Having come to my career of glass art later in life, I really love taking classes with experts in the art world. I find as an adult and working artist, I have a deeper appreciation of learning now than I ever did. So I squeezed in one last art workshop this summer-- a four day class at The Bullseye Resource Center in Mamaroneck, NY. Bullseye started in Portland, OR as a glass manufacturer and they have expanded to be one of the most significant innovators in glass art. They present workshops with some of the most creative, talented artists working in glass today and I had the pleasure of learning from one of them, Nathan Sandberg. The class uses a vitrigraph kiln-- basically a kiln with a hole in the bottom that allows you to work with the glass while it's hot (over 1500 degrees!) without having to have a "hot shop" set up. The glass world is divided into what temperature the glass is when you work with it. As a fuser, I am technically a "warm glass" artist and people who blow glass are "hot glass" artists. Since I don't have the resources for that type of setup, I am limited in what I can do except that the vitrigraph kiln sort of allows you to "cheat" and manipulate the glass when it's hot. We jumped right in on the first day and made "cane" which is a rod of glass that measures about three quarters of an inch; the photo above shows me pulling the hot glass out of the bottom of the kiln. If you want to see more pictures of the process, check out my "What's New" page for some images and descriptions. Hot fun in the summertime!