Glass is an amorphous material, and it’s always on the move—just like our mobile glass studio.
Hot Wheels is an outreach vehicle that allows furnace-fired fun and glassblowing demonstrations to travel far beyond the walls of our Penn Avenue building.
This compact traveling glass studio is complete with all the state-of-the-art equipment needed to conduct glassblowing demonstrations, and it allows our glass artists to pop up all over town so they can manipulate molten magma into fiery works of art almost anywhere.
Looking for a front row seat to hot glass demonstrations at your next event? Please complete this form, email us or call 412-365-2145 to schedule Hot Wheels.
Hot Wheels is made possible by a grant from the Emma Clyde Hodge Memorial Fund in memory of L. Van V. Dauler, Jr.
With the help of an instructor, participants will learn how to transform 2,000°F molten glass into a unique glass artwork. Sculpted items will be manipulated and shaped with various metal hand tools. Blown items will be inflated via a flexible tube attached to a blow pipe. The Hot Shop, as the name might suggest, can get warm at times, particularly during summer months. That being said, the activity will only take about 10-15 minutes per person so you won’t be warm for long. We encourage our guests to wear lighter, natural material clothing for safety and comfort. Visitors are welcome to bring water bottles and a water fountain/filling station is available. These activities will involves sitting, standing, and walking around. Suitable for ages 5 and up.
Kiln Shop Fusing Activities
Combine brilliantly colored pieces of glass granules and thin glass strands to create a one-of-a-kind luminous fused glass artwork. Once you design it, we’ll fire it, so that all pieces become one. Participants will work seated in our climate-controlled Classroom and with room temperature pieces of glass. You will begin with a glass tile that acts as your “canvas,” then arrange the colorful glass granules and thin glass strands into a design of your choosing. Once the designs are complete, suncatchers are placed in a kiln overnight to melt (fuse) together forever. Suitable for ages 5 and up.
Flame Shop Activities
With the help of an instructor, participants will learn how to use tools and a tabletop torch to melt and manipulate glass rods and transform them into truly one-of-a-kind objects. These activities take place in our climate controlled Flame Shop, which involves working with a flame, but is not nearly as warm as our Hot Shop. Participants will be sitting at a workstation, making this option slightly more accessible and less physically demanding. Suitable for ages 8 and up.
