TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Diane Radloff will have as much fun giving Christmas gifts this year as getting them.
That’s because Radloff is making many of her gifts from colorful fused glass at the Glass Artz Learning Studio and Gallery in downtown Traverse City, the area’s only make-it-yourself glass studio.
Artist and owner Debra Coburn opened the studio in May to offer classes where students can cut and arrange colored glass creatively to make everything from pendants to pocket wall vases, name plates to nightlights, trivets to serving trays, even chimes, “bugs” and garden stakes, the Transverse City Record Eagle (https://bit.ly/2fivTRd ) reported.
“I call it my ’refirement,’” said Coburn, a former Traverse City Area Public Schools art teacher who retired two years ago to focus on her passion for fused glass. “I loved teaching. I just wanted to do it in my own time and my own medium.”
Coburn took her first fused glass workshop 12 years ago while visiting her daughter in Portland, Oregon. Soon she was displaying her work in galleries and teaching the art form at places like Northwestern Michigan College, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Leelanau Studios and the Botanic Gardens at Historic Barns Park.
“When I put my hand on colored glass I was in love - love at first touch,” said Coburn, who has a master’s degree in fine arts.
Eventually it became clear that she needed a studio of her own. She found space in a former tattoo parlor along East Front Street and the Boardman River, brightened it up with shades of white and sea blue, added work tables, a kiln and other tools of her trade, and started a cooperative gallery inside where other artists can display work in their own medium.
Now the studio and gallery offers private parties, frequent classes on single projects and twice-Tuesday ’open studio’ classes where students can choose from several projects to work on. Students also can take advanced classes on techniques like using powdered glass and “frit” or crushed glass.
“It’s endless inspiration,” said Coburn. “I’ll wake up in the morning with an idea and come in to the studio in my pajamas and slippers.”
The artist guides students through the entire process, from cutting a clear glass base into a selected shape to cutting and laying colored glass shapes on top. Then she fires each project in the kiln, where the glass fuses together and takes on dimension.
Since she opened, Coburn has welcomed everyone from retirees and “Red Hat ladies” to parents and their children, book clubs to bachelorettes and birthday celebrants.
“I was not surprised, I was elated that it clicked,” she said. “People asked me to do this and said they would come, and they did.”
Radloff became a studio regular after discovering Coburn’s business card at a wine and art event last spring.
“I went in - I’m not very artistic, or at least I didn’t think I was - and just had a grand time,” said the retired hospital president. “I did a dish with Debra and then I ended up going back and did a vase with lacy edges and gave it to my 91-year-old mother, who loves it. I did another lacy vase - a bigger one for myself -and decided they’re pretty cute, so I did two more for Christmas gifts.
“It’s the best little art studio I’ve been in contact with because it’s not pretentious. And I’m new in town so it’s been a great opportunity to meet people and have fun.”
Now she plans to make more Christmas gifts - from soap dishes to sushi sets - at Coburn’s classes through NMC’s extended ed.
“I don’t know what it is about fused glass. It’s easy enough yet you have the ability to be creative as you want,” said Radloff, who also has dabbled in pottery and acrylic painting. “The glass is something that I can make and feel good about giving away as gifts.”
If you go there are November open studio classes Tuesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 5:30-8 p.m. Classes cost $28 to $60, depending on the project, and are limited to 15 students. Most classes are 2.5 hours long.
To reserve a space, sign up at dartzy@charter.net or call 231-709-0667. For other classes, including those by visiting artists, see www.facebook.com/glassartz/
Beginning Nov. 5, gallery hours are 5-9 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, with extended hours near Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The studio and gallery will host an open house with refreshments during gallery hours Nov. 11.
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Information from: Traverse City Record-Eagle, https://www.record-eagle.com
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