog. As an artist Huchthausen has consistently maintained a high degree of integrity in his work. Limiting production to 12 to 15 pieces each year, he devotes several months to the development and creation of each sculpture. Even within a specific series the images are extremely unique, furthering his evolution of the concept without letting it harden into a formula. "Huchthausen's background in architecture and personal fascination with primitive art and ritual, have remained strong influences over the years. He deliberately imbues his sculpture with an enigmatic quality, generating a strange and curious energy, which entices the viewer. "One unique aspect of Huchthausen's sculpture is his innovative integration of glass and light, the concept that the projected images and patterns constitute an integral and inseparable component of the sculpture. These ideas have their genesis in his large totemic forms of the early 1970s and have permeated his work to varying degrees throughout his career. They were more fully explored in his mysterious Leitungs Scherben series of the 1980s, where transformed and altered patterns were projected with amazing clarity onto the surface beneath the piece

From their trademark blown vessel forms to more recent large castings, Hunting Studio of Princeton, Wisconsin, uses glass and its myriad mysteries to tell stories of unapologetic beauty and celebration of color. The work of this father-son team, Wes Sr. and Wesley Hunting, is on view now through February 4, 2024 in Directing the Flow: The Art of Wes Hunting, at the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass (BMM) in Neenah, Wisconsin. The studio was awarded First Place and a solo show at the Museum following its 2022 Glass Arts Festival. States BMM Executive Director, Amy Moorefield: "The Huntings create blown and cast glass vessels and sculpture featuring colorful palettes and murrine inspired by past and present creations of artists working in Murano, Italy. Through the process of painting with colored glass and cold surface cutting, Hunting's newest creations invite the viewer to gaze inward into miniature worlds, paying homage to the aesthetics of overlay paperweights." Hunting Sr. studied under glass artist Henry Halem while attending Kent State from 1975 to 1979. He served as an assistant to Richard Ritter and has taught at the University of Kansas, Tennessee College of Crafts, Florida Keys Community College, and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Hunting Studio's work can be found in museum collections internationally to include the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin; The White House, Washington D.C.; the Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, Michigan; the Windhover Center for the Arts, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin; the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona; the Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, Iowa; the Museum of American Glass, Millville, New Jersey; the Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina; Cafesjian Museum of Art, Armenia; The Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington; and The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi. Hunting corporate collections include Bank One, The Hyatt Corporation, The Standard Oil Company and The Quaker Oat Company, to name just a few. In the early 1980s, a trip to Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and travel through Italy set Wes Sr. on the path he continues on today. His studio visits with artists such as Mark Peiser, Billy Bernstein, Gary Beecham, Steve Edwards, Rob Levin, and Harvey Littleton and witnessing the millefiori process of the Italian masters helped refine his own goals in glass. Now as his son assumes increasingly more responsibilities at their studio, new ideas and bodies of work are fleshed out, investigated and introduced to their enthusiastic collectors. From their early Colorfield series, the artists have expanded into new aesthetic territory in the creation of their Optical series, Remnantseries and Castings. Says Wes Sr.: "We are always striving to take the work to a new level of intensity. It has developed into a way for me to express myself by painting with molten glass. There is no other material like glass. The colors are totally unique as they can be transparent or opalescent. The way light passes through colored glasses adds a third dimension that cannot be duplicated by any other material."

Glass Knitting by Carol Milne A pioneer in the field of knitted glass, Carol Milne combines passion for knitting with experience in sculpture. The artist began working with kiln cast lead crystal, experimenting with different methods and developing a lost wax process to cast individual knitted works into glass. Playing with translucency and the material's ability to highlight a prismatic range of hues, light is essential to Milne's body of work, and she has recently been working on pieces that focus on illumination. States Milne: "I see my knitted work as metaphor for social structure. Individual strands are weak and brittle on their own, but deceptively strong when bound together. You can crack or break single threads without the whole structure falling apart. And even when the structure is broken, pieces remain bound together. The connections are what bring strength and integrity to the whole and what keep it intact." Receiving a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Guelph, Canada, in 1985, Milne realized in her senior year that she was more interested in sculpture than landscape. After casting iron around glass in graduate school, she experimented with many materials: clay, bronze, concrete, wood, glass, epoxy, fiberglass, mosaic and found objects. In 2000, she returned to glass and has been working primarily with the material ever since. In 2006, Milne created her Knitted Glass, incorporating the techniques of knitting, lost wax casting, mold making and kiln casting. Her unique process involves knitting the original art piece using wax strands, surrounding the wax with a heat-tolerant refractory material, removing the wax by melting it out, thus creating a mold; and placing the mold in a kiln where lead crystal frit is heated to 1530 degrees F, melting the glass into the mold. After it has cooled, the mold material is removed to reveal the finished piece within. Collected internationally, Milne's work garnered the Silver Award at the International Exhibition of Glass, Kanazawa, Japan; the Juror's award, All Things Considered 9: Basketry in the 21st Century, National Basketry Organization; Special Citation and Honorable Mention, the 9th Cheongju International Craft Juried Competition, Cheongju, Republic of Korea; the Joan Eliot Sappington Award for On the Fringe: Today's Twist on Fiber Art, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts; and Honorable Mention purchase award, Art of Our Century, UVU Woodbury Art Museum, Orem, UT.. Recent exhibitions include Carol Milne: Knit Wit, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in 2019; Vogue Knitting LIVE! Seattle, Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA; and Carol Milne: Knitting Glass, Schiepers Gallery, Hasselt, Belgium, both in 2017. Milne's collectors include Amazon Headquarters, Seattle, WA; Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Glasmuseum Lette, Coesfeld, Germany; The Glass Furnace, Istanbul, Turkey; Gustav Selter GmbH & Co KG, Germany; The Kamm Teapot Foundation, Sparta, NC; MusVerre Nord, Sars Poteries, France; Notojima Glass Art Museum, Ishikawa, Japan; and UVU Woodbury Art Museum, Orem, UT. She has published three e-books: In the Name of Love; Knitted Glass: Kiln-cast Lead Crystal Bowls; and Glass Slippers. Carol Milne Knitted Glass: How Does She Do That?, authored by Steve Isaacson, is available as an e-book and in paperback Through her original work in knitted glass, Milne has blazed a new artistic path. Bringing the visual illusion of softness and drape to a material that is fixed in its final form, her work encourages closer inspection to reveal the nuances of her designs. Says Milne: "I've knitted since I was 10, but knitting wasn't a career path – or at least it didn't seem like one. I studied landscape architecture as a bridge between engineering and design. But I became captivated by earthworks and kinetic art, which lead me to sculpture. Glass is very much like kinetic sculpture, since it changes with the light." Through different bodies of work – socks, shoes, baskets, hands knitting themselves – Milne addresses themes including the circle of life, the disconnect between appearance versus reality, black humor and visual puns. If the work wasn't challenging, she says, she would get bored and quit making it. "But in working with glass, scale is the biggest challenge. Large work requires large molds. Large molds are difficult to make, and heavy to move once they're made," explains Milne. This month, Milne will have an open studio during REFRACT: The Seattle Glass Experience, October 14 from 11 to 4 p.m. She will exhibit a new body of work in an upcoming solo show, Knotty and Nice, at Culture Object gallery in NYC. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on October 18. Three of her Grenade pieces are on view in an ongoing group show called Like Mother, now through November 2 at the Helen S. Smith Gallery at Green River College, Washington. Milne will teach Knitted Glass from November 4 to 6 and 10 and Casting Ha

Kenneth von Roenn Jr. has designed and executed more than 1,500 commissions in the U. S., Middle East, Far East, Europe, Canada and Mexico. His work has been published in more than 75 books, magazines, and digital publications, and he has received more than 25 awards for work, including two hall of fames and lifetime achievement for the state of Kentucky. Von Roenn has also written and lectured on the topics of art in architecture, the evolution of architectural glass art, and the development and concerns of public art. This Sunday, October 1, 2023, von Roenn will present examples of the architectural application of expressive glass and an introduction of what is on the horizon at the Stained Glass Association of America's conference, Forging New Paths, held September 27 – October 1, 2023 in Buffalo, New York. Also, a new documentary film of von Roenn's work by the noted film maker Sam Halstead has just been released. Says von Roenn: "As an architect, I am primarily concerned with the sympathetic relationship between my works of art and the buildings of which they are but a part and parcel. Harmonious integration is achieved when the work expresses a visual dialogue with the architecture by responding to the particular character and specific needs of a building." Von Roenn was born in 1948 in Louisville, Kentucky. As a young man, his interests were athletic, primarily in springboard and platform diving. He attended Florida State University on a full athletic scholarship, while also pursuing his interests in fine art, philosophy and English, earning a bachelor's degree in 1970. Beginning his career in glass later that year at Louisville Art Glass, von Roenn was promoted to General Manager and in 1975 to President of the studio. In the early '70s he was an active member of the Stained Glass Association of America, serving on the executive committee and also as chairman of the publications committee. During this period, he compiled a body of innovative architectural glass artwork and established the studio as one of the most aesthetically and technically progressive in the country. He wrote regularly for several magazines on the topic of glass in architecture and taught courses in architectural art at the University of Kentucky School of Architecture from 1974 to '76. Recognizing a need to pursue his evolving interest in architecture, von Roenn took a leave of absence from the studio in 1977 to pursue a master's degree in architecture at Yale University, graduating in 1981. While at Yale, von Roenn further developed his interest in architectural art through work with the architect/sculptor Kent Bloomer, which was culminated with his independent thesis entitled, "The Primary Modalities of Art's Relationship to Architecture: Integration, Juxtaposition and Synthesis." While still in graduate school he founded in 1979 the von Roenn Studio Group in Branford, Connecticut, which designed and produced glass, architecture, graphics and furniture, executing commissions nationally and internationally. In 1983, von Roenn returned to Louisville and worked for two architectural firms before establishing an architectural practice with two partners to form Bailey, Preston, von Roenn Architecture. Also at this time he returned to competitive diving, which culminated with winning 10 National Championship titles and two World Championship titles, setting two world records at the age of 41. Having achieved his earliest goal of becoming a world champion, von Roenn turned his exclusive attention to his true passion, expressive glass in architecture. Recognizing a need for the development of expressive architectural glass, in 1991 von Roenn bought the Louisville Art Glass Studio and renamed it Architectural Glass Art, Inc. He expanded and reorganized the company, redirecting its focus on new roles and opportunities for glass in architecture. The studio quickly became recognized for its innovative application of new technologies in the execution of architectural glass art. Within the studio he served as the director of design and CEO/President, managing a staff of 30 and directing the exploration and development of techniques and technologies in glass fabrication. Von Roenn designed, and his studio produced, the world's largest glass sculpture, which crowns the top of the 3 Wells Fargo Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This work weighs more than 500,000 pounds, can be seen from miles away and is designed to withstand hurricane force winds. In the late '90s, von Roenn's desire to expand the studio led to his search for a new space. During this period, he joined with a group of developers and investors interested in the revitalization of downtown Louisville as well as the region's firm commitment to the arts. The group, guided by von Roenn's vision of a multipurpose glass facility, formulated a concept for Glassworks. From the original idea of a new home for Architectural Glass Art, von Roenn created a space for more than 50 glass a

The stained glass community will gather in a confluence of energy, inspiration and excitement for Forging New Paths: The Stained Glass Association of America's 2023 Conference, held at The Hyatt Regency in downtown Buffalo, New York, from Thursday, September 28 through Sunday, October 1, 2023. In addition to 25 workshops, five tours, auctions, art salons, art openings, the Vendor Showcase, the Mosaic Marathon, and major networking events – SGAA will hold its General Session. For more information, check out SGAA's website for speakers, a full schedule of events, and more about individual facets of every part of the event on the organization's conference homepage. General Session Each year during General Session, SGAA brings together speakers from around the world to speak about restoration, conservation, public art, history, and technology in the field. It is not uncommon to have roundtables to tackle emerging issues or panels of experts to provide clarity on how industry elements are being tackled across the country. Speakers and lecturers are chosen by a panel of peers for both their content and enthusiasm. The expertise of historians, conservators, and contemporary practitioners come together in a unique way to celebrate the enormous diversity of the entire industry. In recent years, additional efforts have been made to bring notable guests and speakers to the conferences that can speak to the partnerships glass work often requires, e.g. those in adaptive reuse, metalsmithing, masonry conservation, sacred places, fundraising, and public art. There has also been a great many collaborations within the larger glass arts community as it applies to architectural art glass – kilnforming, flameworking, lamination, etc – and it is always exciting to see how connections made at the annual conference push the boundaries of new work. Classes & Workshops Conferences offer a unique opportunity to learn both beginning and advanced techniques and are often geared toward the unique strengths of that year's conference host. SGAA tailored its workshops to nearby facilities and studio resources that are unique to this year's conference location. Says McElfresh: "We have been very fortunate to work with incredible teachers from all over the globe – leaders in the field who have generously donated time to share their knowledge with our members and attendees." Mosaic Marathon The Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) is the largest nonprofit mosaic art organization in the world—a vibrant and ever-expanding group of more than 1,200 members, including mosaic artists at all levels, mosaic aficionados, collectors, materials suppliers, and art educators. SAMA has placed renewed emphasis on strengthening ties with other mosaic organizations around the globe to pursue common goals. The Mosaic Marathon brings together members for a unique opportunity to create a mosaic in a cooperative, continuous, networking experience. The Mosaic Marathon creates a lasting piece of art that is donated to a local charity in SGAA's host conference city. As a not-for-profit organization, this is an opportunity for SAMA to give back to the arts community and create a lasting reminder of its legacy and mission. Tours & Field Sessions The history and appreciation of stained glass is inseparable from both its setting as an architectural element and the very nature of the material itself. For craftsmen and artists in the field to gain exposure to the vast living museums of stained glass, they must visit stained glass all over the world whenever they can. "Installations all over the world are our museums, our laboratories, and our classrooms," says McElfresh. "Thus, when we come together as a group, we must take advantage of our travel and our companions to go and experience installations, to discuss them with our peers, and to investigate ongoing care and restoration concerns that affect us all. This is one of the most useful ways we can learn as a group." Nearly every SGAA conference includes at least one full day of site visits and installation tours. In addition, the organization has been known to schedule and participate in special travel opportunities both in the United States and abroad to experience as much stained glass as possible. The tours are almost always stand-alone events, which can be attended outside of General Session participation and are often open to the public. Auction & Scholarships At each conference, members have the opportunity to browse through tables laden with books, sample sets, vendor products, tools, and artwork from members. SGAA's annual silent and live auction at the summer conference is a major source of funding for scholarship assistance. Donations directly fund scholarships for professional stained glass instruction all over the country and beyond. On exhibition years, work is donated to SGAA's live auction, which is an opportunity to collect autonomous work by any number of the group's talented members. On the Shou

