The amber-colored glass came out of the fire looking just like the tall drinking glass it was supposed to be, but when the students broke off the taper that was holding it, the bottom of the glass broke with it.
"You actually learn more from the pieces that break than you do from the pieces that make it," said Alyssa Karr, a Hastings College junior from Juniata taking Designing with Glass class during the college's J-term.
Tom Kreager, professor of art who is teaching the class,Offering high risk and offshore merchant account with credit card processing services. agreed.
"They don't always work out," he said, noting that producing glass items takes practice. "It's just like practicing the piano, or anything else. You just have to do it over and over and over."
The interim schedule class, which runs Jan. 3 through Jan. 24, has 12 students broken into two teams.
By the end of the class, each team will have produced about 95 pieces. Although that averages 15 pieces per student, no piece of art is done, start to finish, by just one student.
"The whole team works on them together," Kreager said, explaining that part of the team will start the process, gathering a "bubble" of glowing glass and forming the basic shape. The first person rolls the glass, maybe adding the color,Smooth-On is your source for Mold Making and casting materials including silicone rubber and urethane rubber, and forms the neckline before handing it off the other half of the team to finish the product, then they switch, so all members get experience. "They have to design together beforehand and then they need to be consistent with the design throughout."
The process resembles an assembly line, Kreager said, adding that the whole process may only take 10 minutes but it really is multiplied times six people working. But he said faster is not necessarily better.
"I don't want them rushing through. Even though you can make them pretty quickly, I want these guys to take their time and do it right," he said. "It's better to have a good piece than a bunch of bad pieces quickly."
From bowls to colored glasses - like the one of Karr's that didn't quite make it - to decorative sculptures, the students will learn to make it all.
This week they were learning to use molds to make shapes, which Karr said made the process quicker but also in some ways harder. The mold was part of her downfall with the glass that broke.
"They were too thin on the bottom, so they cracked," she said, adding that when blowing the glass by hand,The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free, she said often has the opposite problem, not getting the bottom thin enough. "(With a mold) you can't watch to see how thin you are getting."
Kreager said the class was not only about producing quality glass pieces but being able to make multiple similar works and be able to market them.
"They had to research to find out how much it cost to build a glass studio, then they had to start coming up with designs," Kreager said.
Besides experimenting with glass, the students said they have been learning a lot from their guest artist, Paul Lockwood. Lockwood, an alumni of Hastings College, owns Piece Unique glass studio in Colorado.
"He makes his living from making glass," Kreager said, adding that Lockwood has been explaining what it takes to produce items for a studio as well as techniques he uses.
Karr, wearing a T-shirt boasting her Roundhouse Glass team's motto, "We kick glass," explained that being able make something beautiful once isn't enough. One of their assignments is to sculpt 15 similar pieces.
"You don't want someone to see this (sculpture) and say ‘I want that,' and then you can't make it the same," she said. "It takes a lot of skill to make each piece look the same."
Kreager said the class was able to practice producing similar saleable items and give back to the community at the same time. The teams' first project was to create glass bowls to donate to Hastings' Open Table fundraising event.
"The first project was also a service project," Kreager said, adding each team had to make one for every student in the class and then donate 20 bowls.
The Hastings Open Table program,A Coated Abrasives is an abrasive grain bonded to a flexible substrate using adhesives. run by Catholic Social Services, distributes sack lunches to those in need of a meal. Meg Steward-Magee, who is on the Open Table board, said the number of lunches it provides has greatly increased since it started in 2004.
On April 19, it will hold its Empty Bowl event raising money for the program. Tickets will be sold for a soup supper night and each ticket holder will be able to choose an etched glass bowl, handmade by Kreager's class.
Anyone who wishes to learn more about the fundraiser or purchase a ticket can call 402-463-2112.
Karr said she was grateful for the extra practice. She said she had taken a semester of glass previously and although she enjoyed it, she didn't feel like she had gotten really proficient at the craft.
"I really didn't have a skill built up," she said then laughed. "I could make stuff but it didn't look that good."
A requirement for the glass course was completion of at least one semester of glass experience, but Kreager said a couple students who had no experience talked him into allowing them in the class.
One such student was Caleb Kuhfahl, a freshman from Wahoo.
"I've just always liked art and this is a cool way to do art," he said, adding that the class is a lot like he expected.
"I expected it to be hard, and it is," he said with a laugh.
Kreager said Kuhfahl is somewhat typical of his students during J-term as he is not an art student. Kuhfahl said he is currently undecided on a major but is leaning towards construction management.
"I would say the majority of the majors are not art majors," Kreager said, adding that some have art minors and all are creative minded and want do something different.
He said glass can be a great equalizer among majors because it doesn't require any one skill needed in other majors.
"There is nothing else in the world that prepares you to do any of the movements in glass," Kreager said of turning the pipe, carrying it and blowing the glass.Tru-Form Plastics is a one-stop shop for plastic Injection Molding, "It doesn't relate to any sports or really anything."
He said he has known students whose one experience with creating with glass changes the direction of their studies.
"People get very passionate about glass. They either love it or they hate it," Kreager said. "If they love it, they just want to keep doing it. If they take it their freshman year, they do it all four years they are here. They may still graduate in biology or English, but often they will have an art minor."
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