Jen Violette’s glass sculptures draw directly from the natural world surrounding her rural Vermont studio. Working with hot glass gathered from the furnace, she layers colored glass powders to capture nature’s subtle textures and hues, then freehand sculpts molten bits into leaves, flowers, branches, and stems using a torch, tweezers, and shears.

Violette began working with glass at Alfred University in 1991 and holds a BFA in glass and mixed media sculpture from Alfred’s School of Art and Design. She has studied at Pilchuck, Penland, Haystack, RISD, and the Corning Museum of Glass, and has trained with renowned maestros including Lino Tagliapietra, William Morris, and Dante Marioni. A featured artist at the Corning Museum Hot Shop Amphitheater in 2017 and 2018, she has also demonstrated at SOFA Chicago and Public Glass in San Francisco.

She works full-time from a restored 1890s post-and-beam barn in Wilmington, Vermont.