From his studio in Dania Beach, Florida, Rob Stern creates his signature Windstar sculptures, dedicated to his father, a consummate stargazer fascinated by cosmic phenomena. Stern was also inspired by his surname, which means star in German. The artist often names his stars to reveal their celestial spheres. Copernica is derived from Copernicus, visible in the evening sky over Miami Beach. Polaris, known as the North Star, is the brightest in the constellation of Ursa Minor. Antares is the 15th brightest star in the night sky and is part of the constellation Scorpius. Other Windstar titles conjure colors and experiences, such as Red Dawn, which takes its name from a glowing red center or Modra, the Czech word for blue. Stern's Windstars are a testament to his deep understanding of glass and belief that the material takes him where it wants to go during the making process. Another iconic body of work, Stern's Stilettos, was inspired by his wife's vast collection of designer shoes that includes Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, and Alexander McQueen. However, these glass slippers are even more extreme with wild bejeweled designs that could make even Lady Gaga swoon. Stern states: "My creative endeavors and sculptures are mere stepping stones towards my search for understanding life. Harmonic instances between what I sense and do are the signals that guide me through my processes and prompt daily decisions. My works act as a communicative device which seeks to connect my thoughts and my actions to the collective human consciousness. A path seeking insight and enlightenment carries me forwards and always seems to bring me back to the glass." His mother an art teacher and father a filmmaker, Stern attended Northside High School for Performing Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was part of an elite group that performed internationally. He later pursued visual arts, receiving a BFA from San Francisco State University (1989) and an MFA from the University of Miami (2003). Other glass training includes a five-year apprenticeship with John Lewis Glass, Oakland, California, where he trained to be a metal fabricator and expert glass caster/cold-worker. Stern went on to assist Czech master Petr Novotny and worked in the Czech glass factories as a designer/maker for two years. The artist also assisted or collaborated with many masters such as Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Martin Blank, Richard Royal, Richard Jolley, Dante Marioni, Therman Statom, Stanislav Libensky, Rene Roubicek, and Vladimir Klien, among many others. Lecturing at the University of Miami for 10 years, Stern also acted as interim professor at University of Texas Arlington in 2009. He has frequented the premier glass institutions, most notably Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, for a 30-year consecutive run where he has taught, been a gaffer, TA, AA, and worked with the most notable international artists. Dedicated to education, the artist has also taught at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; the Penland School of Craft, North Carolina; The Glass Furnace, Istanbul, Turkey; Bildwerk Frauenau, Germany; and Ways of Glass, Czech Republic. Stern designed and created many centerpiece collections for various institutions including Pilchuck in 2011, and he received the Amazon award for his Pilchuck auction piece in 2021. This year he has a prominent piece in Pilchuck's October Auction. Currently involved in long-term residencies at YZ Center for the Arts, China, and Bezaiten Arts Center in Lake Worth, Florida, Stern will serve as the future director of glass at The Dania Art Park, now in development. Meanwhile he and his team design and create original sculpture, architectural commissions, and unique lighting that has been commissioned, exhibited, and collected internationally. Recently, the artist participated in Habatat Gallery's Glass 51 exhibition, and several of his works were acquired by Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Eighty of his pieces have become part of the permanent collection of the Weiner Museum of Decorative Arts (WMODA), Dania Beach, Florida. Says Stern: "My aesthetic resides at the crossroads where humans and nature intersect. Between organic and angular, a space connects the temporary man-made to the pre-existing and eternal cosmos. Here, we begin to measure our perspective and contemplate the perception of our place in the world as it is one that is always changing with the evolution of space, light, and time. I venture to capture moments with materials that speak to a fleeting sensibility of the permanence or importance of this balancing act. Color and form dictate emotion, and humanity is transcended as we reflect in the inherent rhythm and fractal patterning in this natural world. My constant observation of details persuades my attention to nuances in an attempt to mimic the complexity of its simplicity." Stern's work will be exhibited at Kittrell Riffkind in Dallas, Texas, in April 2024.

With glass as her medium and lost wax casting as her primary technique, Anja Isphording creates idiosyncratic sculptures familiar enough for us to recognize that they are inspired by nature, yet rarely resembling anything that we have actually encountered. Her intimate-scale objects, tactile and rich with deeply saturated colors, are reminiscent of basic molecular structures, honeycombs or coral reefs, but their biological reference remains ambiguous. In Germany, Isphording's early glass engraving studies in the 1980s with FS Zwiesel and Franz X Hoeller were followed by a stint as an engraving instructor at the summer school Bild-Werk, Frauenau. She founded her first studio in Helminghausen, Germany, in 1989, but relocated to Vancouver, BC, Canada, in 2000 and switched her focus to casting. Isphording's work has been exhibited in Europe and the United States, and collected by museums worldwide, including the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio; the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of American Glass, Wheaton, NJ; Glass Museum Kamenicky Senov, Czech Republic; Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt; and Kuntsgewerbemuseum, Berlin Germany, among others. She has been juried into New Glass Review – the Corning Museum of Glass' prestigious annual survey of cutting-edge glass – an unprecedented 10 times. Many consider Isphording's intimate sculptures among the most intriguing objects ever made from glass. They embody reverence for nature's mysteries and explore the patterns and structures of nature without ever literally reproducing them. Often they evoke a mood as much as an image. Plants and marine creatures may echo in the forms, but ultimately, they are guided by the artist's exquisite imagination. Isphording's awards include 1998-2001 scholarships at Pilchuck Glass School, WA; 1995 scholarship at the Creative Glass Center of America, Wheaton Village, NJ; 1993-1994 scholarship at the Academy of Applied Arts, class Vladimir Kopecky, Prague, Czech Republic; 2011-2012 prizes in TGK Competition, Germany; 2004 Artist of the Month, Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass; 2001 prize, WG at BE Exhibition, Portland, OR; 1993 Bayrischer Staatspreis; and 1986 prize, Leistungswettbewerb der Handwerksjugend, Germany. First modeled full-size in wax and then cast in glass, Isphording's intricate compositions often require multiple firings. When finished, the sculptures have a tactile quality and emotional range that sets them apart from contemporary trends and renders them timeless. Each piece takes months to create – follow this link to learn more about her process. Demanding technical challenges coupled with the complexity of her forms conspire to limit her output. This Friday, August 18 – September 1, 2023, Heller Gallery in NYC will present Isphording's latest sculptures as part of their summer pop-up series titled Rotations.

Art and technology share a symbiotic grace in the glass spacecraft, rockets, and scientific apparatus of Rik Allen. Most of his work is made primarily of glass and metal, which expresses a paradoxical symbiosis. The relationship between the rigid strength of metal with the inherent fragility of glass creates an alluring tension. While many of his pieces reference his curiosity about science, they also convey humor, simple narratives, and a lightheartedness that is embodied in much of science fiction's antiquated vision of the future. The theme of "futuristic antiquity" reflects Allen's interest in the literary fictional worlds of Jules Vern, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clark, and Isaac Asimov and their influence on the scientific community. His sculpture is also inspired by the accounts of early scientific pioneers of the 19 and 20th centuries, such as Nicola Tesla, Robert Goddard, Wernher von Braun, and other great scientific minds. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Allen earned a BA in Anthropology from Franklin Pierce University, New Hampshire. His earliest and formative glass studio experiences and education came as a studio assistant in Providence, working with a number of wonderful artists to include Daniel Clayman, James Watkins, and Michael Scheiner. Allen relocated to Washington in 1994, where he joined the William Morris team at the Pilchuck Glass School for 13 years, specializing in engraving, cutting, and finishing glass sculpture. Allen has had numerous solo exhibitions of his sculptures throughout the country, including at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, the Museum of Northwest Art, Traver Gallery, Blue Rain Gallery, Schantz Gallery, and Duncan McClellan Gallery. His sculptures have been acquired for a number of public and private collections, including Glass Museum in Tacoma, Imagine Museum, Toyoma Institute of Glass, Blue Origin, Boeing, Amazon and SpaceX. In 2016, his work appeared in a feature cover story published by American Craft magazine and in 2018, he was awarded "Grand Artist of the future" by Imagine Museum. In 2005, Allen established a glass and sculpture studio with his wife, artist Shelley Muzylowski Allen at their property in Skagit County, Washington. In addition to being artists, the couple has taught internationally at the Toyama Institute of Glass in Toyama, Japan, and the International Glass Festival in Stourbridge, England. They have also taught nationally, including the Penland School of Craft, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and at Pilchuck Glass School. A lifelong Star Trek devotee – whose earliest memories of creation involved making scotch tape and cardboard phasers and communicators – Allen was contacted by Eugene (Rod) Roddenberry, son of Star Trekcreator Gene Roddenberry and current spokesman for Trekkies everywhere. Intrigued by Allen's work after seeing a piece one of his friends owned, Roddenberry commissioned a sculpture of the original series' Starship Enterprise. The sculpture was to reflect the basic design of the original Enterprise, but also incorporate Allen's personality into a sculpture that was of his own original design and overall interpretation. Allen, in collaboration with wife Shelley, has created and will install two large public sculptures, Sticken (the Orchard Octopus) in September, and Heronious One in November in Bellevue, Washington. He will have an exhibition of new work in spring 2024 at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and will collaborate with Dave Walters this fall.

In 1974, three recent art school graduates – Ray Ahlgren, Dan Schwoerer, and Boyce Lundstrom – cobbled together a glass factory in the backyard of a ramshackle house in Portland, Oregon. Resourceful by nature and necessity, they built their factory with scraps repurposed from a shipyard. And, their products—hand-rolled sheets for the stained glass trade—were made from recycled bottle cullet. Shamelessly innovative and unconventional, Bullseye Glass Company was born. A chance encounter with artist Klaus Moje in 1979 inspired them to do something that had never been done before—something that would change the company's course and the history of glass art. They produced a palette of tested-compatible glasses for creating works in a kiln. This reliably fusible glass was an extraordinary product that artists had historically longed for. However, there was a problem—almost no one knew what to do with it. Undaunted, Bullseye embarked on a long-term program of research and education by working hand-in-hand with artists to expand and share the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of what is now known as "kiln-glass." Nearly five decades later, the Bullseye factory has expanded to cover most of the block around the old house where it all started. While the practice of glass fusing, or kilnforming, has expanded exponentially, Bullseye still produces glass the same way as in 1974—one handmade sheet at a time. At this time, the factory casts up to 1,500 sheets every day, in addition to fusible accessory glasses like powder, frit, ribbon, and stringer. Significantly, Bullseye Glass now ships to countries around the world for makers who create stunningly diverse glassworks. Lani McGregor is the Director of Bullseye Projects. Prior to joining Bullseye Glass Co. in 1984, she operated a glass studio in New Mexico that specialized in kilnformed and flat architectural glass. In 1990, she established Bullseye's Research & Education Department and developed its initial teaching programs. Bullseye's Research & Education team continues to explore and share new ways of working with this remarkable material. Bullseye Studio, the fabrication arm of Bullseye Glass Co., collaborates with artists, architects, and designers to demonstrate the large-scale potential of kilnformed glass. In like manner, Bullseye Projects champions artists from around the world who work in kilnforming by mounting exhibitions. The Bullseye Online Store continues to make the company's materials and favorite tools accessible. And finally, Bullseye Glass Resource Centers provide classes and Open Studio access to empower anyone to create with color and light. Enjoy this conversation with founders Schwoerer and McGregor, who trace their company's history, challenges and continued goals to inspire, while providing the tools needed to make the world brighter and more colorful through the incredible potential of glass. For more on Bullseye history, check out Schwoerer and McGregor here: https://www.knowledgestream.org/presentations/early-years-bullseye

British born artist, Joanna Manousis creates sculptural objects and installations in glass and mixed media, manipulating materials through a multi-disciplinary process that includes bronze casting, enamels, and even taxidermy. With a hands-on studio practice spanning 17 years, she strives to transform cast glass surfaces into reflective, three-dimensional mirrors, shifting the viewers' perspective and bringing new experiential possibilities. Wrote Eve Kahn in a 2018 Todd Merrill exhibition catalog: "Joanna Manousis mines her life experiences while exploring broader themes—materialism, memory, domesticity, vanity, iridescence—in acclaimed sculptures that mingle glass with wheat husks and taxidermied birds. Viewers may find themselves reflecting on the transience of existence while seeing themselves literally and metaphorically mirrored in her works." An only child raised by her mother, growing up Manousis loved drawing and painting. During early meditations with mirrors, she had the initial experience of being somehow detached from her body – a phenomenon whereby her spirit seemed disconnected from her visual appearance. In college, Manousis set out to become a painter, but the canvas plane gave her artist's block. She enrolled at Wolverhampton University for a bachelor of fine art-glass degree, and during a year abroad studied neon and glass casting and blowing at Alfred University in western New York. In 2008, she earned her MFA at Alfred, and by then had met her future husband, the Maine-born glass artist Zac Weinberg. Now a working mom of two, Manousis travels the world to teach, exhibit, and make artworks, while winning awards and grants. Her work has been recognized with nominations for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and a Bombay Sapphire Award Nomination for 'Excellence in Glass' as well as the Margaret M. Mead Award and the Hans Godo Frabel Award. She has received support from internationally recognized residency programs including the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. Her work has been exhibited at Design Miami and Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland; FOG Art + Design, San Francisco; the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark; and the British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge, England. The artist has worked, studied and taught in Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Manousis states: "My work is born out of a sustained exploration of human nature and the conflicts that exist between our inner reality and the world we occupy. I often emphasize decadence and grandiosity to illuminate the superfluous nature of accumulated luxury when faced with our own impermanence. I am also interested in engaging the viewer's gaze, drawing the participant into a state of reflection, literally and philosophically, about the essence of human existence and ideas related to growth, emotionality, aspiration and mortality." She continues: "Glass is my chosen medium, and I am drawn to its contrasting qualities–transparent yet solid, it simultaneously reveals yet barricades. In recent works I use cast glass as a lens to magnify residual formations of objects within. On occasion these negative spaces are mirrored, enlivening static surfaces in my pursuit to reflect the viewer and the environment that the work inhabits. Incorporating the audience's gaze, whether it is distorted or clear, centralizes the viewer within the work itself, facilitating a stronger connection between observer and object." ToYG podcast caught up with Manousis just prior to two US workshops: Penland School of Craft, Bakersville, North Carolina, July 2 – 14 and The Corning Museum of Glass, July 31 – August 6. In addition to her core-cast pieces with internal spaces, she continues her PhD testing, along with a new venture in customizable wall installations made with graphite molding techniques that she and husband Weinberg create together in their company Manberg Projects. Manousis' PhD research focuses on three-dimensional mirrors within cast glass resulting in work that deals with reflection, both physically and metaphorically. The artist has also recently started making jewelry – small scale pieces that are more accessible and used to adorn. Check out this new work on Instagram @jomanousis. Her sculptural practice can be found @joanna.manousis.

