At the Glass Art Society’s (GAS) 2025 conference, Trailblazing New Traditions, held in May in Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas, Zachary Layhew and Hoseok Youn presented a unique collaborative glassblowing demonstration where Youn’s Venetian fantasy vessels intersected with the baroque, cubist influences of Layhew’s practice. The artists shared their unique approaches to traditional techniques and designs, both makers transforming the context of tradition through the lens of their original personalities. The result was a figurative sculpture constructed from historical goblets and decorative stemware, combined with the line patterns of cane. Goblets and cane are common and popular in the glass tradition, but this demonstration showed the community a creative and innovative way to elevate those methods to new frontiers while paying respect to their origins.

Layhew started his glass career at the age of 14 by taking an introductory intensive at the Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) called Teen Bootcamp. He quickly fell in love with the material and the community surrounding it. Through the years, the artist has focused on his technical skills in glass and developing his personal voice through sculpture. His work revolves around a combination of glassblowing, cold working, and then further reheating, manipulating, and assembling the pieces. 

Working as an artist and instructor at PGC, Layhew assists other Pittsburgh artists in his spare time. He will teach Lines, Rings, and Patterned Things at Foci, the Minnesota Center for Glass Arts, from November 12 through 16. In December, the artist has a residency at Keystone College, Factoryville, Pennsylvania, and through the rest of 2025 and 2026, he will teach eight-week classes at PGC. Additionally, Layhew creates production work that is sold online and in person. 

A South Korean glass artist specializing in glassblowing, Youn holds a BFA degree in glass and ceramics from Namseoul University, Cheon Ahn, Korea, and earned an MFA in glass from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Illinois. He has taught at Bowling Green State University as an adjunct professor, was a studio artist at Toledo Museum of Art and a studio lead at Belger Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Youn’s artistic practice focuses on Venetian traditional glass, figurative sculptures, and photography. He is inspired by heroes and villains based on pop culture and toys. His work reflects the image of his ideal successful self, combining crystal clear glass, elaborate vessel forms, intricate stemware, and abundant details. In 2026, he will teach a workshop at Pilchuck Glass School, session 7. Click this link for details https://www.pilchuck.org/programs/sessions/lost-and-found

Enjoy this conversation with Layhew and Youn about their individual work in glass as well as their groundbreaking collaborative demo at the 2025 GAS conference.

Author and architectural glass artist Robert Sowers wrote that lead should be considered a design element and not just a matrix to hold stained glass. That idea spoke to Richard Prigg, who has developed a body of work that celebrates lead and solder as much as it does breathtakingly beautiful glass. Though historically stained glass windows conveyed the teachings of the church, Prigg’s work intentionally tells no stories, but rather impacts the viewer by combining more expressive lead work with various light-modulating elements of and beyond the window itself.

States Prigg: “I have an aversion to storytelling. I feel that it can often move the viewer away from the work so that instead of observing and considering what is in front of them, they fly off to the never-never land where the story takes them. Of course, I recognize that storytelling is an integral part of being human. We tell stories to one another to help define our identities. The stories in our culture give us a we that can guide our ways of living. But there is a dark side of storytelling, and it is intrinsic to the spoken word. It is our human tendency to use story to deceive. So, I am distrustful of art with a story, because a story can be a lie. I am distrustful of religion with a story, too. Religion and art – they are such good friends.”

A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Prigg started his career at Beyer Stained Glass, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He later joined Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, the largest stained glass studio in the US, where he served as General Manager from 1999 to 2011. There, he oversaw challenging projects such as restoration of the Alcuin and Charlemagne and The Death of Sir Philip Sidney windows, which included re-creating missing plates for areas of the windows where the glass had chemically decomposed. He also oversaw the creation of $3.5 million of gothic stained glass fabricated by Willet Hauser for St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston. It was huge job that took 2.5 years to finish.

Says Prigg: “I worked closely with Crosby Willet, who was incredibly generous to me and taught me a lot about stained glass. He introduced me to everyone in the business more or less. That included Charlie Lawrence who became a mentor and friend as well.”

