Studio-de-Verre
Address: 2312 South West Temple
Telephone:
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District: South Salt Lake
“I got my first set of oil paints when I was five years old. I’ve been making art ever since,” announced Stephen Teuscher, one of the trio that founded Studio-de-Verre (studio of glass). As for the other two, it was the illustrations in the Golden Braid books that got Kerry Transtrum hooked on art at age three. For Dan Cummings, he knew in the second grade, when he received all kinds of accolades for a saber-toothed tiger that he drew, exactly what he was going to do the rest of his life.
Tucked into an unassuming Salt Lake City building, Studio-de-Verre is alive with color, light, and movement. But more than that, it holds decades of determination and devotion shared by three artists who knew from the beginning, that this would be their path. In 2025, Stephen, Kerry, and Dan are each in their sixties, but they have never let go of that childhood spark. Their shared space is as much a living memoir as it is a functioning studio, filled with sculptures, tools, and the soft shimmer of colored glass catching the light.
Their career paths took different turns, but each one of them could trace their early artistic confidence back to someone who noticed, and nurtured, their potential. Stephen’s mother took him to her own art classes when he was still young. “She would hang my little landscapes in her shows,” he remembered, “but she never told anyone they were mine.” In high school, while most of his peers were out playing sports, Stephen was given his own room to create. “But it was my AP physics teacher who taught me more about lines and circles than any art teacher ever did,” he said with a smile. “I learned a whole skill set just by watching him work out problems on the board.” Though Stephen enrolled at Utah State in Logan, he was “invited to leave” by faculty who believed he would not benefit from staying. “I just wasn’t interested in playing the role they wanted.”
In 1991, Stephen moved to Salt Lake and began working for Reagan Outdoor Advertising. After about a year and a half, Stephen realized there was nothing more for him there. “Everything else wasn’t challenging enough,” he said. Art had to be his career. It was a battle of finances, however. He was married with three kids, then divorced in 1995 and ultimately took over raising his children. Ultimately, he moved back to Logan where he had family support and more structure for the kids’ lives. There, he painted houses to make ends meet while always continuing his own paintings. “I had some amazing clients through the years and continue to get commissions for my glasswork now.”
Once his children were grown, Stephen returned to Salt Lake to continue his career. While leasing space at Spectrum Studios, he observed what Dan and Kerry were doing with glass and said, “I want to learn,”and they taught him. According to Stephen, he learned from two of the best on the planet. “Every day my work drives me to be a better human being. I hope to be that all the time - expressing who I am through my art,” Stephen said. “Channeling the universe, trying to put as much positivity as possible into it through my art.”
Kerry’s path started in a very different place. “I never fit in. I was an artist, my siblings and cousins were cowboys,” he said. While others were playing football, he was in the drama club and taking art classes. “You fit in, or you got bullied, but that wasn’t a word yet back then.” Married young, he started a family and never went to college. “College was not in the plan.” In 1974, at age eighteen, he began driving freight trains to support his family. In the 1980s, he moved to Salt Lake. “This was the big city - a change of environment - and I was able to take the job with me.” Working for the railroad provided steady benefits, and after twenty years, he was able to scale back and start teaching art around the country while still maintaining his job for another two decades. “The railroad paid the bills, and it gave me the space to do what I really loved.”
Kerry called it a “defining moment” when he took a class in Las Vegas in 1995 - taught by Narcissus Quagliata - that set him on a new artistic path. That experience launched him into a lifetime of teaching and creation. His connection with Quagliata, the legendary eighty-three-year-old glass artist known for revolutionizing the use of light and glass in contemporary art, is a story all its own. Thirty years ago, Kerry was deeply inspired by Quagliata’s groundbreaking work - masterpieces that appear in cathedrals, public spaces, and museums around the world. Today, that inspiration has evolved into a collaborative relationship, one built on mutual respect and artistic exchange. Now, decades later, Kerry has come full circle - for in June of 2025, Kerry hosted that very same instructor from Las Vegas at Studio de Verre. “It feels surreal,” he said. “To have started there and now have had him here, with everything happening in this space. It is all aligning.”
One of the proudest milestones of Kerry's career came when he created what he believes to be the largest cast glass sculpture in the world, which resides at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. “I worked my entire life to get where I am right now in the sense of finally being able to do what I was always meant to do. I’m at the prime of my career,” he said. “It took a lifetime to get here with a lot of ups and downs, but I consider myself in the best position I’ve ever been.”
After Dan’s teachers took away his drawing materials in elementary school, he grew up interested in science and played the drums. But once he got to high school, he took every art class available. “I was the top dog in high school,” he said. His illustration teacher took him under her wing and “nursed me every way she could.” A friend’s father, who taught drafting at the local college, introduced Dan to the head of the art department. Dan started taking night classes and was awarded a scholarship. That was where he began learning different mediums. Then a friend handed him a broken airbrush. “If you can fix it, it’s yours,” he said. “I took it apart and put it back together - oh my goodness, I found my medium.”
From 1974 to 1978, Dan immersed himself in illustration, mirror design, and airbrush shows. Around 1977, someone asked him to design a stained-glass jewelry box. Curious, Dan started reading everything he could about Tiffany and Lalique. “There’s a train coming for you - you better hop on,” he said of that time. He fell in love with glass. It had dimensions painting could not offer. It was tactile, alive with light, and beginning to boom globally. Commissions came in from around the world, including from Saudi Arabia and famous athletes.
In 1994, Dan and a partner left their old workplace and founded Spectrum Studios, converting a 5,000-square-foot warehouse into a working space for artists. The partnership did not last, but Dan stayed, committed to the work he was cut out to do. One day, a woman visiting from Jackson Hole saw one of his pieces behind a bar in Salt Lake and commissioned him on the spot. Over time, he began leasing studio space to other artists. That is how he met Kerry, and soon after, Stephen joined them. “Everything fell into place.”
The three worked together at Spectrum Studios for years, until the landlord passed away and the property was inherited by his son, who decided to sell. The three were entrenched in projects, so they stayed for several more months, slowly cleaning out thirty years’ worth of work and memories. Eventually, they got in the car and began driving around Salt Lake looking for a new space. Studio-de-Verre was born out of that search.
On any given day, visitors might find the men creating magnificent art around a table. The studio is open by appointment and during monthly art strolls. Those lucky enough to step inside are greeted with warmth, humor, and an unfiltered glimpse into the creative process as each artist brings something unique to the space. Dan’s work is often whimsical and layered with social commentary. Kerry draws from spiritual and philosophical traditions, infusing his pieces with symbolism. Stephen’s approach is rooted in precision and color theory, blending his earlier experience with painting into luminous, intricately constructed glassworks.
Their studio is also deeply connected to the broader glass community. As members of the Glass Art Guild of Utah, they have raised funds to support a scholarship program that has, thus far, helped send some seventeen Utah students to the art school of their choice. “We want young artists to know there is a path,” Kerry said. “It may not be easy, but it is possible, and worth it.”
Despite their differing styles and histories, what unites the three is a humility and joy in their work. “We make art because we have to,” Dan said simply. “Because it’s who we are.”