Loretta H. Yang and Chang Yi, founders and artists of LIULI Crystal Art, devoted their life to the art of LIULI for three decades. In the process, they revived the ancient Chinese technique of pâte de verre lost wax casting and instigated the contemporary glass art movement in Asia. Richly imbued with traditional Chinese artistic vocabulary and philosophical thinking, Yang's works have been acquired by more than 22 museums for their permanent collections including Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Palace Museum in Beijing, New York Museum of Arts and Design, The Corning Museum of Glass, and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She has created work for the Oscars, Grammys and 32 world leaders. "Beauty transformed" is how Japanese critics have described Yang's multiple talents. Named Best Leading Actress in the 21st and 22nd Golden Horse Film Awards ceremony, she was the first actress who won this award two years in a row. In 1987, Yang left the film industry along with her late husband, film director Chang Yi, and several other people from the film industry to establish the glass workshop and studio LIULI Crystal Art near Taipei, Taiwan. The industrious group invested their resources in rehabilitating a dilapidated factory and learned the techniques and process of glass casting in the French manner, similar to the luxury glass made by Lalique and Daum. Yang single-handedly rediscovered the techniques of pâte de verre glass casting and uses this technique to create works with a traditional Chinese artistic flare. When asked, "What has it been like being a woman in the glass arts industry all these years," Yang responded: "Honestly, I haven't given this topic much thought. Don't exceptional women exist in all industries? Chang Yi believed that women were the stronger gender and possess a resilience men don't. He would use the saying 'will of steel, gentle heart' to describe women, because he observed that we lead with a gentleness of heart and an unwavering will. Maybe I've been lucky to work with Chang Yi all this time because despite what other people said, we took it with a grain of salt and continued to live according to our own set of rules. We complemented each other. He was responsible for the development, planning and operational aspects of the company. And because of this, he was able to steer our team in the right direction and instill an equitable value system." She continues: "I, on the other hand, have more patience and lean more toward innovation. I enjoy researching techniques – LIULI Crystal Art's 12-step technique is a product of my work. Yes, the process was challenging, but what would we be without it? LIULI Crystal Art faced a lot of challenges in our 36 years. The sheer will to complete a project was our greatest encouragement and got us through them. Chang Yi used to good-naturedly admonish that I was the type of person who doesn't know when to quit. But really, I'm the type of person who immerses themselves in something and will continue searching for an answer until I find it. Value and strength are creations of our own design. I refuse to put myself in a box or limit myself in any way. Women can be just as bold as men, men can be just as resilient as women." Today, LIULI Crystal Art owns factories on Taiwan (Tamshui) and in Shanghai, and numerous galleries on Taiwan and in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and United States. The group decided to use the Chinese word LIULI as opposed to more common names for glass in the Chinese language. It is commonly believed that the word LIULI first appeared during the Western Zhou Dynasty (about 1045-771 BCE), which referred to the glass being produced at the time. For Yang especially, using the term LIULI greatly references her own body of work, which draws upon traditional Chinese motifs and such Buddhist teachings as enlightenment and transparency, evoking an almost meditative practice and devotional purpose. Each piece undergoes a comprehensive 12-step process and requires six to eight months to complete. Known for her floral sculptures, in 2006 Yang removed all traces of color from her work. This pure, transparent series debuted at Leo Kaplan Modern in New York in 2007 with Proof of Awareness, an oversized and colorless blooming peony, garnering widespread acclaim. To Yang, the oversized flowers of Proof of Awareness represented her life reflections and the next stage of her creative journey. Says Yang: "LIULI petals, when looked at individually, hold little significance. But when clustered together, these petals manifest a symbiotic relationship to create a single large and flawless flower. A harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship does not focus on the self but on the greater good of everyone involved." Combining pâte de verre with hot casting, Yang uses multiple castings to create the abstract form of Buddha. Because life is impermanent, LIULI is the perfect material to capture its wavering illusory and tangible qualities. Yang ex

Pacific Northwest glass artists Kelly O'Dell and Raven Skyriver, who create sculptures inspired by marine life, species endangerment, extinction, and conservation, will exhibit their work at Habatat Galleries during next week's Glass Art Society conference in Detroit, Michigan. Titled Confluence, the show is a tour de force of works created in homage to the natural world and to raise consciousness in viewers about the need for preservation of natural spaces and species. On June 5, during Habatat's first ever VIP Artist Gala, Skyriver will present a glassblowing demo at the brand-new Axiom glassblowing facility, followed by artist talks given by Skyriver and O'Dell. On June 7, VIPs travel to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation to view its important glass art collection and experience a rare opportunity to see the culmination of O'Dell's residency there via work she created onsite at Greenfield Village. In 2018, Skyriver and O'Dell launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowd-fund building their own studio on Lopez Island, Washington. They wrote: "We're now asking you for assistance to build our own glass studio where we can deepen our practice, give back to our community, and nurture our family… This project came from a vital need: to have more time together (AND about 10,000 fewer miles traveled on the freeway every year). We are moving to the island where Raven was born and raised to allow our son to grow up surrounded by his grandparents and extended family, but the island has no glass studio available for our use. So, we're building one, from the ground up, with the support of our friends and family." Aside from creating their own work there, Skyriver and O'Dell's studio represents a place of education and community where visiting artists can be invited for residencies, short-term apprenticeships can be offered, and small teaching workshops can be hosted. They wrote: "This hotshop will allow us to pass on the knowledge that was so generously taught to us by our creative masters, and give back to our glass community." Though they surpassed their initial Kickstarter goal, the studio remains a work in progress, evolving physically as well as philosophically. Born in 1982, Raven Skyriver (Tlingit) was raised in the San Juan Islands. Growing up connected to the land and its surrounding waters, and living in a creative household where carvers came to learn Northwest Coast style carving and design, helped push him towards an artistic path. At the age of 16, he was introduced to glass by family friend and mentor Lark Dalton and was immediately captivated by the medium. Exploring every opportunity to work in glass led Skyriver to being invited to work with Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen for the William Morris team in 2003. This was his introduction to sculptural glass and how building a vocabulary for narrative in his own work began. In 2018, the artist returned to Lopez Island where he was born, and he and wife O'Dell constructed a home studio where they can create their glass art. Says Skyriver: "I was raised near the sea and in a family that valued and practiced artistic pursuits from as young as I can remember. Some of my most vivid memories as a child were smelling the fresh cedar chips that were being removed by master carvers' blades as they sculpted beautifully elegant forms. The most excitement I have experienced in my life was the first salmon I ever landed, the time I saw a Sea Lion a paddle's length from my boat, and seeing a humpback whale feeding on smelt. When I was introduced to glass as a junior in high school, I was immediately captivated by the mesmerizing, alchemic, fluid nature of the material. From that day forward I have dedicated myself to honing my craft and perfecting my technique." Skyriver continues his artistic practice utilizing close observation of his sculptural subjects to create an ongoing personal dialogue. This inner conversation touches on the celebration of biodiversity, his understanding of his heritage, the importance of Native species, the gifts those beings bring to their communities, and the delicate balance that sustains our collective existence. He states: "I draw from my experiences as a child and my continued fascination with the natural world to inform the work I make today. My goal is to capture the fluidity of an animal in motion, using the liquid glass to portray a dynamic moment in time. I attempt to imbue the subject with a hint of life and capture the essence of the creatures I depict. I want my work to speak to the viewer's own understanding of the wild and their place in it, and to instill a sense of the delicate balance that is our existence." Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1973, O'Dell was raised by glass artists in Kealakekue, Hawaii, where her father built himself a hot glass studio at their home. In 1999 she graduated from the University of Hawaii (UH), Manoa, earning a BFA in Studio Art with a focus in glass, which she studied under Rick Mills. The UH

Occasionally an artist is commissioned to create a work that advances their skills to such a degree that no project seems unreachable going forward. Such was the case with De Carter Ray's History of Transportation, created in 2017 for C. Graham Berwind III's residence. The original work on which the project was based was designed by Jean Dupas and constructed for the transatlantic ship the S.S. Normandie in 1935. The original took 2 years to make; Carter Ray had only eight months. Requested as a feature for her client's dining room wall, Carter Ray's drawings were followed by photography, then scanning into a computer. Ropes, guns, anchors, chains, rigging and carbuncles were all carved. Longer rigging lines were carved 1/16 of an inch and filled with enamel paint. For the entire project, the artist had to work in reverse and flip the piece sideways on an easel in order to reach it. The piece was done in stages. Each panel design was carefully taken apart, foreground to background, one item at a time. All of the Van Dyke brown had to be painted first; then the hand painted flags on the sails; the birds in front of the sails; the shading on sails and mastheads; the rigging holding the masts; the long hand painted lines with brushes; the gold paint over that; and then Manetti gold leaf. Each layer had to dry eight hours minimum in order to prevent the paint from peeling and lifting later. The finer details were hand painted with a paint brush, and the rest air-brushed with an Iwita dual action micro airbrush. Frame construction and installation presented additional learning curves. Living in an earthquake state, Carter Ray wanted to ensure the piece wouldn't be held too tightly and break from strain. The frame needed to look lighter than air yet be supported from the bottom. She designed clips to hold the piece on top and a brass bar that could support 1100 pounds on the bottom. The art was divided into four panels, each piece 36 inches wide by 83 3/8 inches tall. The overall finished width spans 12 feet wide and almost 7 feet tall, totaling 95 square feet. Creg Oosterhart, project designer, said "De, if you ever work for a new client, and they question your abilities, just show them a photograph of this, and say, 'I designed and manufactured every aspect of this project- start to finish.' It will remove all doubt." Carter Ray's history includes working as a draftsperson for Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, California, where she learned to draw landing gears and correct blueprints using a T square and a triangle. She also worked for printing companies, at one time drawing illustrations of food and woks for a book titled Madame Wu's Art of Chinese Cooking. In combination with some of these early skills, the artist marries client inspiration with her own spectacular vision for a project resulting in stunning flat glass creations that grace homes and businesses around the globe. Self-taught, her skill set includes carved, etched, stained, leaded, painted, and mosaic glass, as well as frit painted and slumped glass, and beveled windows. She is currently experimenting with fused glass and its incorporation into her work. States Carter Ray: "The making of art glass is my life's work. Clients have an idea at the studio, and we bring it to fruition. It is all about process, finding the right inspiration for a particular subject. Usually, the art requested has a purpose. I will be given a space to work with, a subject matter, and the inspiration to fill it. My job is to listen. Take all the elements in to consideration, put a different spin on the ball and hand it back to them in a way that is workable, and attractive, hopefully better than what was originally conceived." Carter Ray established Classical Glass Studio in Huntington Beach, California, in 1983, and brings over 32 years of experience to her customer's art glass needs.

Under cover of his signature top hat and distinctive moustache, Lewis Wilson has accomplished more than most people dream of. His list of achievements includes success as a glass art instructional video producer, demonstrating lampworking artist, promoter of the world's largest hot glass competition, and founding member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers. A fixture at glass bead and pipe shows, "Looie" is also a fire-eating juggler, knife swallower and a black belt in karate. In his Crystal Myths gallery, you'll find everything from goblets and vases to birds and dinosaurs. The fantasy realm is where this artist draws much of his inspiration. Being from New Mexico, it is only fitting that Wilson is also known for glass sculptures of Native American ceremonial dancers. The intricately costumed pieces have not only become prized additions to private collections, but were also given as official presentations from the state of New Mexico to visiting dignitaries such as King Juan Carlos of Spain, blues legend Bo Diddley, and Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Born in 1949 in Roswell, New Mexico, Wilson was part of a military family that moved frequently to places such as Dallas, Texas, then Morroco, North Africa, and on to Riverside, California. In 1960, 11-year-old Wilson moved with his family to Goose Bay, Canada, where he taught himself how to eat fire, juggle, throw knives and do various magic and circus tricks. In 1963 following a move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, he started learning Shotokan karate, receiving his first-degree black belt in 1969. Joining the United States Air Force in 1970, Wilson was a medic during the Vietnam war, stationed at Cocoa Beach, Florida. During the slow hours of the night, he taught himself about glass through an old scientific glass blowing book he found in the Air Force base library. The medical lab was his studio and a Bunsen burner his equipment. There he made intricately woven animal figurines from 4 mm Pyrex stirring rods. Wilson's first real lessons in glass blowing came in 1973 under the tutelage of Alfonso and Tomas Arribas who had reportedly caught the attention of Walt Disney when the brothers represented Spain at the 1964–'65 New York World's Fair. Wilson talked them into an apprenticeship at the Crystal Arts on Main Street, U.S.A at Disneyworld where he made thousands of crabs, teapots and birdbaths for the tourists. Mexican glass blower Miguil Bonilla, who also worked for Disney, was another of his mentors. Upon leaving the Air Force in 1974, Wilson went the following day to Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, to try to secure a job as a glassblower. There were no glassblowing openings, however they did have a vacancy for a juggler and fire-eater. For the next two years he worked with tattooed belly dancers, a magician, and an organ grinder and his monkey. Later that year, Wilson married, and his family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he opened his glass business, Crystal Myths. In 1993, Wilson produced his first glassworking video, Glass Bead Making, and now has produced more than 20 titles. In 1996, Crystal Myths promoted its first show, The Best Bead Show, in Tucson, Arizona, earning him the nickname of "the P.T. Barnum of Beadmakers." In 2002, Wilson promoted the world's largest hot glass competition called the Albuquerque Flame-Off. There, 300 glass workers from the U.S. and Canada worked on six torches running for 12 hours a day for two days. In 2005, Wilson demonstrated at the Kobe International Lampworking Festival in Kobe, Japan, and only spoke Japanese, which he taught himself, during the demo. Later that year, a building was named after him at Art Glass Invitational in September, one of the highlights of his career. Wilson sold the Best Bead Shows in 2008, re-emerging as a talented artist able to concentrate fully on lampworking. Later that year, at the Oakland ISGB convention, he was presented with the Hall of Flame Award. In 2011, Wilson married glass artist Barbara Svetlick with whom he founded Soft Glass Invitational, promoted for two years in Hilliards, Pennsylvania. In 2015, the event was given to Kris Schaible, and she continues to promote the event. These days, Wilson spends the bulk of his time filling commissions and doing standard production work, with the remainder dedicated to new designs. He and his wife enjoy collaborating, which comprises about 10 percent of each artist's work. With Svetlick's flowers added to Wilson's glass sculpture or her sculpture incorporating his beads, the artwork benefits from the best of both worlds.

