Dori Settles
Ancient Inquiry, Glass Sculpture
Dori Settles creates glass sculptures cast directly from everyday objects — most often shoes, but also leaves and other found forms — using pâte de verre, kiln-casting, and fusing techniques. Each piece begins with the real object to make the mold, then rebuilt in cold, crushed glass, fired, pieced together, and hand-polished into something familiar yet transformed.
A native of southeastern Wisconsin, Dori's path to glass wound through piano, poetry, and American Sign Language, which she studied after encountering it in high school and went on to interpret professionally. Years working alongside Deaf and Deaf-Blind communities sharpened her attention to texture, space, and the tactile world, an awareness that now shapes her sculptures. She later became a fiber and installation artist, working with salvaged, thrifted materials, before being drawn to glass.
She lives and works in the mountains of North Carolina, drawing inspiration from the forest surrounding her studio.
