What started 13 years ago with a tooth has grown into leaves, peppers, dolphins and wine bottles for Janet and Ken Ries.

In 1996 Janet told her dentist that she had resumed a hobby shelved many years earlier due to a growing family. With a nod to an office window, the dentist commissioned a modest panel of a pearly white molar on a rainbow background. Birds and flowers followed -- along with a second tooth, for the hygienist -- and then a batch of angels for the holidays. Soon Janet was creating larger panels and windows and entering art and craft shows.

With Ken helping part time in the early years and going full time in 2003, they developed a range of original work that focuses on familiar items presented in unique ways. Foremost of their designs are "wine panels" that incorporate the punts (bottoms) cut from wine bottles and grapes fused in a kiln. One of these panels, "Cellar #8", received the Most Innovative award at the 2003 West End Friends festival in Greenville. They also create fanciful panels with leaves traced from trees, with fused dolphins in waves of swirling glass, and with fused peppers surrounding the bottom from a bottle of a famous Louisiana sauce.

Today they work primarily on custom residential panels and windows, with an occasional appearance at an art and craft show. Their work is in homes throughout South Carolina and from Texas across to Florida and up to New York. They have created panels for The Handlebar music hall in Greenville and windows for the sanctuary of Wren Baptist Church in Piedmont, SC.

Their show appearances have included Artisphere and Art in the Park in Greenville, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, SC, Lazy Daze in Cary, NC, Aiken's Makin' in Aiken, SC, and Art in the Park in Blowing Rock, NC. They are members of Greenville 's Metropolitan Arts Council and participate in MAC's popular “Open Studios” event in November.

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