In December of 1999, Prigg left Willet Hauser and opened Sycamore Studios with his wife Ellen Lustgarten, where in addition to repair, restoration and new work, he developed a unique body of personal work featuring mouthblown antique sheet glass in conjunction with calligraphic lead lines built up with lead came. These works include Spin for a Western Light and Two Circles and a Dot. Later, he began to explore concrete as a matrix, resulting in works such as Blue Moon, Tossed and his recent Tower series. Prigg also uses his Lansdowne studio to showcase the work of young artists who often can’t get into galleries. 

Prigg is a member of the Stained Glass Association of America and has served on the board of directors of the American Glass Guild (AGG). He is the recipient of two AGG AGNX Awards for Excellence in the Art of Stained Glass. In 2025, he presented From Artist To Artisan To Artist: How I Painted Myself Into a Corner and Escaped through a Stained Glass Window at the AGG conference. Recent exhibitions of his work include: 2025 at the AGG AGNX Show, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Mesa, Arizona; 2025, Juried Show: Vibrance at the Aston Mills Art Center, Aston PA; and the 2023 Juried Show: 100 Skulls, Aston Mills Arts Center. His work can be found in private collections in Philadelphia as well as at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.

Says Prigg, about goals for his personal work: “When I began working with glass, I was so in love with these materials – lead and glass – that I just wanted to find ways to show people what delighted me. I wanted people to be presented with these materials in a way so that they would be engaged in the textures, the colors, the voices of the materials.”

Jason Christian’s work pushes the boundaries of his craft, combining the delicate complexity of reticello with intricate detailing inspired by Fabergé eggs. Through series such as his Bumbershoots and Yo-Yos that reflect classic Venetian technique to more sculptural works including Dragons and Volpe, Christian’s art is deeply influenced by his family, personal experiences, and the nostalgia of growing up in the Pacific Northwest.

A renowned glass artist based in the Seattle area, Christian was born in 1976 on Whidbey Island, Washington, to a metal fabricator and a cardiac nurse. His artistic journey began at the age of 21 when he was introduced to glassblowing as a factory charger, where he gradually developed his skills and knowledge through hands-on experience. His formal education in glassblowing includes workshops and classes with notable artists such as Pino Signoretto, Jeff Mack, Janusz Pozniak and Preston Singletary. Throughout his career, Christian has worked with numerous well-known artists in the Seattle glass community, including Martin Blank, Preston Singletary, James Mongrain and Nancy Callan.

Since 2008, Christian has been an integral member of Dale Chihuly’s Boathouse team, working with international artists like Pino Signoretto. He has also served as a glassblowing assistant to Lino Tagliapietra since 2014 and worked as a fabricator for Lindsey Adelman from 2014 to 2016.

Says Christian: “I still don’t know if I chose glassblowing or if it chose me. I just knew that the moment I walked into that studio and saw what was being created I had to be a part of it. Finding glassblowing felt magical, like I was made for it. It provided something I lacked in my younger years – the urge to create, grow, and express myself through my work. To witness a person handle molten glass, manipulate it, and form it as if it were water was amazing to me. I knew that I had to be a part of it.”

Christian has participated in numerous artist residencies, including: FOCI, Minneapolis, MI (2019); Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY (2019); Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA (multiple years); Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA (2016 and 2008); University of Texas at Arlington (2015); and the University of Wisconsin-Steven’s Point (2015). He was Auction Centerpiece Designer at Schack Art Center, Everett, WA, in 2016 and 2010. His work is featured in several notable collections including the Hauberg collection, the Elton John collection, the Ben Bridge collection and many more private collections in the United States and Canada.

With a desire to share his expertise through teaching and demonstrations, Christian has conducted workshops at various institutions including Penland School of Craft (2019); Pittsburgh Glass Center (2019); Pratt Fine Arts Center (2018); Pilchuck Glass School (2017); Urban Glass (2016); and Seattle Glassblowing Studio (2010-2013); He has also been a demonstrating artist in Turkey (2015) and Finland (2009).

Christian states: “Beyond my relationship with glass, the camaraderie within the industry enticed me to grow beyond myself, always looking for what was within and turning that into something I could only see in my mind. It created an environment of growth and exploration, pushing me to be a better artist.”

Upcoming Christian workshops include Penland School of Craft, August 10 – 15; Hilltop @ Pilchuck, September 28; and Neusole Glassworks, Forest Park, Ohio, November 17.

