Jennifer Wolcott

 Lampworking

LAMPWORKING CLASS

Instructor: Jennifer Wolcott

 DESCRIPTION:

This is a nine hour class divided into three, three hour sessions. The sessions could be one per week for three weeks or three consecutive days such as Friday, Saturday, Sunday for a long weekend.

 The class is intended to give the student basic skills in lampworking. The emphasis is on understanding how glass behaves and how to manipulate it safely. Each student gets a handout on safety and background information on glass with room for taking notes. The handout is covered on the first day with emphasis on the safety information.

 The class introduces a comprehensive list of techniques.  In the third class complex beads can be analyzed and broken down so the student can see that they know the steps.

Along with the materials included in the materials fee, the instructor will bring more glass and tools which will be available for sale.

 The class covers as much of the following as the students can handle or want to try:

1)      Basic bead making

a.       Tools and workspace layout

b.      Prepping mandrels and cleaning glass

c.       Coating a mandrel

d.      The torch and the flame

e.       Making a gather

f.       Winding glass onto the mandrel

g.       Contact width controlling shape

2)      Stringer

3)      Dots

a.       Size control

b.      Stacking

c.       flattening

4)      Shaping

a.       On marver and other objects

b.      Twisting

c.       Cutting and pulling

5)      Bubbles

6)      Inclusions

a.       Silver

b.      Millefiore

7)      Twisted Cane

8)      Enamels and Frit

9)      Silver foil

10)  Plunging

11)  Stripes

12)  Raking

13)  Multiples

14)  Making your own tools

COSTS:

Teacher’s fee:  $75.00 per student. Minimum class size = four, maximum = eight.

                        The Teachers fee does not include any fees the Center wants to charge.

Kit Rental:  $35.00 Kits are not for sale. I would strongly suggest renting a kit to be sure         that the student’s equipment is functional. There are cheap kits available on the net that do not work well and are a source of major frustration. The  Hot Heads brand torch is the one I recommend. 

Materials:   $30.00 Includes glass rods, millefiore, silver foil and wire, enamels  and frit. If students want to bring their own materials the glass must have a COE of 104 and be compatible with Effetre or Moretti. Once again there is a large potential for frustration from the wrong materials.