New glass artist Wes Hunting

When talking about his work Wes says that he did not have an early interest in glass in particular but always had an interest in creativity.

Wes started his creative journey at Ken State University where he majored in painting. He had a part time job at Hale Farm, and early American historical village just outside of Kent, Ohio.

Hale Farm has a small glass shop along with other craft areas for visitors to walk around and ponder. One afternoon, the head gaffer at the glass shop walked off the job after getting into a tiff with the grounds manager. The manager looked at Wes and said, “Hunting, get over to the glass studio and give the guy a hand.” The next thing  Wes knew, he was gathering hot, molten glass out of a replica of a historic furnace.

The next semester he signed up for classes in glass blowing at KSU. In the late 70's there weren't many universities that offered glass as an art medium, Henry Halem ran the program at that time.

Henry was good friends with most of the well-known glass artists, and he brought in many of them for workshops. Between 1977 and 1979,  Wes attended workshops and worked with the likes of Fritz Dreisbach, Dick Marquis, Steve Weinberg, Bert van Loo, Marvin Lipofsky, Dale Chihuly (with William Morris as gaffer), Joel Myers, and the late Bud Hurlstone. KSU was a place of great creative energy that produced many talented artists in their own right.

Wes attended Penland School of Crafts right here in North Carolina where he was an assistant to North Carolina glass blower Richard Ritter.  In addition Wes was inspired by his travels in Italy to Venice and Murano.

He has had his own hot shop since 1982. To see sizes and prices click here.


We LOVE glass!


Jan Francoeur
Carolina Creations