In 1987, 10 students from The Ohio State University realized something was missing in Columbus: a glassmaking studio. The creative alumni got to work and eventually opened Glass Axis.
In the beginning, the start-up was actually a traveling workshop that visited central Ohio educational facilities to give glass art lessons. After becoming grounded though, the company now resides in East Franklinton and is an innovative hub. Not just a space to observe glass work in its gallery, Glass Axis is a space where artists with any level of experience can learn, create and sell their original glass works.
Rex Brown, the executive director of Glass Axis, discovered the studio when his now-wife took him on a date to one of the classes. Being a lifelong artist with a focus on painting, Brown quickly found the new medium fascinating.
“It’s a very unique medium,” Brown says. “(Glass Axis) is in the top 10 non-profit art studios internationally because of the breadth of what we’re capable of teaching.”
Brown says the studio covers the following:
- Glass blowing: inflating the glass into bubbles
- Glass sculpting: shaping the molten glass with tools
- Casting: laying glass into a mold for solidification
- Fusing: combining glass pieces using heat
- Neon: making the tubes for the bright lights
- Stained glass: arranging small pieces of glass into a design
- Torch work: using a flame torch to shape the glass
“I can guarantee you that (working with glass) at 2,100 or 2,200 degrees temperature and moving that around can get your adrenaline going,” says Brown. “It’s really cool to watch it move and shape, and then learn how to control that.”
Glass Axis
Anyone can sign up for the classes, which range from beginner to advanced, and are all taught by a professional or highly trained glass artist. All the courses are hands-on, and some classes include blowing ornaments with color, hand-pulling delicate flowers or heart-shaped paperweights, or fusing glass to make sushi plates and a matching sauce container.
Brown says participants always leave with something they can cherish.
“I like to catch it when people come back to pick up what they've created. … They always have this ‘oh wow’ moment, and that just gives me a lot of satisfaction,” Brown says. “I’ve never seen somebody walk away with a finished product unhappy.”
For more information on what Glass Axis has to offer, visit www.glassaxis.org.
Lydia Freudenberg is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com
