Dru Staples is married to Daniel and she is also a Chicago Hot Glass owner. She owns

several small businesses and is busy outside of the studio with countless projects. Her

dedication to Chicago Hot Glass is represented by uncountable hours of tireless work in

the areas of painting, party organizing, cleaning, word processing, accounting, property

management, plumbing, moving, shopping, office managing, and just being the mom we

all need. Dru is a wonderful person and we love her very much for who she is and all the things

she does around the studio. The world needs more people like her. Thank you.

For Dru Staple's website "Click Here"

I work with glass because of its versatility as a medium. Its many inherent qualities allow me a means to express my ideas. The advantages of producing three dimensional glass forms include its transparency and opacity, which allow light to be manipulated through use of color, texture, and layering. Glass contains light. Whether it's a solid or hollow form, it can reflect, refract, or even glow.

Glass has an uncanny ability to imitate. I portray familiar objects in glass to impersonate consumer products. Glass lends its plasticity to give the forms a hand-crafted feel. My current body of work deals with a variety of large scale glass fishing lures that remind me of fishing trips I went on with my dad when I was growing up. I have enlarged the scale of these baits to attract the viewer with luscious color and form. I've emphasized the attraction and allure that glass has on people, by hanging them in the viewer's personal space. Posing the question of what lure an individual finds most attractive. It's almost like I'm fishing for people with glass. The installations invite the viewers to interact and become part of the work as they mingle around each lure, inspect them, and ultimately find a favorite. When they do, smiles come to their faces as these forms are very whimsical and inspire a sense of fun through their vibrant colors and artificial nature.

For Ian Duncan's website "Click Here"

John had an interest in learning about glass blowing for many years before he was first exposed to glass face to face by friends (and glass artists) in the FMA program at the University of Wisconsin Madison. When transferred to Chicago, he first came to Chicago Hot Glass as a student of the Level 1 8 week course. He was “bitten” and has been at the studio ever since that first Saturday morning class. John continues to take the 8 week courses, TA an experience glass class or two and has also taught Holiday Ball classes.

In addition to his passion for glass, John makes his living as a chef. He has managed to use his career to help the studio by preparing the food for the various benefits and parties held throughout the year at CHG. He feels he has found a home here and  a sense of community with the artists and staff of the studio and looks forward to many years ahead of glass artistry.

For John Barbagallo's website "Click Here"

Originally from a Chicago suburb, Kit Paulson received her bachelor of fine arts from Alfred University in western New York state in 2004. Since then she has assisted a number of different glass artists and honed her skills as a glassblower in a variety of studios. She has attended as a teaching assistant at a number of craft schools including Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Craft, The Studio at Corning and Ox-Bow. She has taught her own classes at public access studios in the Chicago area including Making Glass (formerly located in Highland Park) and Chaos Glass Studio (formerly located in Evanston). Kit Paulson resides in Chicago, IL and when not engaged in glass endeavors, she can be found messing around with wool, sewing machines, fiddles and banjos.

For Kit Paulson's website "Click Here"

Relationships with other people, be they the absolute connections of mother and child, the complicated connections between lovers, husbands, wives, or even moments of quick connection between strangers on the street, are integral to understanding the relationships we forge with ourselves along our lifelong paths of self-discovery. My artwork predominantly involves the human relationships within this network.

For Pearl Dick's website "Click Here"

Samantha Lipscomb received her BFA in Glass in 2004 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  After graduating she continued her glass education at Pilchuck Glass School and Penland School of crafts.  Through taking these courses she was introduced to Beth Lipman, who became a mentor of sorts, and was fortunate to assist Beth at Corning, the Tacoma Museum glass studio, and at the Pittsburgh Center of Glass Arts.  In 2008 Samantha received a grant from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, which enabled her to attend Riksglasskolan in Orrefors, Sweden.  There she was able to refine and improve her technical skills and was able to blow glass at the amazing Orrefors factory.  Aside from her year of study in Sweden and other traveling, Samantha has worked at Chicago Hot Glass since 2004 as an instructor and shop technician.  If she is not working in the hot shop you will most likely find her in her studio space; engraving, uv gluing, plotting and planning.

For Sami Lipscomb's website "Click Here"