Welcome to the Glass in Springfield Blog!

Welcome to the Glass in Springfield Blog!

While there are many glass artists in the area, this blog focuses on the activities at the Arts Interface Creative School of Visual Art classes, activities, exhibitions, instructor and student work. To get more information on classes please call 937-325-1640 or click here. If you are a local artist using glass and you'd like to be more involved or featured on the blog please contact Aimee at aimeesones@gmail.com

Glassblowing students Ann Mullin and Jim Griffin hard at work in the studio!

Interface Studio of Glass Works

Arts Interface Creative Group School of Visual Art

In 1997 Dr. Robert Beam and his wife Sally founded Springfield’s only glass program and studio with the help of regional glass artist Ralph Prince. Dr. Beam’s love and talent for creating various forms of glass art and his considerate philanthropic spirit also led to the establishment of classes in stained glass and beadmaking. The glassblowing studio was originally established in an available room within the Springfield Museum of Art School, now owned and operated by the Arts Interface Creative Group since 2007, and located within the Springfield Arts Center at Wittenberg University, 2010.

Today, with program expansions funded by The H.M. Turner Foundation and a Springfield Foundation gift left by the late Dr. Beam, the Interface Studio of Glass Works has expanded to include classes in mosaics, fusing, images on glass, glass casting and mold making. The studio has developed many artist affiliates and instructors locally, nationally and internationally recognized, such as Ralph Prince, Larry Hawkins, Tom Hermann, Susan Broidy, Guustie Alvarado and Aimee Sones. The Interface Studio of Glass Works remains Springfield’s only hot glass shop; teaching multiple techniques with glass, and is open to the public for classes and observation. Educational instruction is available in all techniques used for beginners to advanced students. One day workshops and four to eight week long classes are offered for teenage and adult students including a variety of creative experiences with glass. The Arts Interface Creative Group School of Visual Art is proud to remain a popular and functional destination for glass enthusiasts, artists and shoppers. A quarterly class schedule is published and mailed, or guests may find the schedule at www.artsinterface.org which includes full class descriptions.

Glassblowing-a furnace melts the glass at 2100 degrees Fahrenheit and students use various tools to blow and shape the glass into solid or vessel forms.

Stained glass-students cut sheets of colorful glass to make unique designs using copper foil or lead cane.

Kiln formed glass-tiny bits of glass are added to sheets of glass and placed in a kiln and fused together, sometimes they are placed in a mold and slumped into a plate or bowl shape, plaster and silica molds can be made and solid glass sculptures can be cast inside.

Mosaics-students use a variety of beautiful glass and ceramic pieces and arrange them on a board or object and add grout to make whimsical objects.