Classes
Your Summer Plans Just Landed: July-August Class Guide
5.2.2023
Summer is synonymous with good times, and what could be more fun than exploring a new creative hobby? This Tuesday, May 2, our July-August 2023 classes will open for early member registration, but before they do, you can plan your perfect summer using our latest guide.
Popular favorites like Bladesmithing, Woodturning I, Glass Beads I, and MIG Welding return. We also have four new classes—Fused Glass Suncatchers, Horsehair and Sugar Raku,Wheels!, and Makers Mark and Leather Bag. Plus, our adult week-long classes (aka adult summer camps) return this August.
And families, don’t forget you can still register for 2023 Youth Summer Camps starting in June. Make sure you check out our youth guide for all the details.
Members are the only ones who get early access, so if you haven’t secured your Crucible membership, now is the time! Not only do you get first dibs on every class drop, but you also get 10% off tuition, invites to special events, discounts on merch, and more. Become a Crucible member today and save your seat in an upcoming class. Public registration will open Tuesday, May 9.
Highlight: Adult Week-long Classes
Summer camp isn’t just for the kids! Spend a creative week with us this August.
Build an art bike or customize your existing bike with cool art bike elements! This 30 hour class allows you to get a taste of bike customization and modification without diving into the full art bike/bike frame construction process. A great class for both teens and adults.
Learn the basics of blacksmithing! This class teaches the fundamental skills needed to forge steel and understand blacksmithing tools. We will introduce tapering, upsetting, flattening, dishing, and bending of hot steel. Students make small projects, such as spoons, knives, forks, and hooks.
This specialized course focuses on the forging techniques needed to produce sharp-edged tools of high-carbon steel. We will cover blade design, control of steel grain structure, hardening and tempering methods, steel finishes, and handle construction. Emphasis is on learning the fundamental skills needed to forge a good knife.
In this course, we will focus on the foundation of bookbinding technique, history, and materials. You will construct book blocks, practice stitching techniques, and design covers that express your creative voice. Traditional and contemporary tools will be used to construct several types of books.
Learn the ancient process of lost wax casting sculptural jewelry. Experimenting with different types of wax, you will carve, cast, and finish at least one small fetish, pendant, or ring in silver. Students are encouraged to bring in personal sketches and ideas. Bronze is also available.
This class covers the classical skills needed to make woven and Etruscan chains. You will learn to manipulate wire through the selected use of hand tools, making jump rings, splicing wires together, and fusing jump rings shut. Your finished one-of-a-kind silver chain can accommodate an original pendant or be worn alone.
Practice traditional blacksmithing techniques, such as drawing, bending, twisting, punching, slitting, and drifting using the forge and anvil. Students will learn to forge with confidence and complete projects such as a bracelet, hook, fork, and spoon.
Learn to make colorful glass beads from Effettre glass rods (a soft glass) using an oxy-propane torch. This class teaches you how to make a variety of bead shapes, introduces tools to form and alter surface patterns, and shows you how to make stringers and twistees.
In addition to learning more progressive solid glass techniques, you will learn to use glass tubing to make blown glass perfume bottles and vessels. Color application to blown glass and annealing hollow form pieces will also be discussed.
Practice the skills you learn in class and explore new possibilities with your craft. No instruction is provided during lab sessions, but a lab monitor will be present to answer questions, manage safety, and provide overall support.
Learn the basics of jewelry making. We will focus on sawing, filing, sanding, soldering, texturing, annealing, stamping, polishing, and design. Students will learn the properties of metals like copper, brass, and silver and make a sterling silver ring.
Further develop your basic metalsmithing skills. We will teach disk cutting and doming, bezel setting, three types of rivets, and further design techniques. In addition to technical reference samples, you will create an original piece of jewelry of your own design using a cabochon stone.
Practice the skills you learned in class and explore new possibilities with your craft, or work on a personal project. No instruction is provided during lab sessions, but a lab monitor will be present to answer questions, manage safety, and provide overall support.
Students will design a personalized stamping tool used to mark their signature on embellishable goods. By the end of this week-long immersive experience, student will have a deep understanding of both machining and leatherworking. Our techniques include using templates to cut, dye, decorate, and assemble leather goods and using a mill and other machining tools to create our metal stamper.
Begin your exploration of metal casting with this hands-on overview of foundry processes, including wax sculpting, lost wax casting, ceramic shell, sand moldmaking, casting, and finishing. You will help pour molten metal and complete several cast-metal sculptures or utilitarian objects.
In this class, we introduce the core concepts and techniques required for most woodworking projects, including milling boards to straighten them, choosing and creating appropriate joints to connect them, and the careful handwork to finish everything well. Students leave with their own small end table.
Check out some of our most popular offerings running this summer
Use your early member access to secure your spot.
