Jim Graper was born in Hawaii in 1969, grew up in Kailua, Oahu and currently resides on the side of an active volcano on the Big Island. He was exposed to art as a kid when his Aunt Miriam bought him a little Fisher-Price electric wheel for throwing clay pots and was immediately hooked. Then at the University of Hawaii he experienced molten glass, and it’s been glass ever since. For seven years Jim worked in Maui at the Hui Noʻeau Visual Arts Center and at Hot Island Glass where he was majorly influenced by the expertise of the two owner glass blowers. He recently rebuilt his furnace on the Big Island and states, “My studio is mostly scavenged parts.  It’s amazing what you can do with equipment that nobody wants anymore. Ahh, art is good.”