Virgil Jones

In the late 1980's while living in Phoenix, Virgil was challenged by a friend to make a glass bead.  Not one to turn down a challenge even though he had not done glass work before, Virgil took a piece of stained glass and a small propane torch and went for it.

The beads quickly grew in size and complexity with the addition of hand built murrinis, lattichino and cane drawing.  Virgil delved into the hot glass world in all its forms. 

In winter of 1995 Virgil moved to the thriving hot glass community of Asheville in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Virgil's art glass is a contemporary combination of unique old style skills with modern hand-blown furnace work.  Each design is sketched before any glass is melted. The idea becomes either an immediate free form glass piece or a metal mold for recreating a limited number of similar pieces.

Every piece is completed with strict adherence to the whims of the glass gods that day.  Sometimes they are very kind.

The Gallery carries his exquisite Fairy Balls with clear sides and thin strings of glass flowing from the top of the ball to the base.