Liberty Arts

Prerequisite: For students who have already taken the four day intro class or a similar amount of private instruction. Alternatively, students who have previous experience in other hot shops and are comfortable gathering, making cups, punties and assisting.

Goal of class:

Get a feeling for the different types of vessels you can make starting from the same bubble setup. Students will learn how to make a range of shapes and control the subtle variations in form, along with improving their base skills to become comfortable working in the hot shop. Additionally some practice with sketching and thinking through shape ideas.

• Refining bench and tool skills, turning techniques and practice
• Controlling thickness of the piece 
• Dictating scale of piece
• Sketching ideas and learning steps to set up various forms

The end goal is for students to be able to rent studio time after this course. 

Day 1

Variations on a cup:

Tall cup, squat cup - setting up a bubble and controlling length with air and gravity. Goal is to get comfortable with general setup and start thinking about targeting a specific shape.

Day 2:

Vases and Bottles

Adding necks to things: pulling out a neck, hanging out a piece, shaping the shoulder. 

Day 3: 

Choose a form and make it: Take one of the forms we’ve covered in the previous class and work through the process of making it.

See how different setups allow for different shapes. Understand where subtle changes in heat will affect form of piece.

Day 4:

Refine or expand your form. Take that piece and refine it, make small targeted alterations to understand how the glass will behave.