Kenneth "Jack" Horner

Honorary Chairman of the Board

In 1946, shortly after returning home from WWII, Kenneth "Jack" Horner founded what would become one of the most successful and enduring manufacturers of glass windows and doors in the Southeast. NuAir Aluminum Windows & Doors. 40 years later, when his son and then company president was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he lured his daughter Connie, then a fashion Design Director in New York City, to return home to help manage the family business.

NuAir was lost during the "Great Recession" of 2008, but that hasn't stopped these two. "When Connie introduced me to this technology of digitally printing in-glass 15 months ago, I thought it was the most fantastic thing I’d seen in my lifetime of working with glass" said Jack, "I just turned 96 and can honestly say that I’m really excited about the future opportunities that this represents. It’s simply great!"

Connie Horner

C.E.O. & Founder

Connie's idea for Illuma began when confronting her frustrations with the creative limitations of the various print mediums as they relate to her collection called "Light" and was inspired to overcome them. It turns out... the "Light" images needed light to pass thru them.

Professionally trained as a fashion designer, her love affair with glass came via assuming the helm of a family window manufacturing business that she headed for nearly two decades. Learning virtually every nuance and facet of glass nurtured a vision - for its potential as an artistic medium which has never been fully realized - until now.

"Bringing together my passions for design, photography and digital art came naturally," Horner says with a smile. "Realizing that clear glass is a canvas and natural light is a tangible element on the artistic palette is what took some doing. Trust me, this will keep creative minds busy for a very long time."

She became enamored by the endless possibilities.

Glass printing while not new has been specialized and limited. The process hasn't lent itself to the individualized world of artists. "Once I discovered it, I knew artists and photographers, interior designers, illustrators, graphic artists and sculptors would embrace it too. It's not every day that you get the opportunity to dazzle clients and exceed their expectations with new products. To be able to introduce a new technology that can transforming space and objects using glass as never before." Horner says. "Illuma Glass gives them that capability and it's exciting to change everything. We're rewriting the rules and making this technology accessible, giving artists of every kind a new print medium to explore. One that adds natural light, where translucency and opacity have true meaning!"

"With this site, we're working very hard to make printing in-glass easy" Horner finished.

Melissa Burnand

V.P. & G.M. Europe

Melissa a/k/a "Magic" lives with her family in Manchester, England. Her impression when shown the glass for the first time was "Wow WOW WOOOOW. . I LOVE it.... Its very classy!!! Absolutely love it!!"

There is an abundance of talent in Melissa who officially studied Interior Design at Blackburn college in England and has spent most of her career to date in the business of decorating homes using all sorts of decorative techniques. She is a master crafts artist when it comes to faux finishes, decorative plastering, stenciling, marbling, wood graining, murals and metallic metal leafing.

"The ability to print in-glass is especially exciting to me and I can`t wait to experiment and see where all this leads the Art world" exclaimed Melissa, "I mean, I can't wait to see how my own accumulated skill set translates into this medium. It's bloody exciting isn't it? Leave it to Connie to find this out. It's brilliant!"

Inspired by all the historic architecture and her vast experience in the design field, Magic is ready to assist others and together discover what's possible and break new ground. "My personal wish is to help transform our urban areas into explosions of art, color and light! La, la, la..." sang Mel. Sax, flute, guitar, djembe and singing being her other passions, including charity community arts.

Corky Ellis

Art Director - Worldwide

Carlyle "Corky" Ellis is a photographer who is currently based in Asheville, North Carolina. We are excited to have him join Illuma as the Director of Art on a global basis. With quality front and center, Corky and his team of Q.C. Artists will insure that all art files are as good as they can be to reproduce properly using this technology.

Classically trained as a graphic designer (Ringling College of Art and Design), by his own admission he is a completely "self-taught" photographer. "I started my photographic journey in 2001 with my first dSLR, a megapixel EOS D60. Cameras have come and gone, and my equipment has changed over the years, but my aim has remained the same and that is to capture awe-inspiring moments that few people ever experience with their own eyes!" pausing "I am truly excited about all the creative possibilities that ceramic in-glass printing brings and helping others in their journey as well as part of the Illuma team."

Corky is founder and President of Covenant Grafix, LLC and we hope you'll take a moment to visit his site and enjoy his incredible work when you can. He will of course have his own gallery here with Illuma too... very soon! By the way, he's an awesome graphics designer!

www.covenantgrafix.com