Gary Bodker didn’t set out to become a glassmaker — when he originally enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design, he was a scholastic refugee from Tulane, where his freshman year was preempted by Hurricane Katrina. Thinking he would study architecture, Bodker stayed on at RISD instead of returning to New Orleans, until a short course in glassmaking offered a window on a different sort of practice. “I was immediately, like, ‘This is amazing,’” Bodker says. “The functionality of the glass is really what drew me to it, making cups and bowls and other useful things.” At the end of the six-week course, he decided to major in glass. Now Bodker channels those same impulses into his work: an appreciation for beauty foregrounded by an abiding appreciation for usefulness. With his Gems series of large and small glass vessels, Bodker looks to make work that is both handmade and well made, two often antagonistic qualities in glassware. “To me, the greatest compliment is when somebody buys something and actually uses it,” Bodker says. “If I can make beautiful, utilitarian things, then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.”