Beth Lipman is an American artist whose sculptural practice generates from the Still Life genre, symbolically representing the splendor and excess of the Anthropocene and the stratigraphic layer humanity will leave on earth. Assemblages of inanimate objects and domestic interiors, inspired by private spaces and public collections, propose portraits of individuals, institutions, and societies. 

Through works in glass, wood, metal, photography, and video, Lipman presents a meditation on our relationship to Deep Time, a monumental time scale based on geologic events that minimizes human lives. Each installation is a reimagining of history, created by placing cycles often separated by millenia in proximity, from the ancient botanical to the cultural. The incorporation of prehistoric flora alludes to the impermanence of the present and the persistence of life. The ephemera of the Anthropocene becomes a symbol of fragility as the human species is placed on a continuum where time eradicates hierarchy.

Lipman has exhibited her work internationally at such institutions as the Ringling Museum of Art (FL), ICA/MECA (ME), RISD Museum (RI), Milwaukee Art Museum (WI), Gustavsbergs Konsthall(Sweden) and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC). Her work has been acquired by numerous museums including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), Kemper Museum for Contemporary Art (MO), Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC), Jewish Museum (NY), Norton Museum of Art, (FL), and the Corning Museum of Glass (NY). 

Lipman has received numerous awards including a USA Berman Bloch Fellowship, Pollock Krasner Grant, Virginia Groot Foundation Grant, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Alturas Foundation, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s Arts/Industry Program, and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. Recent works include Living History, a large-scale site-specific commission for the Wichita Art Museum (KS) that investigates the nature of time and place and Belonging(s), a sculptural response to the life of Abigail Levy Franks for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (AR).

Lipman’s work is on view now in three independent installations including: Hive Mind at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa; ReGift at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), Toledo, Ohio; and the permanent installation One’s-Self I Sing at theMuskegon Museum of Art (MMA), Muskegon, Michigan. To celebrate the official unveiling of One’s-Self I Sing, the MMA is hosting an Artist Talk and Unveiling Reception this Thursday, July 17 at 7 p.m. The event is open to the public and free to attend. Find out more at

www.muskegonartmuseum.org

Suspended in the museum’s central atrium, the sculpture explores the interconnectedness of time, culture, and nature through materials such as glass, wood, metal and gypsum. Measuring approximately 240 x 120 x 60 inches, One’s-Self I Sing functions as an “exploded” still life – an expansive, suspended constellation of objects that invites viewers to reflect on humanity’s place within Deep Time and the Anthropocene. Says Lipman: “The marriage of transparent and opaque forms alludes to what is seen and known juxtaposed with what is concealed and lost over time.”

The sculpture spans both floors of the museum, encouraging viewers to encounter it from multiple vantage points. Braided suspension cables carry the piece vertically through space, suggesting both ascent and descent, growth and entropy. Lipman incorporates subtle visual references to the Muskegon Museum of Art’s permanent collection, binding the sculpture to the museum’s history while extending its meaning outward across time.

“One’s Self I Sing is a showstopping first impression when visitors walk into the museum,” says Kirk Hallman, Executive Director of the Muskegon Museum of Art. “It’s a powerful and visually stunning complement to the museum’s new Bennett Schmidt Pavilion and a bold reflection of the MMA’s ongoing commitment to celebrating women artists.”

Enjoy this conversation with Lipman about current installations, artistic motivations and the behind the scenes challenges of creating site-specific work that communicates to viewers.

Using over 17,500 letters of handmade murrine tiles, Mathieu Grodet composed La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen, which translated means the Declaration of Human Rights, which was written in 1789. Recreated in mosaic style, dark red was used to represent blood, with the ivory-colored background symbolizing the ivory tower that freedom must be taken from. Intense attention to detail combined with a contemporary message defines Grodet’s multi-disciplinary works in glass. 

A French-born artist living and working in Canada, Grodet also creates thin and elegant glass objects in classic Venetian style, engraved using a Dremel tool with imagery that addresses modern-day ideas and issues. Says Grodet, “Several themes are recurrent: the memory, the inventories, but also the lie (propaganda) or the secret.” His work reflects a deep interrogation of the world and its violence. 

