Jane Glass: Enamelist and Metal Designer Craftsman

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass

Jane Glass (1919-1970) 

Catharine Jane Glass was born in Ames, Iowa, August 31, 1919. She graduated from Iowa State University in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Art and she received her Masters of Fine Art from Columbia University in 1949. Glass subsequently taught at Radford College in Virginia and at the University of Tennessee summer program in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where she taught jewelry making.

Throughout her education and in all of her teaching activities, Glass always placed an emphasis on working with metal, whether creating enamel-on-copper artwork or examples of modern silver jewelry. But it was a chance opportunity to teach a summer course alongside Master Enamelist Kenneth Bates that solidified her lifelong pursuit of the enamel arts, which she also applied to her modernist jewelry.

In 1953, Glass decided to stay in Gatlinburg to open a studio and to build an enameling kiln. Her career as a studio artist in the art of producing enamels was in full swing. Examples of Jane Glass enamels can be found in the permanent collection of The Southern Highlands Craft Guild and the Arrowmont School of Crafts.