Curiosity looks good in glass.

Jes Kopitske has been working with glass since 1996, which is long enough to know what she’s doing and apparently not nearly long enough to run out of things she wants to try.

She finds ideas everywhere.

Sometimes they come from the natural world: trees against the horizon, animals with unmistakable personalities, the curve of a seashell. Sometimes they come from things people have made: a city skyline, a familiar building, a logo that ought to look much better on the bottom of a glass.

And sometimes an idea simply makes her curious enough to wonder:

Can I make that in glass?

Quite often, the answer is yes.

One idea tends to lead to another.

Jes’s work ranges from ornaments and drinking glasses to bowls, sculptural pieces, gifts and custom designs.

Some ideas grow into whole families.

A line of trees might find its way onto an ornament, then a tumbler, then a bowl. A St. Louis skyline becomes a rocks glass, and before long Chicago and Kansas City have joined it. A small glass animal develops companions. Seashells, being particularly enthusiastic about the arrangement, seem to multiply when no one is watching.

The pieces don’t all look alike, and that is rather the point.

What ties them together is Jes’s pleasure in seeing what glass can do—and what she can persuade it to do next.

Made in St. Louis

St. Louis is home for Jes, and it shows up in her work in all sorts of ways.

She lives and works here, creates within the glass community at Third Degree Glass Factory, and has spent years sharing her enthusiasm for glass with other people as well as making it herself.

Teaching comes naturally to someone who genuinely likes the process. So does explaining why something worked, why it didn’t, and why she may want to try it again anyway.

Sometimes the idea starts with you.

Jes also creates custom work.

Perhaps you have an occasion to mark, a place that matters, a business logo, a gift for someone particular—or simply the beginning of an idea and no notion yet of what it would look like in glass.

That is a perfectly good place to start.

Have something in mind?
[Talk with Jes about a custom design]