Later, Grodet learned to paint on various glass shapes using enamel, and through these techniques was able to make his illustrations more fanciful and full of color. Though it provided an alternative way to express on glass, the enameling process can be time-consuming and technically difficult. Firing can be stressful, and mistakes are unfixable. In one instance, Grodet invested three months of work on one piece, which he had to abandon after issues with the firing. He hasn’t worked with enamel since, but toys with the idea of revisiting these processes that afford so much artistic space. 

In parallel with glassblowing, Grodet learned flameworking and quickly discovered it was far easier to put together a small flameworking studio than a hot shop. At a Loren Stump workshop presented at the Corning Museum of Glass, Grodet learned the ancient technique of murrine. When the pandemic hit, he finally had some time off from teaching to focus on flameworked murrine and now spends most of his studio time on the techniques.

Says Grodet: “Glassblowing will always have a special place in my heart. Your entire body is needed to work the hot shop, and I love the physicality of engaging with fire and water – it is playing with terrestrial forces – something bigger than us. However, now I am enjoying the art of murrine and its technical and strategic aspects. It is like building a house; you need to carefully plan every step over weeks. It also involves other diverse techniques, such as cold working, marquetry and mosaic. I am in uncharted territory on the murrine planet.” 

Grodet was born in Orleans, France, where he first studied art and drawing at the Visual Art Institute of Orleans. In 1999, he discovered the medium of glass and began his career in this ancient art by training at several studios across France and Europe. He began learning flameworking at CERFAV (the European Centre for Research and Training in Glass Art). After many travels, he dropped his suitcases in Canada, where he now applies the various different techniques acquired over the years to his artistic practice. With all his work, Grodet explores themes of contradiction, power, duality and the absurdity of life. 

Represented by Sandra Ainsley Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, and Galerie Elena Lee in Montreal, Quebec, Grodet’s art has been shown at SOFA Chicago, Galerie Espace Verre, and is held in several museum collections, including The Corning Museum of Glass and the Art Institute of Chicago. He has taught and demonstrated around the world.

From September 25 to November 9, 2025, Grodet’s work will be on view at Musée du Verre, site du Bois du Cazier, Charleroi, Belgium. The artist recently taught a murrine class at Salem Community College, June 16 through 20 followed by a medieval glassblowing class at the Coring Museum of Glass, June 23 through July 4. He will teach at the Glass Furnace in Istanbul, August 4 through 14, and his final teaching gig of 2025, a murrine class, takes place in Kansas City from November 8 through 12 at the studio of Sara Sally LaGrand. 

An American born artist dedicated to developing new techniques of glass working, Joshua Hershman combines optical physics with the fluidity of glass to make his contemporary sculpture. By harnessing light though hand-polished lenses, he employs unique methods of casting, coldworking, and photography in his boundary pushing work. 

Hershman states: “My work offers meditations on the complexities within the concept of photography and the repercussions of the camera’s impact on culture. The incredibly creative and destructive nature of photography is both inspiring and alarming to me. It has helped bring our global society closer together but also driven us desperately apart. It can teach us or deceive us, show us the furthest reaches of space, or the closest representations of matter itself. It is these contrasting realities that exist within photography, which inspire my works of contemporary art.”

Being born with no peripheral vision or depth perception, decades of vision therapy led Hershman to his lifelong fascination with the complex nature of the visual system and the science of light and optics. By using cameras themselves as frames for his experimental photographic processes, he asks us to look more closely into the simple act of taking a photograph. His work focuses on the significance that film and photography have played on the development of contemporary global culture. 

More recently Hershman’s work has focused on the torus — the most common shape found in galaxy formations and human cellular biology. His series, Messier Objects, was named after the French astronomer Charles Messier, who famously catalogued anomalous objects that confused his search for comets in the night sky.

Originally from Colorado, Hershman was born in 1981 and first began working with glass at the age of 17. In 2004, he graduated from the Craft and Design Program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. In 2008, he went on to earn a BFA with Distinction from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. Most recently, he completed the Master’s program at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Sculptural/Dimensional Studies. 

In 2009, Hershman had his first solo exhibition at Pismo Glass in Denver and went on to participate in many group exhibitions and art fairs including Sofa Chicago, the Armory Show, Art Hamptons, SF Art Market, the Habatat Invitational, and many others. He loves to teach and has led workshops and lectures at California College of the Arts, Public Glass in San Francisco, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and at D&L Glass Supply in Denver.

