Len Hughes, award winning artist, designer and owner of Studio 400 west works in a variety of mediums. Len holds a BFA in painting and a MFA in photography. Since moving to the desert of southern Arizona, she has found her work in clay to be a great source of inner peace. She is a member of the Arizona Designer Craftsman, and the Southern Arizona Clay Artists, and the American Craft Council.

Ms. Hughes presently concentrates on Raku fired pottery with southwest designs, and various animal sculptures as well as her newest artwork consisting of fused glass items such as crosses, hearts and wall art.

While continuing to define her art in other mediums, Len has found the southwest Raku series her most rewarding and gratifying work to date. Raku is an ancient Japanese pottery firing process introduced to the US in the 1960's. Glazed pieces of wheel-thrown or hand built pottery are quickly removed from a red-hot kiln when glaze is molten and placed in a reduction container filled with a combustible material and then tightly covered before the pot has a chance to reoxidize. The smoking inside causes the exposed clay to turn black, framing the colors of the glaze, similar to the effect of leading in a stained glass window. The copper glazes turn metallic and the white glazes crackle because of the variables involved, time, weather, choice of combustible material, each piece is aa one-of-a-kind.

Len's work is prominently displayed throughout the southwest as well as in many distinguished galleries nationwide.