The Crucible

Glass Flameworking
Entry-level class
Create beautiful glass ornaments, globes, perfume bottles, pendants, tube beads, marbles, and more! In flameworking, you’ll use an oxy-propane torch to melt glass so that you can shape it. This class will introduce you to the tools, equipment, and fundamentals of flameworking, and will cover a variety of techniques including color pulling and applying, color pattern application, cane making, frit application, and marble making.

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Also check out this class in our Youth Department and as part of a Family Fun Weekend!

Continuing Techniques in Glass Flameworking
Previous experience required
Prerequisite: Glass Flameworking
After learning the fundamentals in glass flameworking, come take on more involved projects and designs in this intermediate course. This continuation class explores techniques of borosilicate glass blowing. You will learn to shape blown glass, create hollow seals and start to learn how to create blown glass bottles. Color applications to blown glass pieces will also be discussed.

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Advanced Techniques in Flameworking (Yearly)
Previous experience required
Prerequisite: Instructor Approval
This advanced class builds upon the techniques learned in Glass Flameworking and Continuing Techniques in Glass Flameworking. Advanced projects include working with the human figure and discussions on the business of glass flameworking, including marketing, production, design, goal setting, sales, galleries, museums and art shows.

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Lab: Glass Flameworking
Taking a lab is a great way to practice and perfect the skills you learn in class. In labs, you can work on class assignments or your own projects. Lab time is supervised but does not include instruction or materials.

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Glass Beads
Entry-level class
Learn how to make colorful glass beads from Effettre glass rods (a soft glass), using an oxy-propane torch. This class will teach you how to make a variety of bead shapes, to form and alter surface patterns, and to make stringers and twisters.

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Continuing Techniques in Glass Beads
Previous experience required
Prerequisite: Glass Beads
Improve your bead making skills! This weekend class explores the many uses of individual techniques, such as dots, lines, twisters, raking, and encasing. We will choose up to four areas of concentration and devote two to three hours to each topic.

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Advanced Marble Making Techniques
Previous experience required.
Prerequisite: Glass Flameworking
Do you want to take the skills you learned in glass flameworking farther into marble making? This class explores advanced techniques such as multicolored latticino, honeycomb technique, galaxy marbles and implosion marbles.

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Core Vessel Forming
Entry-level class
Learn the traditional ancient Egyptian art of core vessel forming. Building around a core we will duplicate techniques used thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt to create the first bottles.

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Duplicating Nature in Glass
Previous experience required.
Prerequisite: Glass Flameworking
Learn techniques in twisting and manipulating glass to create flowers, branches, and insects. In this class you will closely examine organics elements and explore techniques to create in glass what grows naturally in your garden.

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Glass Fusing & Slumping I
Entry-level class
This entry-level class is a great way to enter the world of art glass. The techniques of fusing and slumping offer almost limitless possibilities for creating with color and form. You’ll learn the basics of glass/heat interaction, glass cutting, fusing (combining colors), and slumping (shaping glass into or over molds to create flat and dimensional forms). The class will cover mold materials as well as firing and annealing procedures. Each week you’ll explore a new process and complete a small project that will be kiln-fired.

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Also check out this class in our Youth Department.

Glass Fusing & Slumping II: An Investigation In Moldmaking
Previous experience required
Prerequisite: Glass Fusing & Slumping I
This class is a great way to continue your investigation into slumping and fusing. Using different materials such as clay, fiber and firebricks you will design and create your own slumping molds. We will also discuss glass chemistry and more advanced fusing and slumping processes.

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Kiln-Cast Glass
Entry-level class
This class teaches the ancient art of lost wax casting. Students will sculpt a small wax form that will be used to make a mold for a ‘one off‘ reproduction. Students will learn techniques for working with wax, plaster/silica mold making procedures, de-waxing the mold, the kiln firing process, firing schedules and annealing the glass. Students will be able to complete 2-3 finished projects and learn basic cold working techniques.

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Model, Mold and Cast Glass (Yearly)
Entry-level class
This class guides you through the complete process of creating an original work of cast glass, and gives you a taste of exciting creative possibilities in three departments! Three skilled instructors will explain all the steps including glass design, creative clay modeling, mold-making, glass casting and finishing. You will then begin your journey with clay modeling, moving through the rest of the process that ends with a finished work of glass art. This class is an opportunity for a beginning student to learn the process quickly, with beautiful results. No previous sculpture experience required. There will be a project size limit.