Hershman has received numerous awards, was included in the Bullseye Emerge international glass competition, Young Glass 2017, and can be found in numerous private collections. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Ebeltoft Museum in Denmark, The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, and Museum of Glass, Tacoma (MOG). In fact, MOG exhibited Hershman’s sculpture in the nation’s first LGBTQ+ glass exhibition titled Transparency. He has been invited to participate in several artist-in-residence programs including North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland, D&L Art Glass in Colorado, the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee, and most recently completed a semester-long residency at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The artist worked for Berengo studio in Murano, Italy, where he made work for the world’s leading contemporary artists.

Living and operating a private studio in Los Angeles, California, Hershman makes his personal work and also operates the Glass Foundry, which provides casting and coldworking services to other artists. Additionally, he is employed at Judson Studios, where he’s currently working on a large-scale architectural glass project for James Jean.

“Casting glass was something I could do in isolation in my studio which was a huge advantage during the pandemic. Without the need for a furnace or lots of facilities, this process allowed me to make a highly challenging sculpture without the need for a team of assistants or expensive equipment. I think what draws me most to lost wax casting is the constant challenge and problem solving that is required to get a high-quality casting.”

Primarily a flameworker, Kari Russell-Pool approaches her work in a painterly fashion. She is interested in the transformation of an object into an heirloom. Made from hand-pulled glass rods, her Safety Mom Series, for example, was inspired by post-September 11 ideas of keeping a family safe. That series, in incongruously cheerful colors, is dominated by images of guns and keys, and the delicate glasswork is patterned to look like traditional needlework, which kept women’s hands busy in the 18th and 19th centuries. For her Trophy Series, Russell-Pool flameworked a strikingly delicate and extremely fragile set of trophies, inspired by an NPR interview with a trophy maker, who stated that frequently people commission trophies for themselves. 

In complex and decorative glass aviaries, Russell-Pool often showcases her husband and collaborative partner Marc Petrovic’s glass birds, a combination that is at once technically superlative and aesthetically enchanting. Her most recent collaborative series with Petrovic – Our Distilled Life Series – examines the individual amidst the complexity of societal and global challenges and distillates them into a series of vignettes within bottles. 

Russell-Pool states: “I communicate using objects as metaphors. From quilts and teapots, to sailors’ valentines and cages, I am interested in the stories objects tell and how we elevate them into heirlooms. Filled with personal content and commentary about society, the hard work of relationships, and my experience as a mom, my work tells many stories. The work is autobiographical, and although objects are my vehicle, I think of them as self portraits as each series reflects the timely concerns of my life.”

Russell-Pool graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1990. She has taught and exhibited all over the world, and her work has been published in Glass Magazine and American Craft Magazine. Her public collections include the American Glass Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Niijima Museum of Glass (Tokyo), the Racine Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (DC), the Tacoma Museum of Glass, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the Peabody Essex Museum. Russell-Pool was awarded the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2017 and 2019.

Pulling her own glass rods or canes using soft glass or traditional blowing glass, Russell-Pool can more easily incorporate blown work by Petrovic into her pieces. They gather clear glass from their melting furnace and color it by rolling the hot clear glass through powdered colored glass, and then encasing the color in another thin layer of clear. These gathers of glass are pulled into 40′ lengths while still hot, and then cut down into 1.5′ lengths. Coloring her glass this way allows Russell-Pool to both mix colors and control their densities. She uses these colored glass canes in a torch flame to sculpt petals, leaves, and small components, which she further colors using more glass powders. Having some color in the base canes allows the artist to work much as a watercolorist would, using washes to achieve subtle or dramatic color changes. Each piece begins with a design drawn out on a piece of ¼-inch clear plate glass. Russell-Pool then bends all her glass canes exactly to that pattern using a torch with a warm flame.

“By layering the color and manipulating the density, our hope is the flow between the blown and flameworked glass appears effortless. In glass there is often a right way to do things. I am more a proponent of the cowboy way. The cowboy way invites invention and serves the master of the final result rather than proper technique. I am proud to be called a craftsman, because craftsmanship underlies all I do, even if I am occasionally caught being an artist.”

