2008 Woodie Awards
Crafting Glass
Center offers free lessons to students
By Sheryl McGlory
Rocket Advertising Manager
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Life
If you're a Slippery Rock University student and you've ever wanted to try your hand at glass blowing, here's your chance.
The Glass Blowing Center in Hilliards is offering free bead-making lessons to SRU students from Oct. 22 to Oct. 30.
Elaine and Tom Doner, owners of the Glass Blowing Center opened the business at its current location in late July. Though they have owned the retail store for at least three years, Elaine said, they moved their business into a new building this summer.
The Glass Blowing Center offers jewelry and bead-making lessons to its patrons.
"Jewelry-making is making glass pendants with colors in them," Elaine said.
The jewelry-making process involves working with borosilicate glass, while beads are made with a softer glass called moretti.
To make beads, Elaine said, you wrap morretti glass around a small steel piece called a mandrel. The rods of glass are then melted in a kiln and left to sit overnight to harden. Once they are cooled, the beads can be removed from the mandrel, which ensures that there is a hole running through the bead.
Elaine said that even though many people think they need to have prior experience to come to the center, the lessons that are offered at the center are for anyone who's interested.
Elaine, not a glass blower herself, has tried the art twice and said she shows people who come into the center for the first time the things she was able to make without having previous experience.
"A lot of things that people think you need to blow glass, like a college degree in it or Italian instruction, you really don't," she said. "Pretty much anybody who can turn a rod can do it.
"It's practice, practice, practice."
Take Tom, for example. He used to be a mechanic and Elaine said her husband had never tried glass blowing until he saw someone doing it at a local flea market over ten years ago and became hooked.
"He would go back every weekend and watch the guy work," she said.
The Glass Blowing Center in Hilliards is offering free bead-making lessons to SRU students from Oct. 22 to Oct. 30.
Elaine and Tom Doner, owners of the Glass Blowing Center opened the business at its current location in late July. Though they have owned the retail store for at least three years, Elaine said, they moved their business into a new building this summer.
The Glass Blowing Center offers jewelry and bead-making lessons to its patrons.
"Jewelry-making is making glass pendants with colors in them," Elaine said.
The jewelry-making process involves working with borosilicate glass, while beads are made with a softer glass called moretti.
To make beads, Elaine said, you wrap morretti glass around a small steel piece called a mandrel. The rods of glass are then melted in a kiln and left to sit overnight to harden. Once they are cooled, the beads can be removed from the mandrel, which ensures that there is a hole running through the bead.
Elaine said that even though many people think they need to have prior experience to come to the center, the lessons that are offered at the center are for anyone who's interested.
Elaine, not a glass blower herself, has tried the art twice and said she shows people who come into the center for the first time the things she was able to make without having previous experience.
"A lot of things that people think you need to blow glass, like a college degree in it or Italian instruction, you really don't," she said. "Pretty much anybody who can turn a rod can do it.
"It's practice, practice, practice."
Take Tom, for example. He used to be a mechanic and Elaine said her husband had never tried glass blowing until he saw someone doing it at a local flea market over ten years ago and became hooked.
"He would go back every weekend and watch the guy work," she said.