As a collaborative team, Dean Bensen and Demetra Theofanous create narrative pate de verre wall sculptures utilizing nature as a vehicle to communicate environmental challenges and metaphors for the human experience. Their work connects the viewer with the natural world and instills an appreciation for its interconnectedness to humanity and its inherent fragility. Says Bensen and Theofanous: "Our decaying leaf installations reflect on our impermanence and vulnerability. What we do has impact – often unforeseen and unmeasured. A pile of leaves hit by a gust of wind is a metaphor for this uncertainty in our future. It expresses that pivotal moment of change, when things we took for granted are suddenly gone. Existing peacefully with others and protecting our natural resources is a tenuous balance, highlighting our interdependence on others and the earth." Bensen and Theofanous work both independently and as a collaborative team. Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in numerous private and public collections. Recent exhibitions include participating 2018 at the Ming Shangde Glass Museum in China, where they received an award from the Chinese government. Another large-scale leaf installation was on view 2022-'23 in an exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, curated by Brandy Culp. Attending The College of Idaho, Bensen graduated with a BA in art in 1990. His fascination in glass started a hunger for what he had been missing since his youth, an immersion into the exploration and development of his creative side. Upon receiving his degree, he moved to Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho, where he continued working in glass at a local studio. In 1997, the artist returned to California to pursue glassblowing as a full-time career. Immersing himself in the Bay Area glass scene, Bensen began working for many local artists and teaching at places such as San Jose State University, Palo Alto High School, Corning Glass School, Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI), and Public Glass. In 2002, Bensen developed a body of work that would become the foundation for his ideas based on the existence of the old growth redwood forest. Using both clear glass and color, he focused initially on environmental concerns. As his concepts evolved, Bensen's work grew further, investigating the life cycles in nature, their significance, and the interplay between the earth and various species. Each slice of murrine served to highlight one of nature's footprints, marking the passage of time and a glimpse of history, the rings of life in a felled tree. Bensen has taught extensively, received a scholarship to attend Pilchuck glass school, and his first solo show, Nature's Footprints, received a full-page review in the San Francisco Chronicle. His work has been widely exhibited, including at the Imagine Museum, San Francisco Airport Museum, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, the Oakland Airport Museum, and the Ming Shangde Glass Museum in China. He has also worked on a team creating several projects for renowned artist Dale Chihuly, including an enormous chandelier in Dubai. Theofanous was immersed in the arts from a very young age, but this thirst for expression was temporarily diverted when she received her business degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. She graduated and spent time working in San Francisco only to realize there was something missing in her work, and she needed to find a way to return to her creative roots. In 2004, Theofanous entered the medium of glass through flameworking and developed a method for weaving with glass that provides a continuing basis for narratives and investigation in her work. She also utilizes the ancient technique of pate de verre, which offers a detailed and painterly approach to casting that is well suited to creating hyper-realistic sculpture inspired by the natural world. Some of her sculptures now combine this cast glass technique with flameworked sculpture. Theofanous has been internationally recognized for her woven glass nest and flora sculptures, and is included in numerous private collections, as well as in the permanent collection of the Racine Art Museum. Notable awards include: a Juror's Choice Award from renowned collector Dorothy Saxe, a merit award from Paul Stankard, a NICHE Award, a Juror's Choice Award at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Grant, two juror awards from Carol Sauvion, Executive Producer of Craft in America, and an Award of Excellence juried by the Detroit Institute of the Arts in Habatat Gallery's 50th International Exhibiton . She has exhibited internationally, including at the Triennial of the Silicate Arts in Hungary, San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design, National Liberty Museum, Alexandria Museum of Art, and twice in the Crocker Art Museum's prestigious Crocker-Kingsley Biennial. As an educator she has taught at top institutions such as Pratt Fine Arts Center and

world-renowned glass artist located in Washington State, Phil Siegel developed his own unique understanding of flameworked glass without any formal education or apprenticeship. With an extensive background in construction and education in architecture, he challenges himself to create a relationship between fantasy and structure throughout his pieces while relating to his spiritual, intellectual, and emotional self. Born in 1972 in Petaluma, California, Siegel developed a career as a general contractor designing and building high-end homes, working with clients from the ground up. In 2008 the economy crashed, banks stopped loaning money, and people stopped building houses. Out of work and experiencing his first winter off in years, Siegel began exploring a book he'd purchased 18 years earlier – Intro to Glassblowing by Homer Hoyt. In 2010, at age 38, Siegel took his first classes in flameworking pipes, something he'd wanted to do since seeing basic spoon pipes at a Grateful Dead show years prior. As a busy contractor, he had no idea how pipe art had evolved over the years, and his fellow students suggested he check out Instagram for education and inspiration. Siegel eventually progressed in his own torch skills to the point where the owner of the studio where he was taking classes, Dustin Revere at Revere Glass in Berkeley, offered him a job. Siegel worked there for five months before opening his own studio. His early glass included sculptural pieces adorned in classical line work, horns, symmetrical builds that were classically inspired, and bumblebee rigs. But perhaps one of his most successful series began six years into his glass career. When Siegel's wife suggested he make a pipe for himself, the artist created a wizard figure based on a Christmas gnome he'd made as an ornament. He states: "I posted it as a goof really. I never thought people would enjoy it so much. But there was nobody making a wizard pipe at that time. And the more that I made, the more people requested them. It was the first time I made something that wasn't an exercise in discipline. I came from a world that rewarded precision, symmetry, proper planning. I didn't have a whole lot of experience making something whimsical and fun. It was hard for me to begin with. I'm thankful for the wizards more than anything, because they allowed me to find that more childlike part of myself when it comes to the creative process." An avid reader of Joseph Campbell, archetypes resonate with Siegel. When he noticed that pipe artists weren't utilizing traditional art space – walls – the artist created a series of shallow shadowbox pieces featuring fish in 3D movement. These works frame pipes in a new way while telling a story. Siegel was inspired by a legend involving a huge school of golden Koi swimming upstream the Yellow River in China. Gaining strength by fighting against the current, the school glimmered as they swam together through the river. When they reached a waterfall at the end of the river, many of the Koi turned back, letting the flow of the river carry them away. The remaining Koi refused to give up. Leaping from the depths of the river, they attempted to reach the top of the waterfall to no avail. Their efforts caught the attention of local demons, who mocked their efforts and heightened the waterfall out of malice. After a hundred years of jumping, one Koi finally reached the top of the waterfall. The gods recognized the Koi for its perseverance and determination and turned it into a golden dragon, the image of power and strength. "I'm intrigued by folklore in general because it's specifically tailored for each culture but is also globally understood by humanity," explains Siegel. "All cultures share archetypes – hero, martyr, pariah. These stories are universal and touch on many of the same motifs. They warn or inspire. They're equally powerful, and people gravitate toward both." Describing himself as "more rigid in the way he thinks things through," Siegel is currently working on a project that required 200 hours of prep. One of his ancient Lost Gods series, the Feathered Serpent is a prominent supernatural entity or deity, found in many Mesoamerican religions. It is still called Quetzalcoatl among the Aztecs. The double symbolism used by the Feathered Serpent is considered allegoric to the dual nature of the deity, where being feathered represents its divine nature or ability to fly to reach the skies and being a serpent represents its human nature or ability to creep on the ground among other animals of the Earth, a dualism very common in Mesoamerican deities. Says Siegel: "Snake motifs, bird motifs, these Gods are inspired by multidimensional beings that passed into this dimension to share knowledge and help humanity evolve." On 4/20, Siegel had a solo show at Fuego Smoke Shop called Conjuring Clouds. From January 30 – February 3, 2023, he, Lacey (Laceface) Walton, and Chris (Hickory) Vickers collaborated at the Coring Museum of

For four generations, the Raiffe family toy designers and inventors used ingenuity and creativity to bring joy to others. In homage to this family tradition, Josh Raiffe carries out that mission in his own uniquely beautiful medium – hot glass. He recently caught the attention of both art and fashion lovers with his creative glass interpretation of the Coperni Swipe Bag – a modern handbag designed to adorn a subject's hand. Coperni approached Raiffe to create a glass bag for a photo shoot. His original design was inspired by the painting of Saint Denis of Paris. Holding his head in his hands, a halo appears where St. Denis' head once rested. Raiffe wanted to create a glass handbag that would reveal a halo around the hand of its wearer, selecting colors to illuminate the hand as if to reveal a divinity from within. Experimenting with glass color combinations, he applies an overlay to the inside and outside of each of his bags. The glass layers work in concert to create color combinations that are amplified through a coldworking process. The resulting objects have captured the attention of art and fashion enthusiasts alike, making the laborious process required to create them worthwhile. Raiffe loves to create in a space where emotion and instinct supersede language and rationality. His pieces are first and foremost inspired by personal relationships and emotions such as love, conflict, anger or intimacy. He creates pieces that allow the owner/observer to feel something unique based on their own personal experiences. As an artist who celebrates self-expression, he explains: "I hope people use my work to express themselves by adorning their spaces and their bodies with objects that speak to them." The son of Meryl Raiffe, owner of The Glass Underground, Warren, New Jersey, Josh Raiffe earned his BFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During that time, he worked for Belle Mead Hot Glass, Township, New Jersey, producing blown chandelier parts and taught classes at the Crefeld School in Philly. Upon graduating from Tyler, he received the Steve Stormer Award and the Penland Partner Scholarship, which allowed him to attend the Penland School of Craft, Bakersfield, North Carolina. He has also been fortunate enough to attend classes at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, and the Bullseye Resource Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raiffe has taught glass classes at the Tyler School of Art, East Falls Glassworks in Philly, Brooklyn Glass and UrbanGlass in New York. He also assists with fabrication for glass artists Thaddeus Wolf, Rob Wynne, Mitchiko Sakano, Jamie Harris and Deborah Czeresko. As a Brooklyn-based designer, Raiffe has collaborated with DesignSpec Co-Founder Fiona Sanipelli to create original art installations for interiors projects. His work, which also includes lighting and neon, has been exhibited at Philadelphia locations such as the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Sculpture Gym, and the Spirit of the Artist, and at 555 Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. It was featured on the pages of New Glass Review 38, The Corning Museum of Glass' yearly survey of cutting-edge artworks made with glass. Raiffe is represented by Habatat Gallery, Piece Gallery, Strada and Hawk Gallery. Objects become memorable when they prompt an emotional response from their audience. Though Raiffe's glass work has been owned by celebrities such as Dojacat, Kylie Jenner, JT, Beth Dewoody, Olivia Song and Snoop Dog, he makes art to be enjoyed by the masses.