Russell-Pool and Petrovic have collaborative work on view now as part of the Jonathan Adler Show at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City featuring Adler’s ceramic work and pieces curated from the permanent collection. The show will run through April 2026. Rusell-Pool’s work is also being exhibited in On Fire Part II: Surveying Women in Glass in the Late-Twentieth Century now through January 24, 2026 at Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI. An expanded version of the 2022 show offers a deeper dive into this vital period in contemporary craft by outlining the concerns of artists who explore the sculptural, visual, metaphorical, and creative potential of glass. Seen through the eyes of women, it reflects developments with the medium as an art material two and three decades after Studio Glass concepts were being implemented into university programs and contemporary practices.

At the heart of Dylan Martinez’s work lies the striking H2O/SiO2 series, inspired by the artistic tradition of Trompe L’œil—the technique that deceives the eye into perceiving three-dimensional objects on a flat surface. Each sculpture is meticulously hot-sculpted and hand-molded by Martinez, capturing the fluid movement of rising bubbles and the delicate form of what appears, at first glance, to be bags of water. These pieces transcend objecthood; they are immersive experiences that invite stillness, inspection, and recalibration of the senses.

Martinez reflects, “Our vision has the greatest effect on our understanding of the world. Through my artwork, I create scenarios where viewers must question their ability to navigate between reality and illusion.”

Blending classical craftsmanship with contemporary conceptual inquiry, Martinez uses glass as both material and metaphor. His work explores how perception constructs truth—how desire and expectation often override what is actually seen. In his latest series, Martinez introduces vibrant color for the first time in years, signaling a shift influenced by pop art. Sculpted forms inspired by Pac-Man ghosts and hyperrealistic water balloons appear light, buoyant, and playful, yet reveal an intense precision beneath their surface charm.

Also central to this new body of work is a group of hard-edged, geometric sculptures rooted in optical art. These pieces employ sharp lines, layered transparency, and refraction to produce illusions of shifting depth, bending geometry, and visual vibration. As viewers move around them, the forms seem to flicker, realign, or dissolve—forcing perception into motion. These optical works expand Martinez’s inquiry into the unstable boundary between what is there and what is seen.

Born in Stillwater, Minnesota, Martinez earned his degree in science from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls in 2008. It was during his junior year, upon visiting the university’s glassblowing studio, that he discovered a profound connection to glass—drawn to how the material responded to physical forces he had studied in physics, chemistry, and geology. He recalls, “I tried it out, and it really resonated with me—in the way you move the material and how it reacts to heat and physical forces.” He later earned his MFA from Ball State University in 2017. Martinez honed his craft through an apprenticeship with Sam Stang at Augusta Glass Studio (2010–2012), evolving from functional glassware and vases into sculptural and installation-based work. He currently lives and works in his studio in Bingen, Washington.

Martinez’s work has earned global acclaim, appearing in public and private collections worldwide. International publications such as Elle Decoration (UK, NL, Germany), American Craft Magazine, Interior Design Magazine, and Aesthetica have celebrated his contributions to contemporary glass. His accolades include the Enrico Bersellini Award (Miano Vetro, Milan, 2018), the Stanislav Libensky Award (Prague, 2017), full scholarships to Pilchuck Glass School and Pittsburgh Glass Center (2017), and numerous Best in Show and Juror Awards. In 2021, he received Best in Show, OP ART/Glass, from the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, FL.

In 2025, Martinez’s work will be featured in More Than Meets the Eye at Belger Arts, Kansas City, MO (June 6 – September 6), as well as in a solo exhibition titled, Glass Reimagined, at Square One Gallery, St. Louis, MO (June 6 – August 1).

Through a fusion of light, form, and material truth, Martinez’s sculptures prompt a quiet confrontation with the limits of perception. As he states of his waterbag series, “The trapped movement of rising bubbles and the gesture of the forms convince the eye that the sculptures are exactly as they appear. What fascinates me is how our desires often override our true perception, leading us to believe what we see as the absolute truth.”