Neon I
Blacksmithing I
Wheel Throwing I
Glass Blowing I
Woodturning I
Woodworking I
Glass Beads I
Indigo Dyeing and Shibori
Pen in One Day
Torch Fired Enameling
Glass Flameworking I
Elegant Stacking Rings
Turning and Milling
ARC Welding I
MIG Welding
Wooden Box
New classes just landed
It’s your chance to try something new!
Fused Glass Suncatchers
Learn to cut glass and assemble it into beautiful hanging fused glass suncatchers! Add sparkle with dichroic glass, frit, and stringers that will embellish your design. Suncatchers will be kiln fired and ready for pick up the following week.
Horsehair and Sugar Raku
In this class students will hand build forms to be fired for horsehair and/or sugar raku! The second week students will refine, smooth, and dry their pots before applying terra sigillata slip to burnish before firing. After firing, students will meet the final week to load their pots into the raku kiln. Once fired, they will spread horsehair or sprinkle sugar at hot temperatures for a one of a kind effect!
Makers Mark and Leather Bag
Students will design a personalized stamping tool used to mark their signature on embellishable goods. By the end of this week-long immersive experience, student will have a deep understanding of both machining and leatherworking. Machining is a crucial process for creating precise cuts on metal, while leather working allows for the students to create items such as bags, wallets, cases, and more. Our techniques include using templates to cut, dye, decorate, and assemble leather goods and using a mill and other machining tools to create our metal stamper. Students will leave our class with a personalized bag and a stamping tool to use for years to come!
Wheels!
One of the most important, and some say most intimidating, parts of the bike, the wheels! We’ll cover all the parts of the wheel and their maintenance. Hub repacking, wheel truing, spoke tension and replacing spokes.
Don’t miss out on these rare classes!
Seats are sure to fill fast.
Bladesmithing
This specialized course focuses on the forging techniques needed to produce sharp-edged tools of high-carbon steel. We will cover blade design, control of steel grain structure, hardening and tempering methods, steel finishes, and handle construction. Emphasis is on learning the fundamental skills needed to forge a good knife.
Forge Welding
For centuries, forge welding was the only way to weld steel and iron, most commonly being used for pattern welding blades and knives. Now, you can deepen your blacksmithing skills in this class that covers all the fundamentals of this traditional craft. Learn the process of repeatedly drawing out a billet of steel, then folding it back and welding it upon itself. This class is also your introduction to the power hammer.
Torch Fired Enameling
Learn how to use the torch to fuse glass to metal! Working on copper, you will learn the basics of how the enamel medium works and how to fuse using the torch. We will go over metal preparation, enamel application, and the special considerations of using a torch for fusing. You will leave with several completed projects, including a pair of earrings and a pendant.
Contemporary Embossing
Embossing is the process of raising the two-dimensional surface of a design to give it varying degrees of depth, an effect that can’t be achieved in painting, drawing, or printing. In this three-hour class, students will learn to emboss using a traditional press, exploring a variety of materials and both traditional and experimental techniques. By the end of class, each student will have produced their own embossed artwork.
Mordant and Indigo Dyeing
Learn to make a rainbow with natural dye! Cover the fundamentals of natural fibers, mordanting (fabric pre-treatment), and immersion dye baths with red madder root and yellow weld. Create patterns on cloth with shibori techniques and bundle dyeing with whole plants, including dyeing with natural indigo and creating patterns using clay paste resist. Walk away with over 10 personal projects, from silk scarves to cotton bandanas.
Stone Working: Creative Carving
Experience stone carving using traditional hand tools. With a hammer and chisel, your own creativity and imagination will slowly reveal a unique sculpture. All tools will be provided. During the first session, you will learn about selecting your stone and where to buy it. The Crucible may also have a small selection of stone you can purchase, at approximately $35 per stone. Returning students are welcome.
Exploring Welding
Can’t decide what type of welding to take? Explore the varied possibilities of oxy-acetylene, arc/stick, metal inert gas (MIG), and tungsten inert gas (TIG). You will get the chance to try all four, gaining an understanding of which type of welding is most appropriate for the projects you want to complete.
Traditional Dovetails
Dovetails have long been seen as a mark of craftsmanship as they’re famously tricky to do well. This class will go over the complete construction of a drawer or box made from solid lumber, including half-blind dovetails at the front, full dovetails in the back, and a bottom panel floating in a dado. Using skills from Woodworking I, students will use machines to mill lumber to their drawer’s dimensions, then learn to cut the various types of dovetails by hand. A drawer made in this class can be used in the cabinet made in Woodworking II, if desired.
Take the next step on your creative journey
Continuing level classes are your opportunity to grow your skills in the department of your choosing.
Wheel Throwing II
Glass Dragons
Blacksmithing II
Horsehair and Sugar Raku
Jewelry and Metals II
Glass Sea Shells
Traditional Dovetails
Bladesmithing
Forge Welding
Glass Blowing II: Cup Class
Glass Flameworking II
Glass Fusing and Slumping II
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