Ten years from now, Jake would like to own his own hot glass shop and gallery, called Hot Glass Alley. When you look at what he has already accomplished at 19, it won’t surprise me. His interest in glass blowing began at age 14, when on vacation with his family. Since then, he has studied at Sundance Art Glass Center; Santa Cruz, Glassworks Foundation; Louisville, Urban Glass; Brooklyn with both Eric Dennis and Jason Grodsky, Corning Museum of Glass with Italian instructor Vittorio Costantini, Pamina Traylor, Edddie Bernard and Luke Jacomb, Penland School of Crafts; North Carolina, and Flame Run Hot Glass Studio; Louisville with Brooke White, while taking private lessons from Kyle Bekkerus at Belle Meade Hot Glass in Belle Meade New Jersey.

In November of 2006, Jacob was chosen one of 20 students to study with the Master of Blown Glass: Lino Tagliapietra,from Murano, Italy. At age 72, Mr Tagliapietra, is regarded as the world’s greatest living glass artist. Jacob graduated from Bernards High School in June of 2006 and is currently a freshman at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He received the Award of Excellence at the Mountain Art Show in 2006.