As lead painter and art department manager for Willet Studios in Winona, Minnesota, Melissa Janda will speak about Willet’s large-scale projects at the upcoming American Glass Guild Conference, being held in Mesa, Arizona, from May 22 – 24, 2025.  With 30 years of experience in the field of stained glass, Janda is adept at all aspects of stained glass production, specializing in glass painting, design and restoration work. From St. Agnes Catholic Church in Key Biscayne, Florida, to St. Jane de Chantal Catholic Church, Bethesda, Maryland, the results are stunning and speak for themselves.

Before entering the world of stained glass, Janda received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where she majored in drawing with a minor in illustration. Her professional experience with the craft first began in 1993 when she worked at Conrad Schmitt Studios, New Berlin, Wisconsin. Janda then went on to work at Jaeger Studios before leaving to manage her own studio, Melissa Janda Studios in Chicago, Illinois, and later Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for 10 years while she subcontracted work as a glass painter. During her time in Chicago, the artist also worked for a handful of studios, including Curran Glass Studio, Regina Art Glass, Glass Art and Decorative Studio, Two Fish Art Glass, and others. In 2008, Janda returned to Conrad Schmitt Studios before relocating to Winona, Minnesota, to manage Willet Studios’ art department in 2014. 

In addition to decades of experience, Janda offers Willet Studios a dedicated spirit to the craft, in which she is constantly striving to learn new techniques through the participation in a multitude of workshops and classes. She has a deep appreciation for the great traditions of stained glass and explains: “I have one foot firmly planted in the rich past, with the other stepping forward into the future of contemporary innovations.” 

A close look at Janda’s work process and unique methodology was featured in an Artist Profile for NPR. The video interview follow’s Janda’s process in creating a commissioned stained glass piece of art and features some of her favorite personal pieces. 

https://www.pbs.org/video/broad-and-high-artist-profile-melissa-janda-stained-glass

One of the most followed stained glass artists on social media, Meggy Wilm of Colorado Glass Works, Boulder, Colorado, shares her creations with nearly 275K (and growing) followers on Instagram – attracting a new audience of young enthusiasts to the medieval craft. Wilm and her husband Dustin Mayfield also recently purchased Boulder-based D&L Art Glass Supply from Leslie Silverman, who dedicated 50 years to the company she founded. Experienced entrepreneurs, Wilm and Mayfield have a deep appreciation for the art glass industry and a forward-thinking vision for D&L.

Her first company, Colorado Glass Works is a multifaceted art glass business where Wilm teaches a variety of classes, sells and ships sheet glass around the world, designs her own custom sheet glass, and creates small and large commissions for private clients. She has been creating stained art glass for the last seven years and has a deep love of all things nature- and glass-related.

States Wilm: “I founded Colorado Glass Works in the fall of 2017 sitting criss-crossed on my living room floor in Denver, Colorado. My passion is creating dreamy and colorful stained glass art pieces ranging from mini sun-catchers to fully installable windows. I imagine, custom design, and hand-make every single one of my pieces with attention to every little detail.”

Beginning on January 1, 2020, Wilm made a commitment to donate a percentage of her glass profits amongst her five favorite environmental organizations – The Sierra Club, The Marine Conservation Institute, the Rainforest Action Network, Defenders of Wildlife, and The Environmental Defense Fund. In 2024, through purchases of Wilm’s art, she raised $10,000 and donated those funds to help protect our planet. Each of her chosen nonprofit organizations received $2,000 to continue their efforts.

Raising larger amounts each year, in 2024 Wilm was able to expand on her altruistic goals and donate stained glass art supplies, classes, and glass to schools in need. Eight deserving schools across the United States received full beginner stained glass startup kits to introduce stained glass as an elective or after-school activity. These kits included tools, classes, and materials valued at over $10,000, giving students the opportunity to explore stained glass.

Wilm says: “Together, we made a total of $20,678 in donations to causes that truly matter. None of this would have been possible without you. Thank you for being part of this journey. I am so thrilled we get to work together in making a small impact to help protect this beautiful world we live in.”

In addition to running Colorado Glass Works, and taking the wheel at D&L, Wilm will be a TA for Ted Ellison at Pilchuck from May 22 – 29, 2025. Keep your eye on social media for more of the artist’s beautiful Colorado landscapes, sparkling snowflakes and signature textured or dichroic Monstera leaves.