The Gear Girls

In honor of Veterans Day 2013, The Crucible is giving veterans a chance to explore their creativity in the medium of glass during a day of free taster classes available for sign-up to veterans only.

Call 510-444-0919 x103 to sign up for a session.

Glass Flameworking

• Session 1 (4GLF8813-VA): 10 am – 1 pm
• Session 2 (4GLF8813-VB): 2-5 pm

Our Flameworking Taster is an easy way to begin exploring glass. This workshop will introduce you to the tools, equipment, and fundamentals of flameworking, and will cover a small variety of techniques like color pulling and applying, frit application, and marble making.

Glass Paper Weights

• Session 1 (4GLB5114-VA): 10 am – 1 pm
• Session 2 (4GLB5114-VA): 2-5 pm

This is an excellent beginning class for anyone wanting to dabble in hot glass. In this workshop you will learn to gather molten glass out of the furnace, apply color, learn techniques for manipulating and shaping the glass, as well as proper use of traditional glass blowing tools. Create one-of-a-kind paperweights you can keep or gift.

Carla Hall teaching the Women’s Blacksmithing Workshop.

Earlier this year, a dozen women gathered for the bi-annual Women’s Blacksmithing Workshop. The Crucible offers this special workshop – taught by women, for women – to cover the fundamentals of blacksmithing and forging steel.

The Crucible hosted Make Media and Google for a virtual Maker Camp broadcast via Google+ on July 10, 2013. The Crucible’s Youth Program Associate, Iz Plasencia, lead the virtual campers through a tour of our industrial art studios and classrooms and a short project.

The East Bay Express is running their annual “Best of the East Bay” reader poll, in which they’re asking YOU to vote on your favorite local spots.  We’d love your help to represent The Crucible in this year’s “Best Of” issue!

Here’s how you can help:

Barry Baldwin working on a sculpture Une Vielle Flamme – The Dress

Barry Baldwin, founder of The Crucible’s Stone Carving program, is a legend. A stone carver since age 16, Barry has toured the world for his craft, working everywhere from Beirut, Lebanon to Trafalgar Square.

Detail of enameled vessel by Judy Stone.

Judy Stone, Head of the Enameling Department, oozes patience, dedication, and wisdom. Having taught at The Crucible since the organization’s inception, she’s spent those years building core curriculum, creating innovative pieces, and establishing her reputation internationally. Now, she’s proving that slow and steady wins the race: in addition to showing her works at exhibitions worldwide, she’s also created a cutting-edge course for those lucky enough to enroll.

In this interview, she sits down with Sarah Dabby to discuss her newfound enameling fame and the one-of-a-kind enameling opportunities she’s creating at The Crucible and beyond.

Read the transcript below and listen in on more of their conversation on Soundcloud.

Sarah Dabby: Let’s start with the basics of your craft. What is enameling?

Judy Stone: Enameling is the process of fusing glass to metal at high heat.  The metal is determined by the glass, and vice-versa.  In our intimate department at The Crucible, we work mostly with copper and silver.  In the industrial arm of enameling, we work with a very specific type of steel.

SD: What are some of the outcomes of enameling?

JS: The most common thing the public would see is enameled jewelry, and the most common enameling technique is cloisonné.  However, there are many, many enameling techniques.  The whole medium is millennia old – there are examples that date back to 600BC from the island of Cyprus – and the history of enameling parallels the history of glass technology.  Enameling is in every culture and every country, with an aesthetic shaped by those cultures and countries.

SD: You have a very special class coming up. Can you tell us about that?

JS: The Enameling Department, in conjunction with KVO Industries in Santa Rosa, is teaching a class called “Working Large,” which is about adventures in industrial enameling. It’s got a maximum enrollment of 10 students.  It’ll be held at The Crucible, but we’ll be doing field trips to Santa Rosa’s KVO factory to work in the factory, to learn some things from the factory, and fire large pieces in the factory. Industrial enameling a wonderful medium for public artists to produce outdoor dimensional work, or functional work, such as architectural development, tiled backsplashes, tabletops, etc.  The outcome of this particular course is that you can build fairly large pieces (up to four feet), and at the end, you’ve got a sellable product, if you wish!

SD: Whom do you recommend enroll for this class?

JS: EVERYBODY! You need no prior experience for this class. It’s especially appealing to people who already paint and draw.  We’re going to do painting, airbrushing, drawing, silk-screening, photographic transferring, and more. If people are already comfortable working two-dimensionally, this will add to their repertoire. I’m especially interested in public artists looking at this way of working, because it’s an amazingly durable way to produce 2-D work for outdoor installations.

Welded sculpture by Adrian Rodriguez

Adrian Rodriguez has been a lifelong artist, but it was only after discovering The Crucible with the help of his high school teacher, did he start realizing his full potential as an industrial artist. In this interview with writer, Sarah Dabby, Adrian takes us on his artistic journey and offers pithy advice for getting ready for the 8th Annual Fire & Light: Soirée and Art Auction — “Bring some money! And dress nicely.” Well said, Adrian! Though we would also add — expect the spectacular!

Sarah Dabby: Let’s start with the basics.

Adrian Rodriguez: My name is Adrian Rodriguez. I was born in Oakland and raised in Richmond, right outside the iron triangle. I went to Richmond High School.

SD: How’d you discover The Crucible?

AR: My English teacher, Ms. Rooney, thought I had really good artistic potential, so one day she gave me an application to this place called The Crucible.  I signed it and gave it to her the next day, and I thought, “Why would anyone name a place The Crucible?  Was it after a book?”  I didn’t know anything about it, but I gave the application to her, and that summer, I took blacksmithing and ARC Welding.

SD: Why do you think Ms. Rooney gave you an application?

AR: She saw my drawings, and she hadn’t seen my drawings before – so she thought I had good potential to be an artist, and an industrial artist.

SD: How long have you been drawing?

AR: As long as I can remember – on my earliest memories, I was scribbling on my mom’s walls. She was probably mad at me!

SD: What classes did you start with at The Crucible?

AR: My first class was blacksmithing.  I had been growing my hair out long, and it was really hot in there.  The first day it was about 95-100 degrees, so I’d go to the fan every time I put my metal into the heat.  So I was glad I had welding; it was in cold air with cement and metal…I was really happy to work in welding.

SD: What was your first day like?

AR: I was hooked. Both Blacksmithing and ARC Welding paved the way for me to join The Crucible.  Blacksmithing, you use tools to make tools.  The blacksmiths were the ‘cool people’ back in the day, so that’s fun.  I like welding better in a way – I draw, and I’m able to manipulate the metal to make my drawings 3-D.

SD: Tell me about your first sculpture, and how you’ve grown since then.

AR: My first sculpture is a little man.  It was supposed to be 3-D, but it’s 2-D in a way. I keep it in my house.  Since then, I think I’ve made a total of 15-16 sculptures, and the ones I’ve been doing recently – I can’t believe