Drawing from the wild and erotic character of the natural environment, Bri Chesler's work reflects on cultural obsessions of beauty and their relationships to internal anatomies. By fusing similar elements found in biology and botany she creates forms that flirt with the audience, exploring ideas of intimacy and desire. Known for its nontraditional approach, her work combines a variety of glass techniques with other media. Says Chesler: "Over the last few years glass has become the focus of my material exploration. The process revolves around using your body, the momentum of its movements, and your breath to shape a form. You have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. A dance between artist and medium, each movement carefully caressing, convincing the glass to become something new. The reality and illusion of its fragility, its weightless transparent quality, feed into the idea of being exposed, a material, a skin, that has the ability to be both vacant and full of depth." She continues: "I like to maintain a glass focus while using a multidisciplinary approach, emphasizing qualities found in both materials that translate a similar idea or aesthetic. Manipulating surfaces and materials in a way that plays with the audiences' perception allows me to develop a surreal dialog by diminishing the limitations of material identity. The cohesion of different glass techniques and other media has become something innate to my making; it's what defines me as a glass artist. It not only allows me to explore the material in untraditional ways, but it also demonstrates and highlights the multidimensional nature of glass itself." Though she now lives in Seattle, Chesler credits her Palm Beach upbringing as a major influence. While Florida's landscapes inspired the foundation for her conceptual ideas, the cultural environment informed the themes of superficial beauty, intimacy, and empathy. A product of BAK MSOA and Dreyfoos High School of the Arts, the former alum always knew her calling was a visual one. She discovered her passion for glass while studying metal and foundry processes at the Kansas City Art Institute during her undergraduate studies. The sensual and organic aesthetic of glass resonated with Chesler in a way that metal did not. Chesler has received accolades such as the 2019 Pilchuck Emerging Artist-in-Residence award, the 2020 Hauberg Fellowship, the 2021 Glass Art Society's Saxe Emerging Artist Award, and a Chihuly Gardens and Glass Anniversary Scholarship. In 2022, she taught as an instructor at Pilchuck Glass School and was featured in a solo exhibition, titled Untamed: The Anatomy of Desire, at the Center on Contemporary Arts in Seattle. Her works have also been exhibited at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington State and Habatat Gallery in Michigan. DELECTABLE, a collaborative installation, is on view now through April 15 at Method Gallery. Chesler and MinHi England (Blown Away 3 finalist) bonded after learning about shared traumatic life experiences, only to realize the conceptual parallels in their artistic practice. In 2017, they founded a collaborative brand called Liquid Lush Studio and have since been collaborating artistically. Throughout that time, they have continued a partnership not only creatively but in a familial friendship. The two describe themselves as "widow wives" after caring for and witnessing cancer take the life of Jesse England. After surviving this new shared traumatic life experience, their connection grew stronger and motivated the two to continue a collaborative partnership. Museum of Glass (MOG), Tacoma, presents a concert in the Hot Shop on April 20, featuring local music group Mirrorgloss alongside live glassblowing demonstrations led by Chesler and England. The artists will act as lead gaffers for the evening, guiding Museum of Glass Hot Shop Starter Sarah Gilbert and students from the Hilltop Artists program in creating works inspired by the music. The event is inspired by the themes of feminism and the work of powerful women-identifying and gender-expansive artists in MOG's current exhibition She Bends: Redefining Neon Legacy. Chesler and England will also demonstrate at the Glass Art Society Conference in Detroit, Michigan, in June 2023 as well as co-teach at OxBow School of Art, Saugatuck, Michigan, in July 2023.

Both through his own works and his activities in education, Richard Meitner has had a profoundly positive and highly visible impact on art in glass internationally. His works have been shown around the world and have been included in almost every major international museum exhibition of art in glass for the last 25 years. In spite of his considerable reknown, Meitner's work has never been mainstream. His place is always on the outer edge of what is happening, searching, challenging, discovering, taking risks, as if he were a child at play. It is this desire to discover and speak as a child does, to learn and rejoice in that learning, but also the willingness to be caught off guard, and amazed or puzzled by experience, which has always been at the heart of his activities. Anna Venini wrote: "The best way to express what I like most about Richard and his work is perhaps this: he lives in an extraordinary world, one that is not simply the pleasing world of fairy tales but is at the same time a breeding ground for some serious (albeit elusive) philosophical thought and research. It is from this place that he creates. It is my feeling that he has not only already accomplished great things, but has, in addition, a long career in front of him as an important artist. I come from a family of glass makers. I love Richard's work most certainly not only for that reason, but also because Richard is able to approach that material and to use it with culture, with great fantasy and originality, with authority and great thoughtfulness. That combination is, in my experience, highly unusual." An artist with decades of experience and practice in art and art education, Meitner has lived in Amsterdam since 1972. He has lectured and conducted workshops in the U.S.A., Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Italy and Japan. He has been invited artist-in-residence in many countries and has worked as a designer for the glass industry in Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Additionally, Meitner has served on the Dutch National Commission for Endowments for the Arts and the Dutch National Advisory Board for the Arts. Together with Mieke Groot, he was responsible from 1981 to 2000 for the glass department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In 2006, he was appointed to the faculty for Science and Technology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (New University of Lisbon), Portugal. Meitner's major exhibitions include a retrospective at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs of the Louvre in Paris, and solo shows at the National Museum for the History of Science and Medicine in Leiden, Netherlands, the National Glass Museum in Sunderland, England, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Corning Museum of Glass in the U.S.A. His work is included in the permanent collections of more than 60 museums in 16 countries. In 2020, the artist received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Glass Art Society. In 2016, Meitner earned a PhD in sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. His doctoral thesis made the case that in education and public policy for art, the way we define, make policy for and teach art is in many respects incorrect and ineffective. He formulates his arguments citing science and many other sources that strongly suggest that we need urgently to discuss, rethink and come to much more accurate and useful understandings of what making and appreciating art are really about. In 2023, Meitner will begin work for his upcoming solo show at Galeria Caterina Tognon in Venice during the Biennale and continue to build a working collaboration with his partner, Nataliya Vladychko, a talented Ukrainian artist. He will also carry on his work with the Vicarte Research Unit at Universidade Nova in Lisbon, i.e. working with young student artists in the Master's degree program for the Art and Science of Glass and Ceramics. Saya Meitner: "Helping young talented artists as a teacher is something I've done for many decades, and has become quite an important aspect of both my career and my life."

Travelling the world participating in internships and workshops is the cornerstone of Sofia Villamarin's glass experience. Her unique personal works in stained glass utilize three-dimensionality, fragmented imagery and her stunning painting abilities to express stories and reflections of self as well as her unique perspective on life. Of Argentinian and Italian nationality, Villamarin was born in 1979 and lived in Argentina until she was 28 years old. In 2003, she graduated with a degree in Visual Communication Design, but the following year began her education in stained glass art. Awarded a scholarship to study glass painting, in 2008 Villamarin travelled to the studio of Italian artist Sante Pizzol in Milan, Italy. She also attended Vetroricerca Glas & Modern in Bolzano, Italy, garnering a more comprehensive education in glass. Villamarin established and ran her own studio in Argentina from 2011 to 2015. The following year she went to work for The Cathedral Studios, the stained glass studio at Canterbury Cathedral, UK, followed by a stint at Barley Studio in York. Currently living in Munich, Germany, and working for Mayer'sche Hofkunstanstalt" GmbH, Villamarin focuses on portraiture painting on stained glass windows. With a unique and international perspective on stained glass, Villamarin has been recognized by The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning New York, in its publication of cutting-edge glass, New Glass Review 33. She is also the recipient of last year's Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass for her work My Fragments, accompanied by an exhibition at Veste Coburg and at the European Museum of Modern Glass, Rödental, Germany. Focusing on new trends in glass art, the works of 90 international artists were on display at these venues in 2022. The highly topical objects and variety of production techniques made this show a fascinating event in the International Year of Glass. A 2016 recipient of the Stevens Glass Artist of the Year award, Villamarin was honored, along with other students and emerging architectural glass artists, at a ceremony at Glaziers' Hall. From a record number of high-quality entries from the UK and other international entrants, Villamarin was presented with the opportunity to design a window commemorating the lost crew of the iconic Titanic for St Mary's Church, Southampton. With uniquely personal works such as her painted self-portraits Time Without Time I and II; Resilience – made with glass, enamels and rope; or the many works that break free of the single flat plane of stained glass as seen in Free, Villamarin has left her mark on the world of modern stained glass. Having participated in the American Congress' Women in Glass conference, the artist lends her voice to the independent work she designs and fabricates as well as to the work she paints for Mayer'sche Hofkunstanstalt" GmbH.

Charlene Foster a.k.a. Cha Cha Chainz represents the gold standard in glass chain making. A pioneer of the trend, she has been perfecting the art of flawless and seamless links since 2002. Foster has collaborated with the best in the game, building a bridge between fine art, fashion and functional glass. Her work has been featured in numerous fashion publications as she artfully merges the world of bespoke high fashion and cannabis accessories. Born on an Air Force base in the Philippines and raised in Alaska, Foster attended the University of Alaska Anchorage studying Fine Art and Psychology. She worked for a glass artist in Anchorage whose assistant Courtney Brahnam introduced Foster to the summer session catalogs for Pilchuck, Penland and The Corning Museum of Glass. After applying and getting accepted to all three schools, Foster left home to travel the country, eventually settling in New York City in 2002. There, she began working for Michael Davis Glass on the production crew for a line of Tiffany & Company vases. Later, the artist assisted James McLeod during his fellowship at Wheaton Village, which led to her assisting a number of other instructors and eventually teaching her own class at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn. Her work was represented at SOFA New York and Chicago from 2007 to 2011 by UrbanGlass. Over the years, Foster's work has been featured in galleries and museums nationwide. Her glass chains have been auctioned at the National Liberty Museum, The UrbanGlass Blower's Ball, Wheaton Arts and The Michigan Glass Project. She has collaborated with high-end pipe artists including Banjo, Salt, Rocko, Ryan Fitt and Robert Mickelson. Recent exhibitions include: 2022, Cleod Glass + Works, Charleston, SC; 2022, Pendants in Pink, Naturals Collective, Leominster, MA; 2020, Spring Equinox Show, Lifted Veil Gallery, DTLA, CA; 2019, "Garden of Eden" Zen Glass Gallery, Saint Petersburg, FL; and 2019, Molten Aura Show, Level 42, Asheville, NC. Now based in North Carolina, Foster focuses on creating collaborative glass pieces, custom jewelry and glass joint holders she calls Stellaz for a wide range of shops across the country, and direct to customers through her website, http://www.chachachainz.com/

Architectural glass artist Elizabeth Devereaux traveled across the globe looking for an international education in art and architecture, from San Rafael to Vienna, then Munich. She founded her California studio in 1969, and more than 50 years later is an accomplished architectural glass artist with works installed all over the US and Canada. Devereaux states: "In an architectural setting, I always like to work in a site-specific way, noting the place and region itself, as well as the architectural style the artwork is in, the light, the interior and exterior environment. I work collaboratively, which then requires me to listen to the client/committee's story, to define their identity and understand what has meaning for them, and then to synthesize all of the information within my own style and artistic vision." One of Devereaux's most notable liturgical commissions, Christ Cathedral Memorial Gardens, Garden Grove, California, is located at an architectural pilgrimage destination. The Cathedral buildings are designed by three of the 20th century's most significant architects – Philip Johnson, Richard Neutra, and Richard Meier. The new Memorial Gardens' focus was to be "The Risen Christ" worshiped by two angels. It needed to be highly visible from the exterior, giving reference to life's journey and connecting Baptism (in the Cathedral) to death and resurrection (in the Mausoleum). Relying on reflective light, 24-carat gold luster paint allowed the windows to be clearly seen from the Cathedral opposite, as well as in the Mausoleum, which was flanked by 12 large panels of amber stained and shaded clear glass. These 12 panels were fabricated by Derix Studio in Germany; the rest of the commission was fabricated in Devereaux's Chico studio. Forty-four clerestory windows created in mouthblown cobalt streaky on clear German Lamberts glass link the interior rooms. Between each are prisms referring to the tower at the Cathedral. In another major liturgical project, at Our Lady of New Clairvaux Abbey, Vina, California, Devereaux expressed The Cistercian charism of simplicity in a contemporary style with a reference to its ancient history. The new monastery at New Clairvaux was originally a 12th-century monastery in Northern Spain. In the early 1930s William Randolph Hearst bought the monastery and imported it to California. Shortly afterwards, the Great Depression and World War II made it impossible for Hearst to build it, and he deeded it to the City of San Francisco. There it languished for 40 years behind the De Young Museum until Father Thomas Davis, a young monk newly arrived to the New Clairvaux Monastery, heard the story and had a vision of acquiring the stones for the new Abbey. The Abbey consulted with British and Spanish historians, and hired German stone carvers to re-form and recut the missing stones. The art glass in 12-century European Cistercian monasteries is abstract, simple, and often soft amber and white in color. Devereaux's windows appear simple at first glance, but in fact, are complex in their fabrication. The Fremont Antique glass was custom mouthblown to shade from white opak to clear, allowing the exterior landscape to be part of the design. It was also painted and kiln-fired with amber stain, then intersected vertically with handmade prisms. Since the monks worship during the day and night, the artist painted and fired a reflective 24-carat gold luster pattern onto the surface, bringing the translation of New Clairvaux or "Valley of Light" to life. In San Francisco, for Noe Valley Ministry's Coming to the Center window, Devereaux selected triple-flashed, mouth-blown glass, which was etched to the clear layer to portray the constellations. The transition from "sky" to "center" was accomplished by selecting custom blown rose to clear and purple to aqua glass. This allowed the glass to be sprayed and fired with orange luster, creating the subtle transition from lavender to amber. The amber "center" was leaded and laminated front and back with lead "overlay" "branches" to reference beloved artist Ruth Azawa's twig-like cross in the sanctuary. The center spiral links to the labyrinth in the space. Devereaux explains: "I always loved transparency—working with watercolor, silkscreen, overlaying color. When I discovered glass, I realized the incredible aspects of painting with light. Mouth-blown textures and color can be designed to meet direct sunlight and be projected in mysterious ways across the interior space. Or if the window is facing an unwanted view, it is possible to use translucent glass, allowing light in, but not the view or the glare. I also love the use of reflective materials, polished metals, in conjunction with glass, but sometimes mirror, and 24-carat gold, silver, and platinum lusters sprayed and fired onto glass. This allows the window to have a nightlife, different from the day. I also love pattern, making a "logo" or distillation of the meaning of the commission, then repeatin

Capitalizing on the ways glass can be arranged in and flows from a crucible, Nathan Sandberg creates reproducible decorative cane and murrine using the Vitrigraph Kiln. His work showcases these elements in a variety of artistic applications and furnishings. When not in his North Portland studio creating work or getting ready for an exhibition, Sandberg can be found presenting modern, innovative curriculum in kilnformed glass at a wide variety of studios and schools around the globe. In 2003, Sandberg received his BFA in glass and ceramics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. After working at private glassblowing studios and independently furthering his education in kiln-glass, he joined Bullseye Glass Co. in 2005. As a member of the company's Research & Education team, he taught and developed courses and online educational videos as well as assisted visiting artists. Beginning at the Bullseye factory in 2009, the artist began exploring modern Vitrigraph methods that have become the primary techniques used in the creation of his work. Sandberg creates glass panes that are full of movement and repeated patterns that gently guide the viewer's eyes through the work. He states: "Our world is complex. And I realize that occasionally we simply need a pleasant view in order to escape some of the ugliness and take ourselves somewhere healthier, even if only for a moment." In 2012, Sandberg founded Nathans LLC. This educational entrepreneurship helped establish him as one of the top kiln-glass educators in the world, sending him on teaching adventures from Santa Fe to Zurich and Australia to Norway. In 2015, Nathans LLC moved out of the basement and into a proper studio space in the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland. Today, Sandberg uses OnGrade Studio as his home base and can be found there relentlessly producing work for exhibitions and developing new curriculum to teach on the road and online. Using primarily glass, Sandberg's installations commonly make use of other materials such as wood, metal and concrete. His artwork can be found in private and public collections around the world and has received critical recognition through awards, exhibitions, and art fairs, including Glazen Huis in Lommel, Belgium, 2nd Place Non-Functional, Academic Award WG@BE3: E-merge, Bullseye Connection Gallery and SOFA Chicago. Sandberg worked with Gabriela Wilson as part of an Instructor Collaborative Residency at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in September 2019. The duo explored the traditional hot shop methods of pulling cane to compare and contrast the process with Vitrigraph methods. Currently, Sandberg operates an 8' x 10' waterjet two days a week and says this equipment will revolutionize what is possible in kilnformed glass. The artist is also in the design phase of a glass shingle backsplash for a 30-foot-tall residential waterfall project. His artwork will be on view at Guardino Gallery in Portland in September 2023 and in October at the Pittsburgh Glass Center with Amanda Simmons, Nancy Callan, Mel Douglas and Corey Pemberton in an exhibition titled Pattern.