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Reverse Relief Kiln-Cast Glass
Entry-level class
Capture the light in your sculpture! Learn about the magical world of reverse relief in glass. Some knowledge about kiln-cast glass is helpful, but beginners are welcome too. You will make a relief in clay, then make a wax relief from your clay model. Your final project will be a solid block of glass, with the reverse relief in the back. Viewing it through the smooth, glassy front, you will see the positive image of your relief.

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Continuing Techniques in Kiln-Fired Glass: Working Deep (Biannually)
Previous experience required
Prerequisite: Kiln-Fired Glass-Fusing & Slumping I & II
This class offers an advanced technique that makes use of skills learned in the introductory kiln-fired glass class. In this class you will fuse multiple pieces of glass together to create a design embedded within the layers. You will explore the use of frits (crushed glass) and powdered glass to create a piece that captures imagery in great depth.

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Continuing Techniques in Kiln-Fired Glass: Canes & Murrinis (Biannually)
Previous experience required
Prerequisite:Kiln-Fired Glass-Fusing & Slumping I & II
This class builds on skills learned in the introductory class on kiln-fired glass, offering more advanced techniques and projects. The class focuses on manipulating glass using hot and cold methods. You’ll learn pattern bar and cane construction, cane pulling in the glory hole and sawing murrini, all techniques that let you create intricate patterns in glass. Using elements that you make in the glory hole, you’ll complete a glass plate.

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Lab: Glass Fusing
Taking a glass lab is a great way to practice and perfect the skills you learn in class. In labs, you have time to work on class assignments or your own projects. Lab time is supervised but does not include instruction or materials. To be eligible for this lab students must haave taken Fusing and Slumping I & II or have permission from Glass Fusing Area Heads.

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Stained Glass Sculpture (Yearly)
Entry-level class
Stained glass or glass fusing experience is helpful but not required for this class. You’ll use a combination of fusing and stained glass fabrication techniques to make three-dimensional forms in glass. You will combine colors of glass and shape the resulting pieces in the kiln. Then you will use copper foiling and soldering to join individual pieces to make a three-dimensional creation. The class will also explore different mold materials and fastening methods.

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Pot Melt Workshop
Entry-level class
Unique glass art can be created using tested compatible glass melted in a flowerpot in the kiln. This process uses scrap glass heated to 1650 allowing the glass to flow onto the kiln shelf forming a “puddle” of myriad colored glass. The glass can be cut and ground into a shape that is re-fused into a final finished art piece.

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Architectural Applications of Plate Glass:
Using Recycled Glass (Yearly)
Entry-level class
This fast-paced, five-week class explores techniques for using broken window glass and post-consumer bottle glass to form sculptural pieces, tableware, and architectural elements. Each week’s session introduces a different approach to using the glass, combining colors by fusing glass in the kiln, changing the shape of resulting pieces using molds, using the glory hole to reform recycled bottles, and working with the cold glass. Glass chemistry, coloration, and firing temperatures will be explained for each particular application.

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Reactive Glass Workshop
Entry-level class
This workshop shows how Bullseye glass can be used to create special effects after kiln firing. Differing glass chemistries, when combined can cause reactions that change the color and appearance of the fired glass. The addition of metal foils further alters the look of the glass. In this workshop, you can expect to make a number of samples to help give you a wider range of expression in your fused and slumped glass art.

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Glass Cold Working & Engraving
Entry-level class
In The Crucible’s expanded cold working area, you can learn to grind and polish glass. Using glass blanks, you will experiment with techniques of cutting, drilling, carving, and sandblasting glass. Lathe working will be introduced. You will have the opportunity to complete at least two ground and polished glass objects. Returning students learn advanced techniques. To qualify for the CREATE program three classes are recommended to pass the departmental safety checkout test for the cold shop.

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Engraving
Entry-level class
Description to come....

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Introduction to Glass Blowing
Entry-level class
You can melt and reform glass using the glory hole, an opening in a furnace that keeps glass hot and workable. Many techniques for working with hot glass will be demonstrated including cane pulling, cane cups, “rollups,” re-blowing bottles. Students will work in teams to form the hot glass. Be prepared for very hot work.

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