A place where glass, play, and inspiration meet, a place where you feel welcome and instantly creative.
There are 12 torches on an impressive 120 square- foot steel table, with ventilation tubes coming from the ceiling to every torch station. Imagine the sound of the exhaust fans and the rhythm of music in the background. Now you can imagine yourself working in The Melting Point’s Flame Shop.
They call it a Flame Shop for exactly the reason you may suspect, the Flame of our Oxygen and Propane powered torches.
A flame that can produce temperatures anywhere from 1400 to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit is the perfect tool for the adventurous art maker.
We start our process the same way for every project, with prep work. We gather together all the different colored glass rods we will need for our project, set out our tools just so, and finally… ignite the Flame. These rods of glass have an infinite potential once plunged into a flame, it can be whatever the maker can dream of. With precision, practice and a discerning eye, the maker forms these melting rods with a variety of metal, graphite, and even wooden tools.
The experience in the Flame Working Studio is both victories as well as heartbreak, an art form that can be self-sufficient but also can be collaborative.
It can be a hot, cool, loud and even quiet place we believe it’s a meditative state when behind the torch creating highly detailed and accurate precision work. Back and forth between reheating and shaping the flame worker is able to make subtle but significant changes to the glass before the object takes its final form.
Once a piece is finished, the art goes into the glass annealer where it undergoes its final stages of curing. It is here that we take the glass from its elastic state and slowly cool it down to room temperature. If we forgo such processes it will leave us with an inherently unstable product that will eventually break due to its own internal stress. After the annealing process, we open the annealer to find the artwork its final stage, cold and ready to go to its forever home. It is like opening presents on your birthday!
Never Made Glass Art? We Have Something for You…
We offer 3-hour and six-hour classes just for novices, during which you’ll make your own glass art with the guidance from one of our crew members.
Available Beginner Torch Working Classes
Beginning Bead Making – 3 and 6-hour classes
This class is taught in our state of the art torch studio. You’ll learn proper safety practices and how the studio is set up, before moving on to the basic skills of lampworking using our propane/oxygen Nortel Minor torches. We’ll teach you how to make stringers, twisties, and how to embellish beads with a variety of decorative techniques, including dots, raking, lines, swirls, foils, encasing, and twists.
Price:
- 3-Hour Class: $240 per person
- 6-Hour Class: $460 per person
Take the Beginning Bead Making Class
(No experience necessary. All materials included.)
Beginning Borosilicate Pendants and Sculpture – 3 and 6 Hour Classes
This class is taught in our state of the art torch studio. You’ll learn proper safety practices and how a studio is set up. Working on propane/oxygen Bethlehem Bravo torches you’ll learn the basic skills of lampworking to melt colorful glass rods into pendants and sculptural pieces. Learn how to make stringers, twisties, and embellishments with a variety of decorative techniques.
Price:
- 3-Hour Class: $260 per person
- 6-Hour Class: $500 per person
Take the Borosilicate Pendants and Sculpture Class
(No experience necessary. All materials included.)
Intermediate and Master Class
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Some Safety Stuff
To keep you and our place from burning down, please read our class policies before you sign up.
Tell Us What You Want to Make?
Tell us what you’d like to make in the Torch Studio or what questions you have. We’ll get back with you during business hours.