Exploring the separation between reality and the imaginary through the use of miniatures and glass sculpture, John Sharvin draws the viewer into a new and intimate realm, reminiscent of a shadowbox or dollhouse. These dreamlike worlds create deceptive memories and locations for the viewer to reflect on as recollection of a place or memory is often distorted through the lens of time. One wonders what is conjured and what is true. Working in glass since late 2008, Sharvin graduated from The Ohio State University in 2012 with a BFA in glass. He stayed in Columbus for a few years working in galleries, doing public glass demonstrations and tutoring students until he took a technician apprenticeship at the Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) in 2014. There, he curated his first exhibition, Silica Valley, for which he developed a theme, selected the artists, titled the exhibition, and did all of the installation and lighting. The result was a show that revealed the possibilities of combining an ancient material like glass with 21st-century processes like 3D printing. Utilizing digital fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and CNC milling in his own work, Sharvin creates unique and unexpected forms in glass that include not only surrealist landscapes and motifs, but glass animals infused with detail, realism, and a hint of cuteness. He has exhibited at several galleries including Fuller Craft Museum, Lake Erie Art Museum, and Hawk Galleries, and his work has been published in New Glass Review and Dwell Magazine. Following two successful seasons of Blown Away, Sharvin applied to be cast in Season 3. Nine other contestants joined him at North America's largest hot shop in Hamilton, Ontario, to create and exhibit glass work directed by briefs that included topics such as outer space, the circus, and Seven Deadly Sins. In each episode, the glassblowers had to impress the evaluators or risk being eliminated. At stake was a life-changing prize that could send their careers to new heights. Sharvin states: "Things were not going my way, and I saw this as a great opportunity to change up my life." Participating in the six-week show required Sharvin and the other contestants to come up with a fully articulated design, talk about it, write about it and then make it in "the hottest studio" ever. Competing against each other for $60,000 in prizes, the contestants filmed 10 episodes in succession, getting only one day off during the six-week shoot due to the tight production schedule. Sharvin said: "Being a contestant on Blown Away Season 3 was an incredible experience. It was hot and challenging but was a truly life-changing time for me." Leaving his full-time employment at PGC in mid 2022 to be a full-time artist, Sharvin now applies to public art projects and is establishing his CNC mold-making business. His current work is on view now in UNDEFINED, which runs until July 30, 2023, at PGC, along with the work of fellow Blown Away Season 3 contestants John Moran and Minhi England. In 2021, Sharvin, England, and Moran were gathered in a backstage production set with seven other familiar faces. Each participant was invited to compete hoping to find new opportunities and to open creative pathways into new beginnings. Five weeks later, these three were the remaining finalists. Though Sharvin, England and Moran initially came together as competitors, their shared experiences on the show influenced comradery and mutual support. Since the premiere of the series, they have stayed in touch artistically through PGC's Artist Residency program, giving them an opportunity to collaborate as artists. This collaborative exhibition contradicts the notion of competition in the glass world.

With her unique sculptural works, Ann Wolff holds a distinguished place as one of the world's leading artists working with glass. She applies her strongly personal approach to bronze, aluminum and concrete sculpture, as well as to drawing, pastel work and photography. From April through October 2022, Prince Eugen's Waldemarsudde, one of Sweden's most popular art museums, presented a solo exhibition of Wolff's work in several techniques and media from the year 2000 until the present day. VOGUE Scandinavia nominated the show as one of the 10 best fall exhibitions in Scandinavia. It was also the largest showing of her work presented in Sweden. Wolff states: "I have seen my works in painting, stone, bronze, concrete, and glass as equal in status. Sometimes I feel that my strongest works might be in paper, charcoal and pastels." She continues: "I feel as a human being out of time. The notion of self and hence identity, grips me, disturbs me and motivates me. Everything comes from that. My interest in the self includes the others. It is clear that in the way that one carries out one's work, something like a self expresses itself. And this self is guided by constantly developing insights. The insights can be very unclear but can still be the inspiration behind a work. I am testing out old questions of identity; be it inside-outside, symmetry, layers and core, number two and the double, the goat and the monkey. Moments of recognition are what my work needs, they propel me forward. Collected moments of clarity become knowledge." Born in Germany in 1937, Wolff studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (University of Design and Art) in Ulm, Germany, then worked as a designer in Sweden. For many years, she designed for the Kosta Boda glassworks, during which time she also pursued an independent career as a studio artist. Currently living and working on the Baltic island of Gotland, Sweden, she is the recipient of several internationally prestigious distinctions including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Glass Art Society and the PRO EUROPA Foundation's European Culture Prize. She has been honored with numerous international awards, among them the renowned Coburger Glaspreis (1977), the Bayerischen Staatspreis (1988), the Jurypreis of the Toledo Museum of Art (2005), and the Award of Excellence of the Smithsonian Renwick Collection, Washington, DC (2008). The Swedish Royal family has acquired several of her works. As one of the founders of the international Studio Glass movement, Wolff was at the center of attention as early as end of the 1960s. Her initiation into the American Studio Glass movement came at the invitation of Marvin Liposfsky and Dale Chihuly. Early days at Pilchuck sharing ideas and techniques revealed to her a new reality – one in which she was respected as an artist not a designer. Wolff States: "The Studio Glass movement from the United States burst in on my work – my isolation – in the mid 1960s. I was astonished and thrilled by the freedom with which glass was handled there. An immense curiosity about the unused potential and the broad possibilities of the new material for art: glass. It has to fit into the framework of art in general, though. For me, art is the deciding factor. The path I took shows that I intensely wanted to express my life in pictures, clarify things for myself. Of course, I could have started in a quite different medium – painting, sculpture, film – but it became glass." In her 50-year career, Wolff repeatedly created works that made people think. With glass, she allowed the world to glance at her esthetic sentimentality, and she also created homogenous objects. Ever recurring themes predominant in her work are womanhood and habitation expressed through objects that are mostly monochrome, often in warm earthy tones. Dance-theater was a strong inspiration, and she was allowed to attend rehearsals with Pina Bausch, made views from what she saw there and then formed glass objects. Wolff brings out the special characteristics of glass: contours, surfaces, the relation between inside and outside. She makes inner landscapes visible. What lies behind the mask? The artist has asked herself this question again and again over the years. The psychology behind the facade is a regular theme of her works. Investigating further the subject of Wolff's blown and engraved bowls and cast sculptures, one finds that the relationships between women as friends, and as mothers and daughters, and the role of women in society deeply concern her. She writes: "It is natural to take oneself as one's starting point. The situation of women partly determines who I am and leads me to pose particular questions."

Daniel Collins has spent more than 20 years directing award-winning documentary films that examine the untold stories of innovative artists, unsung activists, and underground subcultures. He has strong roots in the glass art community, producing work that focuses on both the American Studio Glass movement and the often-misunderstood borosilicate pipe movement. He began his filmmaking career at the Delaware-based nonprofit media initiative Hearts and Minds Film in 2001, founded Dan Collins Media in 2014, and launched Fire Team Films, which focuses exclusively on glass-related content, in 2022. In October, Collins' latest film Slinger debuted on Amazon and Vimeo on Demand. Aaron Golbert, aka Marble Slinger, embodies the artistic evolution and cultural revolution of the American glass pipe movement. He began making pipes in the 1990s, learning well-kept craft secrets from a few generous mentors, at a time when making "drug paraphernalia" could still land you in jail. Now, 25 years later, he is revered for his unique and ever-changing pipe aesthetics, his bold forays into the world of pop-art (especially his "Assault Girl" designs; Warhol-inspired mashups of the Morton Salt Logo), and perhaps above all for his documentary film, Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes (2012). This groundbreaking film premiered at the legendary SXSW Film Festival and enjoyed a two-year run as a top-ranked documentary on Netflix, giving audiences around the world the first detailed look into the underground glass pipe subculture. Says Slinger: "I've always seen glass pipe making as an extension of legalization activism, a protest, saying we believe that cannabis is beautiful!" Slinger studied film at Ithaca College in upstate New York, but when he first glimpsed the mysterious glass pipes that began popping up on Grateful Dead and Phish tour in the mid-90s he was hooked. Devoted to outlaw cannabis culture, and hungry for an alternative to mainstream life, Slinger headed to Seattle to learn the art of pipe making. He has since become an artistic icon in a scene which has turned into a billion-dollar industry. This film tells the story of his life's journey in a deep, personal way, while following him through a frigid Philadelphia winter as he prepares for a rare solo exhibition in sunny California. Directed by long-time friend and award- winning filmmaker Collins, the film offers a unique glimpse into Slinger's world, inviting audiences to intimately experience the many challenges an artist faces in the pursuit of passion. "You don't need to go to film school, you need to live a life worthy of making a film about:" states Slinger. Collins is best known in the glass-pipe community for being the editor of Marble Slinger's opus Degenerate Art: The Art & Culture of Glass Pipes(2012). He has since gone on to direct three more feature-length glass documentaries: Project 33 (2017): chronicling the work of Oregon Artist Marcel Braun; Art That Gives Back (2023): the story of the Michigan Glass Project, which will release at their event in September 2023; and most recently Slinger (2022): a portrait of the artist who originally introduced Collins to the world of glass art. Currently in production on two exciting new documentary films about glass, Collins journeyed to the outskirts of Havana to document the nascent studio glass movement in Cuba, and hopes to complete his film, ¡FUEGO! soon. Find the trailer here: https://youtu.be/UlKsyWLOqkY Beginning in January 2023, Collins turned his lens on American glass master Paul Stankard, to produce an intimate artist portrait with the help of Stankard's long-time colleague, David Graeber. Collins' work has won many awards, premiered at prestigious festivals, and been distributed internationally. He is also a published poet, recording artist, and faculty member at the traditional-arts nonprofit organization Common Ground on the Hill (McDaniel College, Westminster, MD) where he is the co-founder of the Common Ground Veterans Initiative, a program that promotes healing through the arts for combat veterans.

Comprised of hundreds of objects fabricated using multiple glass processes, Between Seeing and Knowing is a large-scale, site-specific installation by artists Anna Boothe and Nancy Cohen. The installation is on view now through February 5, 2023 at Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin. Created as part of a collaborative residency that took place at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) in 2012, the artwork has been previously exhibited at Accola Griefen Gallery, New York, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and Philadelphia's International Airport. At its core, Between Seeing and Knowing is the result of both artists' long-standing interest in and in-depth study of Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings and the integration of their otherwise very separate studio practices. Thangkas are ordered cosmological paintings, often scrolls, created for the purpose of meditation and composed of numerous visual elements. This installation reinterprets the symbolism in the paintings to create new work that reflects the organizational structure and palette of the paintings, as well as the sense of expansiveness and lack of hard resolution characteristic of Buddhist ideology. Boothe and Cohen state: "Overall, through this collaboration, its subject matter, and our chosen methodology, we seek to understand, both visually and viscerally, another cultural perspective or expression unlike our own, through our dissection and re-assemblage of elements unique to that culture. Just as collaboration brings forth the opportunity for a deep exchange of ideas and the development of sympathetic approaches to doing what one does, pragmatically and metaphorically, this is our attempt at bridging gaps between cultural approaches to explain the unexplainable." With degrees in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design and glass from Tyler School of Art/Temple University, Boothe has worked with glass since 1980. Included in the permanent collections of CMoG, Racine Art Museum and Tacoma Museum of Art, her cast glass work has been exhibited widely, including recently at the Albuquerque Art Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts and the Hotel Nani Mocenigo Palace in Venice, as well as at several villas in Italy's Veneto Region. Boothe taught in Tyler's glass program for 16 years, helped develop and chaired Salem Community College's glass art program and has exhibited and/or lectured internationally in Australia, Belgium, Israel, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey, as well as at numerous US universities and glass-focused schools. She served on the Board and as President of the Glass Art Society from 1998-2006 and is a former Director of Glass at Philadelphia's National Liberty Museum. With an MFA in Sculpture from Columbia University and a BFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology, Cohen has been working with glass (among other materials) since 1990. Her work examines resiliency in relation to the environment and the human body. Cohen's work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States and is represented in collections such as The Montclair Museum, The Weatherspoon Art Gallery, and The Zimmerli Museum. She has completed large-scale, site-specific projects for The Staten Island Botanical Garden, The Noyes Museum of Art, The Katonah Museum, Howard University, and others. Recent solo exhibitions include Walking a Line at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Chelsea, New York, and Nancy Cohen: Atlas of Impermanence at the Visual Arts Center in Summit, New Jersey. Group exhibitions include All We Can Save: Climate Conversations at the Nurture Nature Center in Easton, Pennsylvania, and ReVision and Respond at The Newark Museum. Cohen is a 2022 recipient of a Mid-Atlantic Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She currently teaches drawing and sculpture at Queens College. In a review of Boothe and Cohen's collaborative project, Elizabeth Crawford of N.Y Arts Magazine, wrote: : "Intuitively proximate to Buddhist philosophy, the piece is about the inter-relatedness of things. Each glass part appears sentient and in direct communication with the others. In a Thangka painting, none of the forms are meant to be isolated but work together to invite the viewer to take the painting in at once, as a whole. Similarly, all of the pieces in Boothe and Cohen's installation contribute to a sense of continuous breath or movement which is enhanced by light reflecting through the glass." For this innovative work the artists used an astounding range of glass processes including kiln-casting, slumping, fusing, blowing, hot-sculpting and sand-casting.

