Studio Jeffrey P’an: The Candy Man Can

Years ago, I stopped by Prescient Studios when housed in the diminutive bricked location in Old Mystic Mill.  Now nearly 12 years later, owner and glass blower Jeffrey P’an has grown his business into a 4,000-square-foot studio in the Velvet Mill, with 6 employees and a modern storefront in downtown Mystic. 

Just as a soft shade of azure may elicit thoughts of a blue sky, Studio Jeffrey Pa’n’s use of swirling colors induces a Pavlovian response of a candy store excursion.  My impulse is to lick a vase, but I am just meeting Jeffrey for the first time, so perhaps it’s best to refrain.

At first glance, his work is presumptively inanimate, but as one revolves around a vessel and witnesses a shifting of shapes and patterns, the sculpture is filled with life, by design.  

P’an is soft spoken, with a philosophical way about him and a distinctive mind. He attended Butler, Cutler and Fitch, then graduated in 1988. After graduation, P’an explored the West Coast, cooked at the Olympia Tea Room and studied engineering and design at Syracuse University. 

At 23, he was captivated by his first glassblowing experience in Westerly and in pursuit of more knowledge, he headed to Venice, Italy. 

"I was always intrigued by the secrets of Venetian glass blowing, the most complex and technical tradition of working with glass," he says. "And I went to school for engineering and design, so it was right up my alley.”

He returned and opened the shop in Old Mystic in 1996.  Now in business for 16 years, P’an’s florid works appeal to a broad range of admirers; children with “no touch” reminders and gift-gathering tourists, as well as dedicated locals and serious collectors.  

P’an relays a meaningful story of a customer whose wife was a passionate collector of his work.  After she died, P’an’s collection became an important presence for her husband.  It was difficult for the husband to revisit the store, and he didn’t for a while, P'an says.  But when the man finally stopped in, P’an says he was deeply touched and this ended his internal struggle of "am I making a difference?” 

Having grown up in Mystic, he laments how the town has grown from "a little town center to a shopping area,” he says.

But P’an considers Mystic home. 

“It’s a wonderful place to be right here on the water," he says.  "It’s a perfect mix of sun culture and rural. It’s nice to feel that you belong and that you can contribute in some way to where you from.”

P’an may consider additional business locations in the future, but says his goal is to integrate his business more into the community.

“Art is a form of communication; its purpose is to convey things that can’t be communicated in words," he says.  "It’s not a universal language, it’s subjective, but that is what makes it beautiful and important to me.”