Art Glass Center of San Jose

Going to some of the movies at Cinequest.
Saw this mural art close by so took a photo...

Last night, while visiting various galeries participating in the San Jose South First Fridays event (first Friday night of the month, on the several blocks of South First Street between San Carlos and 280), we visited the Art Glass Center of San Jose.

There is a small retail area where glass art from the members is sold. The rest of the place has places for artists to work on fused glass and torch work. There were several artists there last night, all working on their art.

My wife, a mosaic artist, is interested in fused glass and is interested in the classes and labs that they offer.

After visiting the various galleries participating in the South First Fridays events, we returned to the Art Glass Center and watched Lionel Chapital (www.lionelchapital.com), a master lampwork artist, create a beautiful glass hummingbird (amber body, cobalt blue accents in the body, and cobalt blue wings and beak).

If you are interested in glass art, this is a place for you to visit.

You are high on illegal substances if you don't sign up for classes here. I've never done it myself or have any idea of what even goes on here, but it sounds cool!

I used a Yelp Deal to purchase a "Glass Artist for the Day" class. Over the course of four hours we did the following lessons:
- Torchworking: Make a stir-stick with a twisted top
- Stained glass: Solder pre-cut glass pieces together to create a suncatcher
- Glass Fusion: Design a 6 inch tile or dish

Torchworking was pretty fun, but scary because you work over an open flame. (I had nightmares about turning the gas too high and burning my eyebrows off.) The project wasn't too interesting - I have no idea what I'm going to do with a swizzle stick; I've never needed one before - and it's just clear glass. There was an option to leave your stick and have the twisted top transformed into a pendant, but frankly mine wasn't pretty enough to wear. I've read that some other classes get to make flowers during the torchworking lesson; I think that would have been much more fun.

Stained glass wasn't very exciting either. There was a limited selection of colors to choose from - seven, if I remember correctly - and every piece was diamond-shaped. This can look pretty cool in a large mosaic, but when you can only use three or four pieces the results are pretty limited: cube, chevron, diamond and pointy almost-flower-like shape. I thought my cube turned out OK in terms of color and construction, but when I got home I realized the glass was quite opaque, so if I hung it in a window not much light came through. It was fun to learn about the soldering techniques, though!

The last mini-class was the most fun. The instructor spent a good long time teaching us how to cut glass to create designs on a 6" dish, then set us free to do whatever. I never quite mastered the art of cutting glass (much to my friend's amusement) but I wanted to do a Jackson Pollock-esque design so that was quite fine with me! Since it was the last class of the night, it felt very rushed, and that was too bad, because this was the only time the night where I felt truly creative.

I did learn a lot, and I'm looking forward to doing more with all three techniques. Although I had fun in my classes here, I'm not sure if I want to continue taking classes here. The class sizes are rather large, so it's hard to get individual instruction from the teachers, and at times (especially towards the end) I felt rushed to finish my project.

I was a "glass artist" for the day. 'twas a fun and educational experience indeed. Friendly, helpful,knowledgeable staff were there to assist and direct our class every step of the way. I loved working with the torch-made me a nifty stirring rod that's gonna be someone's Xmas gift this year. Lucky them!

My friend & I had a blast at their Glass Artist for a Day class. Think of it as a wine tasting event for art glass. You get to sample 3 types of glass work - torching, fusing and stained glass. An added bonus ... by completing the class you are qualified to take any of their project based classes.

The instructors, Tony, Ivan & Janet, were very knowledgeable and helpful. A special shout-out to Tony who got a workout hustling from person to person as we were rolling our glass in the open flame to create a stir stick.

Consider yourself very lucky if you come across a deal for Glass Artist for a Day. It's a bargain you'll be happy you purchased.

What a treat!!! Great place to learn about glass work and have fun!

I was gifted a groupon to take a class here with some of my closest friends. We took a 4-hour class that covered torching glass, soldering glass & basics of fusing glass. Instructors were friendly and helpful and made us feel very welcome. At the end of class we got to take home a glass stirring stick that we torched, a stained glass charm that we soldered and they're shipping my fused glass creations to the home address.

I signed up for the Glass Artist for a Day class. We had to wait outside until nearly everyone had shown up and it was really cold waiting for people who could not show up on time (or at least have the decency to be 5 minutes late). It was fun once we got inside and could warm up. It would have been more fun to take the class with a friend, but it didn't work out.

We did stained glass, fusing, & torchwork. I used to do stained glass many years ago, so most of it was familiar, but some things had changed. I was able to successfully make my suncatcher without having to make a single cut. The fusing instructor taught us how to cut glass using "new to me" techniques, which were really cool to learn a better way. I tried something different, hope it works out. Then the torchwork, which was like torture because I was tired and hungry. My stir stick end turned out great, but the making my swirl, not so good because my arms & hands were tired. I decided to keep it as a stir stick because it could have been better.

It would have been nice to have a little break between the lessons to eat a quick bite, as the class was from 10 - 2. And of course it ran over the end time from all the people showing up late.

My partner and I had a Groupon to be an "artist for a day" with 3 glass activities over 4 hours. We just completed it yesterday and had a great time.

Each class size is limited to about 18 people, because you are broken up into little groups of 6 people and rotate through the 3 stations. My group started with the torchwork activity and it was really hard and frustrating. I didn't like this activity at all but my partner really liked it. We both thought the 2 instructors for the torchwork were disappointing and rude, hence the 4 stars instead of 5. The finished product was a clear stir stick with a twist; but if you didn't like it as a stir stick, you could have the twisty part taken off as a pendant. We kept ours as a stir stick.

The next station was the stained glass and that was more my speed. Ivan the instructor knew his stuff and was really helpful without making me feel stupid when I asked a question. Both of us liked how our suncatchers turned out. Only complaint was that the range of colors to choose from was really limited, but Ivan explained why that was.

The last station was the fused class. Janett, the director, taught this class and she was really great. We will pick up our pieces in a week so I'm not sure how they will look after they've been fired; but I am assuming they will look awesome no matter what. This was probably my favorite station, and makes me want to take a class on just fusing so I can spend more time on it.

Our session was from 10-2. We knew there were no breaks (from reading other yelps), so we brought a snack to eat in the 5 minutes we were waiting to switch stations. Not being able to take a break or stop for lunch made it a challenging 4 hours, but that's a minor complaint.

I am so glad we did this! We are both hooked on glass as a new medium to play with.

My girlfriend and I had a Groupon for this. We wanted to try something fun and new to us.

The staff are very helpful, friendly, and informative. The classes were fantastic and I can't wait to do more in depth classes. We learned how to make glass plates, an ornament, and stained glass piece.

If you are a creative person, this is definitely the place for you. If you are not creative, you will quickly learn how. ;-)