Profile

Husband-and-wife team Kevin Kutch and Mary Ellen Buxton met studying art in college in Colorado. Kutch later picked up glassblowing, and in 1991 the couple moved to Brooklyn and he became studio director of Urban Glass, a nonprofit studio. Just one year later, the Port Authority sold Red Hook's deteriorated, Civil War–era Beard Street Warehouse pier; its 250 arched windows and iron shutters were repaired and 40-plus businesses moved in—including Pier Glass, Kutch and Buxton's joint venture. In the spacious studio/showroom, Kutch blows glass and Buxton bends and fuses it, together creating an array of sleek gem-cut and jewel-color pieces. Beads, bowls, kiln-formed woven sculptures, Christmas-tree ornaments, luxe perfume vials, and clear vases with puddles of color are all samples of their handiwork. The couple also do commissions for designers and architects, restoration and reproduction work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and art-glass display items for galleries across the country. — Caroline Kinneberg