This year, flameworking pioneer Paul Stankard will celebrate his 80th birthday. To commemorate more than six decades at the torch, the artist joined Talking Out Your Glass podcast for a return visit featuring a discussion about his contributions to glass and art, including his new book, Inspiration from the Art of Paul J. Stankard: A Window into My Studio and Soul. Jack Wax, artist and head of the glass department at The Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, wrote the following about Stankard's latest and fourth book: "Paul Joseph Stankard is the living master of the art of the botanical paperweight. There ought not to be any argument as to where he stands in the history of this endeavor, an undertaking that dates back to the mid-19th century and the famed Venetian glassmaker Pietro Bigaglia. He has, as a noted autodidact, aimed at elevating the production of these objects to stratospheric heights. His patient and long-term focus on capturing the subtle beauty of blossoms before they fade, and of bouquets that never wilt, has brought to the world marvels of observation, obsession, fixation, and, importantly, of invention. There is a tendency for people to gaze in wonder and become infatuated when encountering "impossible objects" for the first time. This has been his purview. That said, becoming a master in the world of 21st-century decorative art production might not ensure that your corollary endeavors—writing poetry and laying out the inexorably tied-up nature of beauty's role in the success of an artwork—needs to be shared with posterity. Stankard's voice is sincere and heartfelt. His choice of words is deeply weighed, his phrasing and pacing seriously considered. He is, after all, attempting to distill, out of the quickly dispersing mists of creativity, an essence, a tincture that will contain some drops of truth. That can, at times, become a dangerous area to interpret and translate for a broad swath of the population. Being great at one thing in no way guarantees that one is good at another… If you pick this book up, you will assuredly spend time considering the beauty of Paul Stankard's botanical images in glass. He is a genuinely passionate, sincerely earnest maker who cares deeply for the natural world and has devoted a lifetime to the true intricacies of what is visible—and what is not—for those who persevere and cultivate what may be revealed in the application of an extraordinarily sustained and amplified focus." Considered a living master in the art of the paperweight, Stankard's work is represented in more than 75 museums around the world. Over his 40-year artistic journey, he has received two honorary doctorate degrees, an honorary associate's degree, and many awards within the glass community, most recently the Masters of the Medium Award from Smithsonian's The James Renwick Alliance and the Glass Art Society's Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a Fellow of the American Craft Council and a recipient of the UrbanGlass Award—Innovation in a Glassworking Technique. In 1961, Stankard enrolled in Salem County Vocational Technical Institute's Scientific Glassblowing program (now Salem Community College). During his subsequent 10-year scientific glassblowing career, fabricating complex instruments was his focus. As head of the glass department at Rohn & Haas in Philadelphia, the artist began experimenting with floral paperweights as a hobby. The work was eventually noticed by art dealer Reese Palley at a craft expo in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and in 1972, Stankard abandoned industry for art. Stankard's role as educator includes establishing the flameworking studio at Penland School of Craft, Spruce Pine, North Carolina, and serving as a founding board member and President of The Creative Glass Center of America, Millville, New Jersey. The artist taught students in the US at Penland; the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York; Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington; and abroad at Kanaz Forest of Creation Japan with Hiroshi Yamano as well as at North Lands Creative, in the Scottish Highlands. He remains an Artist-in-Residence and Honorary Professor at Salem Community College, where he founded the International Flameworking Conference. Now dividing his time between flameworking and writing, Stankard is the author of Inspiration from the Art of Paul J. Stankard: A Window into My Studio and Soul; an autobiography No Green Berries or Leaves: The Creative Journey of an Artist in Glass; an educational resource Spark the Creative Flame: Making the Journey from Craft to Art; and Studio Craft as Career: A Guide to Achieving Excellence in Art-making. In March 2023, Stankard will once again attend the International Flameworking Conference (IFC). He will also be instructing a workshop with Lucio Bubacco in May. IFC details are at www.salemcc.edu/ifc and workshop info is at https://salemcc.edu/glass/intensive-glass-workshop In celebration of his 80th birthday, WheatonArts will host a

Seattle based artist working in glass and metal, MiNHi England was a finalist in Season 3 of the Blown Away series, which premiered on Netflix in July of 2022. She worked her way into the hearts of viewers with stunning glass design and technique as seen in works such as The Spectacular Bearded Dragon Lady or her collaborative installation with fellow contestant Dan Friday called One Million Scovilles. Having earned her BFA from Alfred University in 2010, England has worked as a professional glassblower at numerous studios throughout the greater Seattle area. She now runs a hotshop named Liquid Lush Studio with her friend Bri Chesler, where the two friends create strange but beautiful glass-blown pieces that can be sold as gifts. The Seattle-based personality also continues in her roles as production manager at Artful Ashes and instructor at Pratt Fine Arts Center. With England's current individual art practice focused heavily on her recent young widow status, she learns to navigate overwhelming loss, grief and life altering transition. In 2012, Minhi met and married her late husband Jesse England at Pilchuck. The two bonded over a shared passion for combining glass and metal in a contemporary and conceptual fashion. Originally from Kansas, Jesse earned his BFA in Sculpture and Glass from Emporia State University in 2007. In 2013, he earned an MFA in Sculpture and Glass from the University of Texas at Arlington. Soon after meeting, Jesse and Minhi established an artist compound in which friends and colleagues could live and work. They eventually partnered with Artful Ashes to create iconic glass memorials. In 2019, Jesse was diagnosed with MPNST (malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor). To help fight the cancer, Jesse underwent a few different procedures including a below the knee amputation, radiation, chemotherapy, and trial drugs. Sadly, however, he passed away 18 months after his diagnosis and nine months after he and Minhi married. Despite his poor health, Jesse and Minhi married on September 5, 2020. Minhi wore a $30-dress and cowboy boots she got when the couple went on their first trip to Texas. In an Instagram post, she talked about the impact Jesse had on her life. "You have believed in me when I didn't believe in myself, encouraged me, and lifted me up in my darkest days. We've shared some of my most cherished memories, and you will forever have my whole heart. You have shown me abundant generosity and kindness despite my many shortcomings. I am grateful for your bountiful love and devotion." From the depths of grief, England gathered her strength and faced new challenges before the eyes of the world. She joined the cast of Blown Away – the Netflix reality competition series that she and Jesse used to watch together. She said: "Jesse was the one who encouraged me to do it. That was his last gift to me." Along with the great success Minhi experienced on Blown Away, the artist has been awarded several artist residencies including the Hauberg Residency at Pilchuck Glass School, the Hilltop Artists Residency in Tacoma, and she has exhibited work at Bellevue Art Museum. Presently, she has an upcoming immersive gallery installation set to open in early 2023 at Method Gallery in Seattle as well as a group exhibition with fellow Blown Away artists John Sharvin and John Moran titled, Undefined, opening on February 3 at Pittsburgh Glass Center Gallery. England states: "When I use glass in my work, I find myself personifying the material, giving it permission to embody self. The unique properties of hot glass allow me to generate a sense of vitality when I force my own breath inside. This action further connects me to the process. Although I set the stage, there are moments that happen outside of my control, metaphorically illustrating the human experience. Choosing when to relinquish control creates opportunity for evolution."

Stanton Studios, expanded from the well-known Stanton Glass Studio, was founded in 1979 by Bryant J. Stanton. Beginning with a workbench in a loft studio and a couple of crates of glass, the studio has grown into a nationally-recognized business with completed work in businesses and homes across Texas and the United States. In addition to Stanton, his four sons and their team of craftsmen operate Stanton Studios just north of Waco, Texas. Stanton began his journey into the world of art as a young adult in high school. When he wrote a research paper on Gothic Cathedrals, he became fascinated with stained glass and window bays. Later, attending Texas Tech then transferring to Baylor, Stanton studied 3-Dimensional Studio Art and found that he incorporated glass wherever possible in all of his art projects. But the young artist didn't begin pursuing his passion until a fateful event occurred. When Stanton took an off campus walk, he discovered an old stained glass shop and met a man who changed his life by teaching him the craft. After making his first butterfly sun-catcher, the young Stanton was "instantly hooked." He accepted a full-time job at The Warehouse working for Homer Owen and made inspirational gifts – sun-catchers with bible verses on them. In 1979, Stanton began his own business in a downtown Waco, Texas, shop and started calling churches and businesses, advertising his services. He received his first restoration job fixing up windows for Central Christian Church. His first two window commissions were created for Pelican's Warf and the Brazos Landing; ironically, both waterfront restaurants wanted Pelican-themed windows looking out onto the Brazos River. Stanton taught his first child, Tiffany, the shop's ways and how to handle glass. Soon after, Nathan and Jordan, the eldest sons, began learning their father's trade. Jordan was "a little clone of his father" and quickly picked up the skills needed for creating glass. As assistant manager, he accompanied his father to meetings. Nathan, the eldest son, found that working with glass was not his passion and learned his own trade – woodworking. Tiffany eventually taught her younger sibling, Samuel, to work with glass, and he joined the shop as a grouter. As time passed, Stanton hired an in-house glass painter, Joe Barbieri, his wife Suzanne eventually became the bookkeeper, and Jordan became the official manager. Samuel also moved up from being in "the mud room" to being a builder. Tim, the youngest son, joined the shop as a builder, and Nathan helped to expand Stanton Glass Studio into Stanton Studios as he brought his woodworking abilities to the shop. Since founding the business, Stanton has worked tirelessly designing and creating works in glass. The knowledge and experience gained have allowed him to complete iconic works that are not only breathtaking but magnificent feats to design and build. He and his family can tackle projects ranging from stained glass for churches, residences or businesses to huge sculptures for universities or giant glass domes for hotels. Stanton says he most enjoys projects that are big and challenging, such as the 3-story long DNA sculpture that hangs suspended in a stairwell in the McLennan Community College Sciences Building in Waco, the iconic dome of the Driskill Hotel in Austin, and the restoration of the priceless Louis Comfort Tiffany windows for a Galveston church. Stanton has come a long way from that first butterfly suncatcher. He and his family are always learning more and continuing to find new challenges in creating the most beautiful art glass. Due to their success, Stanton has served on several community boards, including the Waco Chamber of Commerce and the Waco Art Center. He is the current president of the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA) and also served as the past Editorial Chair of Stained Glass Quarterly magazine. SGAA's 2023 conference will be held in Buffalo, New York, September 27 through October 1. As Stanton Studios continues to hire more builders and expand, its founder hopes that the business will live on through his sons, who are now in charge of teaching the new hires the skills involved with stained glass making – keeping the art and craft of stained glass alive.

ott Deppe, pioneer in the functional glass art scene for three decades, brings an artistic vision to glassblowing that parallels that of influential artists of other media. Adept at evolving techniques, he quickly mastered traditional moves like reticellos and disk flips and innovated techniques of his own to achieve alien function and incorporate intricate detail and sacred geometry into his glass work. Most recently, his exploration has culminated in silver and gold fumed hologram glass that transforms finished pieces into deep illustrative tapestries. Born in Idaho, Deppe moved to Bellingham, Washington, the year before he started making pipes. He encountered his first blown glass pipe at a Grateful Dead show in 1993. On his way home, he stopped at a local hardware store, bought a torch and some glass, set up in his living room and melted a couple of spoon pipes, trying to recreate a piece he had fallen in love with at the Dead show – a little spoon with a mushroom bead on the side. Deppe says: "I had a natural ability to deconstruct things with my mind. Through experimentation, I often came up with better, easier ways of doing things." Other than an early goblet class with Brian Kerkvliet, Deppe is self-taught and well-known for his constant experimentation on the torch resulting in early mind-blowing solo works such as Take Me to the Mothership, his Deady Bear piece, and his collaborative Team Japan works – all of which expanded how people thought about glass and how much they were willing to spend on pipe art. Since then, he has done collabs with many industry greats. Deppe is the founder of Mothership – a glass artist collective with a mission to create the best functional glass in the galaxy. The Mothership first landed on Earth in 2013, making contact in the Pacific Northwest. Its team of glass artists and crew constantly push the boundaries to make creations that combine beauty and sophistication into functional glass art. The company prides itself on passion for both the artform and cannabis culture, resulting in every piece being handcrafted with love. When it comes to a consensus on who is the most talented glass artist within the industry, you will be hard pressed to find one with more mentions than Deppe, a true master of the art form. Holding a Deppe piece, one marvels at the precision of his craftsmanship. While many artists are cornering a niche market with a trademark style, this artist has always been one to display a breathtaking ability to master any technique. Legacy GlassWorks Gallery in Duluth, MN will feature Mothership Glass on Saturday, December 3, 2022 https://www.legacyglassworks.com/pages/upcoming-events-2 Legends of Hash will also feature Mothership from Dec 2 – 3, 2022 in Los Angeles. https://www.legendsofhashish.com/projects-6 Deppe will attend this event. Says Deppe: "I just want to do something different, always. It's what feels good."

