Tours, Demonstrations and Workshops

GoggleWorks has many activities to offer groups, whether you are a teacher organizing a field trip for your school, looking for a teambuilding activity for your colleagues or just getting a group of friends together to have some fun. Enjoy a tour of our beautiful buildings or a demonstration or workshop in one of our art studios – GoggleWorks has something for everyone.

Please make requests 10 days prior to the date you would like to visit. For activities other than guided tours, GoggleWorks requires a non-refundable deposit of $30 to plan your schedule and payment in full is due 5 days prior to your visit.

Guided Tours

1 hour. $25 per tour guide. Maximum of 20 participants.
Choose the focus of your tour:

An Introductory Visit to GoggleWorks

Explore GoggleWorks´ beautiful facilities, which formerly housed the Willson Safety Products factory. You´ll see GoggleWorks gallery spaces, the ceramics, glass and jewelry-making studios, the woodshop, film theatre, and stroll through our floors of artists´ studios and GoggleWorks Arts Partners.

Meet the Artists

Artist Jerry Dersh speaks with a student about his work. Photo by Lindsay Moyer.

This tour focuses on GoggleWorks´ creative environment. Step into our artists´ personal studios to view their artwork, discuss influences that shape their ideas and learn about the process of creating art.

Demonstrations

A demonstration in GoggleWorks´ Hot Glass Studio.

GoggleWorks offers demonstrations in its Ceramics Studio, Hot Glass Studio and Woodshop, highlighting techniques specific to each medium. Watch as the artist instructor demonstrates skills, explains how to use tools and details how a piece is created from start to finish.

• Ceramics
• Woodworking

Half an hour in length. Up to 15 guests. $75.

• Glassblowing

1 hour in length. Up to 100 guests. $200.

WORKSHOPS

If you are interested in a private lesson for 1-3 people, please visit our Private Lessons page.

Ceramics

Hand-Built Pottery

• 2 hours.
• Up to 5 participants: $185.
• Up to 10 participants: $235.
• Up to 15 participants: $285.

Hand building uses flat slabs, coils or solid balls of clay to create functional or non-functional pieces of pottery. This workshop introduces coiling, pinching and other techniques as well as surface decoration, including applied textures, colored slips and glaze application. Projects can include bowls, mugs, vases or other vessels. Completed projects are available for pick-up after kiln-firing, usually within 2-3 weeks. This workshop may be customized for beginners or more advanced participants.

The Potter’s Wheel

• 3 hours.
• Up to 5 participants: $275.
• Up to 10 participants: $305.

Learn the basic techniques of working on a potter’s wheel. Throwing is the process of using a rapidly-rotating potter’s wheel to shape clay, forming cylinders, cups, bowls and more. The artist instructor will demonstrate techniques such as wedging, centering, flooring, pulling and trimming. This workshop may be customized for beginners or more advanced participants.

Drawing, Painting and Mixed Media

• 1.5 hours.
• Up to 10 participants: $185.
• Up to 15 participants: $205.

Draw with graphite, charcoal or ink; paint in watercolors, gouache, oils or acrylics; or create a collage or assemblage incorporating paints, inks, newspaper, fabrics, found objects and other materials.

Suggested options:

• Collage: Take what you find and give it new meaning – a collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and found objects.
• Drawing: If you´ve never drawn before or if you’d like to improve your drawing skills – learn to draw what you see with confidence using a variety of drawing materials and techniques.
• Painting: Learn about various painting techniques and mediums from our artists, working from still life, landscape, en plein air or from photographs and other images.
• Artist’s Sketchbook: Artists use sketchbooks for visual note-taking – to play creatively, develop ideas and to inspire themselves. Learn techniques and add stories, poems and personal mementos to create your own sketchbook. Students provide their own sketchbooks or sketchbooks may be purchased from GoggleWorks at additional cost.

Flameworked Glass

Maximum of 8 participants. Closed-toe shoes required. Group of 4: $285. Up to 8: $325.

