Maurice Heaton

A truly great American glass artist and teacher, Maurice Heaton was a third-generation glass worker and came to America with his family in 1914. He grew up with two generations of English glass artists. In the early 1930’s Maurice began experimenting with enameling on glass—experimenting with flat and molded glass as early as 1930. He invented a process in 1947 for firing and shaping his glassware in the studio furnace, which started the ball rolling for the studio glass movement of the 1960's. During the next 50 years, he created a beautiful body of work that included bent enameled glass tableware, lighting and backlit murals. Maurice Heaton’s work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corning Museum, and the Museum of Art and Design. Heaton's work spans seven decades, and through his unique range of murals, window hangings, lighting fixtures and tableware, he is considered by many a "true original" (Neues Glas, April 1985).