Hi! My name is David Saia, I'm 44 and live and work at my family’s home in West Chester, PA.  I'm the founder of West Chester Hot Glass, LLC, as well as the company's furniture wing, WCHG & Furniture.  As for my artistic background, I have a varied art and scholastic background, first studying painting and mandolin as a young child.  The majority of my developing years were spent pursuing music, first as a performer and songwriter and later as a recording engineer and producer and, much later, adding recording studio owner to the list.  (Anyone who remembers Sonic Recording Studios in Philadelphia, or any those 103 Sonic Sessions, drop me a line.) After high school, I expanded my artistic horizons a bit further in college, pursuing film making and writing, though I have always written. 

My obedience to right and left-brain inclinations resembles a wave, sometimes sending me pursuing intellectual/technical pursuits, other times, the purely creative ones.  As a result of this dichotomy, along the way, like a great mystical detour of some kind, I spent a few years as a lawyer and briefly practicing, but it didn’t stick, and I returned a bit wiser.  Before glass, furniture making became my passion until I hit a wall and needed to expand the creative potential of wood and what I was doing.  Glass was the answer for me.

I discovered glass a relatively short time ago (this century) and it was the missing link to the two sides of my personality.  To advance in working with glass, creative efforts are best balanced with technical and scientific study.  There are a lot of formalized and simplified classes out there to get you started which, most importantly, introduce you to real glass artists.  Good ones, the teachers and innovators of technique, have an understanding of glass that is perhaps best shared through a weekend class, for what they know came through years of stuffing glass in the kiln and wondering why, and trying again and again.  A weekend just wouldn't get you where they have landed.  The classes open some important doors, but the real work begins when you get home and start asking your own questions.  Advancement comes from dedication and study and practicing with a lot of glass, often . . . like at least daily.  For me, the Fusion Pour^TM technique was my key to unlocking my particular path.  Both sides of my brain have been working overtime ever since, often much to my wife, Andi’s, chagrin.  Still in the works, my forthcoming book on the subject will hopefully open some doors for others.   For now, some of the work and a brief explanation of the method is presented on this web site. 

Feel free to contact me for comments, questions or other information you may need.  Local Southeastern Pennsylvania residents who wish to stop by the shop or see some work, please call me to set up a visit.