Do not take stained glass classes here!…read more
Thought this would be a fun thing to do, purchased a class for myself and my wife....wrong!
The owner has no teaching ability whatsoever. Instead of an overview of the whole process, she just jumped straight into how to score and cut glass. Would be nice to know what the whole course would cover, what we would do, etc. The cutters we used were designed to be filled with oil (to lubricate the wheel and keep small chips of glass down) but she said but she doesn't do that. She said they can be dipped occasionally in oil, but never offered any advice as to how often, just said "it depends", with no further guidance, nor any oil actually offered. I guess as brand new to this we should know when oil is needed?
We did learn how to cut, except it was tedious at times. For example one time she said "don't cut it that way...well you can..some people do...I don't...but you can if you want...it's really up to you"! Often when we asked "why" something was done, she couldn't really answer, and would become vague or argumentative. One time I commented on a piece of glass,mane she said it was "water glass". Not knowing what that means, I asked. She didn't really answer, but said she can just tell by looking at it. (Note going online online later I found that "water glass" is a term used when glass is stretched while being made, giving it the look of rippling water). Very frustrating when trying to learn.
We chose a pattern, she then told us to first try to find pieces of glass that might fit from bins of shards from previous classes. Later, she offered some large pieces of glass to chose from, but told us she kept most of the good glass in the back, and to tell us what we wanted, and she would go back to see if she had it. Question...how are we supposed to know what colors and glass patterns we can use when we don't know what she has? Again, very frustrating. We finally said we would just take the patterns home and go online to find some colors and styles we thought might look good, and her comment was "that's cheating"...what?
In our second class, we cut glass from cutouts from our patterns. Tough because trying to keep the thin printer paper she gave us from moving while trying to trace around the thin paper with a worn out markers was quite the challenge. Later online search showed lots of easier and better ways to do this.
Grinding - this is where it finally got bad. After we had cut out pieces, she directed us to small table top grinders to grind the pieces to fit our patterns, and to take off sharp edges so the foil would stick...what's foil? On my grinder there was a huge amount of glass dust built up around the grinding wheel, which got worse as I ground, coating my hands with glass dust. After about 5 minutes, I overheard her tell my wife "you can spray a little water every now and then"...what...water? I asked her what she meant, and she said she forgot to tell me, and pointed out a spray bottle on the counter, and said to spray a little now and then.
THIS IS NOT HOW THIS IS DONE!!!
I found out later the grinders are designed to be filled with water, with a sponge that keeps the grinding wheel wet. This keeps the grinding surface cool, makes grinding much easier, keeps the grinding wheel from wearing out, and KEEPS DANGEROUS SILICA DUST FROM FORMING AND BEING BREATHED! There was no water in the grinders, and she gave us no masks or safety glasses.
During our second class the AC kicked on, and we were blasted with a very bad, noxious smell. She apologized, said it has been doing this. Note: This is likely caused by never changing the filter, or the coils have severe mold buildup and have never been cleaned. Not good.
After our second lesson, I went in and said we were done, didn't want to continue something that kept us frustrated, was taught incorrectly, and not safe. She argued, tried to get us to continue, and tried to justify the incorrect instruction. When she finally accepted we were done, she said she couldn't refund us for the 3 classes we had yet to take because she didn't have the money to refund us. Now it makes sense; her wanting us to try to dig through shards of previous cut glass first, and limiting what glass we actually had to choose from. Same with thin computer paper to try to trace around, worn out markers, no oil for the cutters, etc.
The shop is very junky and cluttered, shards of glass everywhere.
Note: if you try to contact her on the business number, you will never hear back. We called and left several messages that were never returned. When asked, she said she never checks messages or uses the business phone because of spam...what? She said that maybe we could contact her in her cell phone...but then never gave us the number!
DO NOT TAKE STAINED GLASS CLASSES HERE!
