About Us                                    

My wife and I live in Ajo AZ with our 3 year old daughter. We have a home and studio in the former mining town. Ajo AZ is located about 2 hours south of Phoenix and about 2.5 hours west of Tucson. Ajo Arizona is a super town and although currently not much going on here, there are some exciting projects in the works here. The Curly school in conjunction with ISDA (International Sonoran Desert Alliance) will restore the 1920s school into an artists quarters and studios. The goal is to create an arts incentive that will contribute to the local economy. We are located about a half hour drive of the US/Mexican border. My “other” job as a US Park Ranger has brought us to this area where I work at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Suzanne has a unique background in fiber arts, and handles much of the behind the scenes business for Stoffo beads. 

I began working with glass, making beads in 1998 after I was given a glass bead making kit for Xmas. I always wanted to work with hot glass but figured that traditional glass blowing would be too cost prohibitive. I taught myself to make beads while intently studying Cindy Jenkins book Beads of Glass. In 2000 I took a class with Tom and Sage Holland. In 2001 while working on a detail to Hoover Dam, I took a class with Deb Crowley. This was my first real introduction to working with borosilicate glass. Homeland security put a crimp on my bead studies for a while. I was able to return to Tom and Sages Fox, AR retreat and take a second session with them in 2002. 

I continued to make beads and work on improving my skills. I began to sell beads on Ebay. Eventually I began to sell beads in retail locations such as Bead shop in Odessa TX, The Bead Shoppe in Warrenton Va, Bead shop in Northampton MA, and Michigan.

Eventually, I began to have increasing success with my beads. At the same time, my day job began to place increasing demands on my time. I was forced to cut back on bead business. Moving around the country from park to park also takes a toll on how much free time you have. Over the course of 2000 to 2004, we have moved 3 times and lived in the same number of different states, Texas, Virginia, and Arizona.

While living in Texas, I was able to work with Victoria Suthland in collaboration on a project. The result of the project was a fantastic necklace that she created with my beads. In a unique turn of fate, this necklace was in Cindy Jenkins more recent book, Beads of Glass. 

In 2004 when we moved to AZ, I had been working on getting the business aspect of my bead business back into action. A set of professional photos got me postcards, which I used in the ISGB postcard sets. I entered several beads in the ISGB gathering “double rainbow” show. 

Step inside my gallery here on the web and view some of my work. Enjoy and come back often.