Pilchuck Glass School
Dates: June 4 – June 15, 2025
Tuition: $3,700.oo
Skill Level: ALL LEVELS
A student has no experience or basic skills in a particular technique and would be most comfortable in a class where much attention is given to foundation and basic skills.
As the commercial neon industry is actively shrinking, the artistic neon community is growing. With the industry shrinking so are the readily available supplies to fabricate neon. In, “Pull It, Twist it, Bop it!” The focus is to pull your own neon tubing in the hot shop and then bend it in the neon shop to a pattern or design.
Meet your Instructors
Instagram: @Willcox.Studio
Jacob Willcox
Jacob Willcox is a glass and light artist from Tacoma, WA. He is an alum of the Hilltop Artists program where he began working with glass in 2012. He then went on to study at Alfred University where he obtained his BFA with concentrations in glass and neon in 2021. His work investigates ideas surrounding consumption, excess, and indulgence.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as the Museum of Glass, the New Bulgarian University, and the Tacoma Art Museum. Outside of his artistic practice, he maintains a position as the Neon Department Head at a Seattle sign shop. Willcox also works in the educational field as an instructor at Hilltop Artists while also teaching and demonstrating at various institutions like Pilchuck Glass School, Museum Of Neon Art, and the Glass Art Society.
Dani Kaes
Dani Kaes is a light artist and educator based in Seattle, WA. Starting as a traditional glassblower as part of the Hilltop Artist program in 2012, she transitioned into neon after apprenticing as a commercial neon bender in a prominent Seattle sign shop. She has continued to work in neon independently and commercially, using it as her main artistic medium, often citing its inherently temporary nature as its most valuable and intriguing feature.
Instagram: @Dani.Kaes
Interested in the innate humor found in nihilism and the absurd, her work plays with scale, brash color choices, animation, and repeating simple shapes to explore the idea of what has the potential to become art rather than setting out to make art itself. She often describes her work as “nothing she would ever want in her house” because it is “big, bright, and always flashing”.
