Glass can be exquisite in its myriad forms, from the ornate windows of a Gothic cathedral to the crystalline webbing of a freshly vandalized windshield. Reflect on beauty with today's Groupon: for $25, you get an intro-to-glass-blowing workshop at Circle 6 Studios (a $50 value).
Circle 6 Studios’ seasoned artists collaborate to meld glass into works of art and share their knowledge with groups of up to 20 beginning students throughout a schedule of workshops. During the approximately two-hour-long introductory session, novices learn to craft handblown glass flowers great for giving as gifts or lining living-room floors to scare off barefoot burglars. After getting acquainted, pupils gather around a hot furnace, where a pot of molten glass waits to be transformed into beautiful stems and petals. There, the teacher imparts several techniques for coloring the glass and shows how different tools can alter its size, shape, and ability to attract honeybees. At the end of the class, glass blooms rest in an annealer for a 12-hour siesta, after which students may pick them up.
Circle 6 Studios
Stained-glass murals, organically shaped bowls, and prismatic light shades are only some of the work done by Circle 6 Studios’ practicing artists, who share their glass-working expertise and aesthetic range through their art gallery and classes. Students in some workshops express themselves by applying and melting color and then shaping the molten glass into a finished piece. During skill-based workshops, students focus on a single process, diving into one fundamental topic such as learning to apply color to a polished piece.