James Devereux's Clovis Collection is the result of labored experiments by the artist to literally chip hot glass like stone. Having perfected this unusual technique, he produces breathtaking, monolithic objects with smooth lines juxtaposed with fractured edges. Creating these pieces in subtle tones places the focus on the texture and form of each component. Devereux states: "A blow too hard would simply shatter the piece, too light a tap would crush the surface. After flame polishing, the meandering edges despite their appearance are not sharp, but smooth to the touch." Having worked with many prominent names within the industry in a host of roles including collaborating artist, facilitator, instructor and demonstrator, Devereux's impact within British and international glass to date has been far reaching. Positioned as one of the most active glass artists currently working in the UK, it is the unique combination of abundant skills and technique with an eye for detail that has made him a highly respected and sought-after glass craftsman. Starting in the industry at the age of 15 thanks to a work experience placement at Bath Aqua Glass, Devereux worked at a crystal factory making stemware, tableware and gifts. He subsequently studied glass for three years at Wolverhampton University before opening his first hotshop in the inspiring Wiltshire countryside. In 2009, Devereux took a job as the glass technician at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London before attending the college as a student. He states: "RCA opened my eyes to everything else going on in glass, including new contacts and opportunities that remain at the core of my career." After leaving London in 2013, Devereux and fellow glass artist Katharine Huskie established a new studio together. Devereux and Huskie Glassworks is a custom-built studio dedicated to creating innovating and exciting glass for designers and artists from the UK and overseas. Over the years, Devereux and Huskie Glassworks has become known for large-scale glass sculpture that pushes the boundaries of the material. Devereux also sells glass tools and supplies through his business, Glass Toolbox. Visit https://www.glasstoolbox.co.uk. Devereux and US artist David Patchen first met through social media and at the Glass Art Society's (GAS) conference in Murano, but their unique collaboration didn't officially begin until 2019 in San Francisco. United in harmony, their collaborative artworks combine Patchen's murrine patterns and Devereux's intrinsic forms. Making their first collaborative Clovis sculpture at a fundraising party and their second during a demo for hundreds of people at GAS Tacoma, their relationship continued during Covid with Patchen shipping pattern blanks from San Francisco to Devereux in the UK. Patchen makes murrine with color combinations he's interested in exploring – cutting and arranging different pieces together to achieve the perfect mosaic for blowing. Devereux then uses these intricate patterns to sculpt and breathe life into the artwork. Says Patchen: "My collaboration with James has been going strong over the past year. We began this project just before the pandemic and have completed a dozen sculptures without the benefit of working in the studio together. We communicate via text and email with me making the patterns in San Francisco and shipping James patterned murrine blanks (thick densly-patterned cups) which he heats up in his studio in England to create the finished sculptural forms. Aside from being distinctive and beautiful forms, a particularly interesting aspect of these is the hot-chipped edge. James creates this edge texture by carefully hammering the sculpture while the glass is hot on the punty, chipping away chunks of glass, exposing the interior and creating the scalloped edge. You can see a short video on my Instagram of James chipping the second Clovis we made in San Francisco at the beginning of our collaboration." Devereux is currently exploring a new series, Diodes, continuing his look at collectable obsolete objects. These works combine multiple materials, processes and skills as well as distorted Morse code to look at what we consider current or outdated technology or communication. Having just returned from Biot International Glass Festival, and travels to Sweden and Istanbul, the artist discusses his history and works in glass.

Vivian Wang is an American sculptor of Chinese descent, who is inspired by the art of ancient China and Japan. With Asian features and formal poses, her figures are always elaborately clothed in garments replete with Asian patterns and motifs. The style and color of the clothing has been greatly influenced by her previous career as a fashion designer. The "textile-like" surfaces of her work are purposely distressed or antiqued. Wang uses glass components for the hands, feet and heads of her figures, which imbues them with an intangible quality. Together, these elements give the sculptures a haunting look, mirroring the paintings and sculptures of ancient China and Japan. All of Wang's pieces are now extravagantly embellished with semi-precious stones and crystals. This reflects the opulence and pageantry of court life in ancient Asia. Even the Samurai warrior wears the most resplendent armor covered with an overwhelming number of garnets and moonstones. The use of these semi-precious stones is a new direction in her art, one which she intends to develop further. Wang states: "It is difficult to place my art, sometimes referred to as Asian Figurative Sculpture, neatly into the spectrum of the art world as it is both old and new. Ancient in its origins, subjects and some of its materials, my work is also contemporary in its use of cast glass as a significant element of its design. In ancient times, figurative sculpture was made in ceramics, stone and wood, and I have followed that tradition by using clay for my bodies. In old China, glass was used only for religious artifacts and decorative ornaments; its purpose to mimic jade. In contrast, I employ glass as glass to create my heads, hands and feet, a contemporary use of materials." A former New York fashion designer, Wang was inspired to become a sculptor after seeing work by Akio Takemori. One lucky day, sometime around the turn of the new millennium, she walked into Garth Clark's Gallery on West 57th Street in New York City to see Takemori's sculptures. She knew then that viewing that exhibition would change her life. "Perhaps my interest in ceramics is what took me to Akio Takemori's exhibition that day," says Wang. "From the moment I saw Akio's pieces, I was hooked. I was literally transfixed by his work. The exhibition consisted of a dozen ceramic figures, about two or three feet in height, of the people he remembered from the Japanese village he had lived in as a child. I had never seen anything like them. My embrace of Akio's work made me want to do what he did, to become a sculptor, to create my own figurative pieces." At the time, Wang was living in New York and working as a fashion designer for Jones, New York – a large, corporate, not "very creative", clothing manufacturer. Several years earlier, Wang had sold her own design firm because small fashion companies could no longer compete against the large corporations. To satisfy her creative needs, she began experimenting with ceramics, casting plates, bowls and cups, and painting intricate Chinese scenes and people on them. For several years, she continued her career as a designer, but with some encouragement from her husband, she took a giant leap and quit her job to become a sculptor. For a while, Wang stayed in New York, taking live model sculpture classes. But in 2007, she and her husband moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where she became an artist. Early works included first American children, called Ragamuffins. Then she moved on to Chinese and Japanese courtiers and children. By 2009, Wang had produced enough work to have her first exhibition at Stewart Fine Art Gallery in Boca Raton, Florida. Her sculpture sold well there, and three years later she was invited to join Habatat Galleries. "Since then, I have been creating sculptures as quickly as humanly possible – and having a wonderful life doing so," Wang says. Wang's sculpture can be found in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida; Barry Art Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida. She has been honored with the "Artist of the Future Award" by Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2019; Fort Wayne Museum of Art Award, 45th International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition, 2017; Art Palm Beach Award for Excellence in Creativity, 2017; Fort Wayne Museum of Art Award, 2015; the 43rd International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition, Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, Michigan; and Outstanding Glass Artist of 2013, Florida Glass Art Alliance, Miami, Florida.

Six years ago, Hannah Gregory, owner of Bad Ass Stained Glass, Cervantes, Western Australia, was puttying windows for free in exchange for education in stained glass. In October 2022, the artist spent a month at the renowned Judson Studios, Los Angeles, California, working with some of the best glass painters in the world as well as artists working with glass in non-traditional ways. This was made possible through a fellowship awarded to Gregory by the International Specialized Skills Institute of Australia. Growing up in Western Australia, Gregory enjoyed a childhood spent by the ocean, around cray-fishing boats and fishing off of the beach. With no fine arts education, she has always been an outsider artist, making irreverent, bold works in painting, drawing, printing and photography until her mid 20s when she became focused entirely on working with glass. Since 2016, stained glass has been the planet on which Gregory wakes and sleeps. She has now trained, worked, studied and travelled extensively in the US, Europe, and Australia resulting in a comprehensive and contrasting repertoire of both Medieval and innovative skills and techniques for working with stained glass. Residencies have been awarded to Gregory by the Australia Council of the Arts, the International Specialized Skills Institute, the Western Australian Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, and the American Glass Guild. A passionate advocate for a more diverse, inclusive and engaging future for stained glass, Gregory is also determined to undermine the outdated expectations and connotations of her beloved craft. Gregory states: "I believe stained glass needs to be where people don't expect it. It needs to say things people don't expect it to say. It needs to ask questions. It needs to be in architecture/ outside of architecture. It needs to be thought provoking and collaborative." Currently living with her husband in the small fishing town of Cervantes on unceded Yued land, Gregory enjoys working on both architectural commissions and experimental autonomous works. She served as International Artist in Resident at the well-known Swansea College of Art in the UK for what was supposed to be one year, but ended up being two due to Covid. At the beginning of 2022, she returned to Australia where she was awarded a six-month residency at the Fremantle Arts Centre, resulting in a new body of work focused on seaweed. Her work can be found in architecture and private collections across the world. Upon her return to Australia from Judson Studios, Gregory begins work on two large jellyfish windows, a complex commission for a wildlife photographer and videographer in Oregon for 12 animal skylights, an ongoing larger job in Melbourne that will be her largest job to date, and her Steven's competition window. She has also just received seed money from the UN International Year of Glass to run some lead lighting workshops for people in regional Australia and is hoping to start glass painting workshops in her studio. She enjoys sharing her passion for glass through teaching and workshops when she can. Believing that stained glass is a having a bit of a renaissance and hasn't reached its full potential, Gregory and husband Kris are experimenting with traditional wet plate collodion photography on glass and its applications for stained glass. Other recent projects have included two windows for a door depicting a large protea, some commissioned tattoo designs and some small memorial windows. Says Gregory: "My work is guided by the concept of transformation from destruction. Stained glass is one of the most enduring artforms in the western world, and its creation hinges on breaking glass, manipulating metals, burning pigment. Every act in fabricating a piece of my work relies on destruction. In its very essence, the building and durability of stained glass relies on a balanced mix of the fragility of glass, and the strength of lead."

As a storyteller, John Moran's work is constructed from a series of anecdotes, references, and experiences. While he draws ties to American pop culture, politics, and social issues, it's not done arbitrarily. The artist attempts to illustrate how he sees the barrage of consumerism, religion, and politics colliding with depictions of social injustice, secular beliefs, and popular culture. These hot sculpted works pack an emotional punch through unforgettable imagery as seen in pieces such as New Times Roman and Sale of the Deathman. Moran States: "I myself am a product of all of these things; I am American, and America was founded on dissent. To paraphrase Picasso: my work is a collection of lies, hopefully helping the viewer realize the truth. Though for me the truth is not absolute, it is simply how I see the world. It is not necessarily an attempt at subversion, but more an attempt to reconcile, and in a way celebrate, the absurdity and hypocrisy of society." These attributes and ideologies made Moran's appearance on the Netflix glassblowing competition series, Blown Away 3, a personal nod to irony. Originally from Philadelphia, the winner of Season 3 currently resides in Ghent, Belgium, where he directs Gent Glas, a community glass studio he co-founded in 2014. The mission of Gent Glas is to build an inclusive community of artists working to introduce glass as an artistic medium to the public. Receiving his BFA from Tyler School of Art and MFA from Illinois State University, Moran recently completed his PhD at Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Poland. He has participated in several international artist in residence programs including CGCA at WheatonArts, S12, GlazenHuis Lommel, and STARWorks. His work has been exhibited in many galleries and museums across the United States and Europe, including Habatat Galleries, SiC! Gallery, Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, and Delaware Contemporary. Since winning Blown Away 3, Moran has been extremely busy. October events included demonstrating at Michigan Hot Glass and a Meet the Artist event for the exhibition We Are Blown Away at Habatat Detroit Fine Arts. On October 21 at 7 p.m., Moran will give a public demonstration at the Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) alongside Minhi England and John Sharvin. Throughout the month of November, he will participate in Habatat's online exhibition Not Grandmas Glass. His residency at Museum of Glass Tacoma runs from November 9 – 13. In 2023, an exhibition with England and Sharvin will be held at PGC in February and Moran's Corning Museum of Glass residency – grand prize for winning Blown Away 3 – begins in April. Of the inspiration for his glass sculpture, Moran states: "It may not seem autobiographical, but my experiences and observations are the genesis of my ideas. Each piece is a reaction to a specific event, but is not an illustration of it. I pull from everything around me. My own political and religious views, art, books, movies, family, and popular culture culminate into layers of seemingly random references, multiple components, and a visual overload that mimics our daily experience."

Sibelle Yüksek aka Sibelley has made a name for herself in the flameworking and functional glass worlds through the creation of what she refers to as "little women." After focusing primarily on nudes, she shifted her energies into making video game and anime characters outfitted with accessories and garments. One early complex piece took roughly 40 hours to make. This female rig outfitted with a machine gun is a glass representation of Motoko from Ghost In The Shell. Considering the sculptural nature of her art, it's not surprising that Sibelley majored in illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, with the goal of working in fashion. But she fell in love with glass in an elective casting course and decided to double major in glass studies – an artform that would come in handy for sculptural installations and jewelry making. Moving to Los Angeles, California, in 2014, Sibelley set up a torch in an ill-advised bedroom studio, where she made jewelry until landing a gig at Neptune Glassworks. There, she learned how to make vessels and glassware while experimenting with smokables on the side. The artist credits 2 Stroke with her move into functional glass. While assisting him at his AGE show, he pointed out the many benefits of transitioning into the pipe scene. In 2018, it all came together for Sibelley after taking a master class with OG flameworker, Robert Mickelsen, who taught her how to refine her sculpting with holloware. "I spent so many years studying the figure in illustration, doing live drawings, looking at comic books, drawing and drawing and drawing. So, the body has always been with me. But when I took his class, everything fell into place. I know how to work with glass and I know bodies, so he was the glue that put it together for me." Most of Sibelley's work is marketed through her Instagram, where she has built a growing following. The artist is still trying to figure out where her pieces fit in to the pipe scene and the art world – should they be found in head shops and smoke shops, or interior design settings? Should they be functional or sculptural? Carly Fisher, Leafly.com, wrote: "There's something daring and uniquely fitting about a woman facing the flames, not adhering to preconceived notions about how a pipe should look or devaluing its legitimacy as art because it can be used for cannabis. If anything, it's another example of the limitless ways people are reexamining and elevating cannabis culture to a broader market." Combining influences from her teen obsessions with Japanese comic books and gaming, experiences with yoga and bodywork, and her education in fashion illustration, Sibelley's delicate, naturalistic interpretations of female bodies that double as a pipe put her on the map. She recently held her first solo show at Glass2Grass in Miami on September 4, and she will participate in the upcoming exhibition, Mins Volume 4 on October 14 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The show will feature works from over 200 artists including Sibelley. VIP tickets are available via the link in @minspipeshow Instagram bio. General admission is free. Sibelley will demo at GAS Detroit in June and teach at the Corning Museum of Glass from July 9-16, 2023.