Flameworking is the process of sculpting glass using the flame of a torch. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to create beautiful glass beads by winding molten glass around a steel mandrel. The focus is on basic bead shapes with decorative techniques and color. This workshop is for those with no experience and those with minimal experience interested in additional instruction time. Completed projects are available for pick-up within 2-3 weeks.

A sampling of glass beads made in GoggleWorks´ flameworking studio.

Fused Glass

Suncatchers or Night-Lights

• 1.5 hours. Ages 7 and up.
• Up to 5 participants:$185.
• Up to 10 participants: $235.
• Up to 15 participants: $285.

Create colorful art objects by layering pieces of glass to create a unique design that will be fused together in a kiln. Completed projects are available for pick-up within 2-4 weeks.

Fused Glass Plates

• 3 hours.
• Up to 5 participants:$240.
• Up to 10 participants: $315.
• Up to 15 participants: $390.

Cut, layer and assemble colored pieces of glass to create a unique design that will be kiln-fired into a functional dinner plate or platter. Completed projects are available for pick-up within 2-4 weeks.

Fused Glass Pendants

• Up to 5 participants:$195.
• Up to 10 participants: $245.
• Up to 15 participants: $295.

Create beautiful, colorful, one-of-a-kind pendants that can be strung from chains or leather cord. Each student will make 5 pendants. No previous glass fusing or glass cutting knowledge is required. Tools, glass and leather cord are included.

Hot glass

• Up to 4 participants: $200. 1 hour.
• Up to 8 participants: $400. 2 hours.

Experience the magic of hot solid glass sculpting in this hands-on workshop, where you’ll pick and apply colors, twist and turn your piece, then blow or shape it into a colorful and unique paperweight or flower. No previous experience is necessary.

Please note, participants must tie back long hair and wear closed-toe shoes and long-sleeved shirts made of natural materials (non-synthetic). Participants must be at least 13 years old and 5 feet tall.

Jewelry & Metalsmithing

Ripple Ring

• 3 hours
• $195 plus $20 per person for supplies

Create an cool and contemporary Ripple Ring in this 3-hour workshop using a range of jewelry and metalsmithing techniques in copper, bronze, brass and nickel silver.

Photography Workshops

• 1.5 hours
• Up to 5 students: $195
• Up to 10 students: $245

Learn the process of creating photographic prints without a camera or film. These images are called photograms – photographic images made by placing objects directly onto the surface of photographic paper and exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image that varies in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. A limitless variety of images can be made using this technique, playing with principles of composition, texture, transparency and opacity.

Untitled, Spring House Series (Detail), by Patricia Scialo

Creativity in the Darkroom

• 2 hours
• Up to 5 students: $195
• Up to 10 students: $245

With an emphasis on creative darkroom techniques and alternative processes, you´ll learn how to use negatives, photo collage, toning and hand-coloring to create handmade photographs. Please bring a 35mm film camera (or you may rent a camera from GoggleWorks to use for your lesson).

Special Workshops with GoggleWorks Studio Artists

Embellished Mono-Printing

Blue Ribbon Roses, detail, by Elaine Soltis

GoggleWorks Studio Artist: Elaine Soltis

Elaine Soltis brings a vivid imagination, intuition and an unconventional use of materials to her work, inventing many of her own techniques to create her paintings and collages. Her work focuses on a meaningful subtext rather than just decorative reflection. While creating her own artistic style, she is influenced by her father, who was also an artist, and shares his passion for color.

Elaine feels that one moment in time is enough to change an entire life´s passage, so she believes in being present, listening to even the silences and being grateful for the chance to comfort the soul with art. Focused efforts of expression are an essential combination of taking a chance and trying, she says.

Embellished Mono-Printing with Elaine Soltis

• 1.5 hours
• Up to 5 participants: $180
• Up to 10 participants: $230
• Up to 15 participants: $280

In this mixed media workshop, GoggleWorks Studio Artist Elaine Soltis will guide you through her own art-making process, using serendipity, chance and imagination to create an abstract print embellished with collage, mementos, treasures, and found objects.

Please bring any collage elements, beads or other found objects that you might like to incorporate into your piece.