UrbanGlass

this place rocks!
I expected some grungy industrial workshop, but this is a state of the art sparkly shiny affair with rows of furnaces and tools and workspaces, complete with gallery and café…
I had the opportunity to join a 5 week workshop organized by the School of Visual Arts, on day one we learned how to get blobs of glass out of the furnace with steel rods, sounds easy, but, at 2000 degrees and with red hot materials this requires some practice. Next we’ll learn how to poke and prod the blobs to make objects — i“m sure there are more technical terms, but you get the idea.
the staff is extremely helpful and professional, can’t wait for class #2!

As someone who has done glass blowing before the open house tour (free — once a month) was interesting. The tour starts right on time and goes for an hour. They walk you through glass bead making, stainglass/​applications, and a glass blowing demonstration of a bottle, etc.
The tour was informative, interesting, and captivating. The guide and everyone demonstrating was very kind and talented. I went with someone who had never done it or seen it in person and he enjoyed it.
The only thing I didn’t love is the space itself. It felt very clastrophobic (no windows), so I probably won’t be taking any classes here.
*If you want to stay after the tour and make a paperweight you must reserve a head of time.

I visited the Urban Glass open house this past Saturday. IT WAS GREAT!
The one hour FREE tour navigated us through the hot shop, flame room and the mosaic/​stain-​glass/​sandblasting area. Our guide was very friendly and we were lucky enough to see and speak to several artists in action.
The highlight of the tour was the glass blowing demonstration! WOW!
We stayed after the tour to make paperweights — it was $ 50 each to work one on one with an instructor. I and so much fun I am definitely going back! I recommend this to anyone interested in trying it!
The staff was VERY friendly and seemed to enjoy sharing their studio/​talent with beginners.
(Note: Call a head to book the hot shop (paperweight) and free tour — I think it fills up!)
YES — the return of my 5 star review!

I visited UrbanGlass as part of Open House New York Weekend 2010. I’m from Venice, and when I was in elementary school our teacher would take my class to see artisans working glass pretty regularly. I’ve always been fascinated by the way glass can be worked, how malleable and docile it looks when it is incandescent[1]. Hard to take your eyes off of it.
There is something absolutely magical about glass and the way incredibly delicate, graceful, and complex objects can be created out of a piece of incandescent material. And it seems such a basic, almost primeval way to work and create.
This place is great. It’s basically an enormous loft with different sections dedicated to different techniques. It also has a small gallery and a gift shop.
They offer different classes, from blown glass ornaments, to stained glass, to fused jewelry, to sandblasting, to classes for kids. At about $ 195 per session (ouch!), classes seem expensive. On the other hand, this is a pretty unique experience. And I guess that working with glass is expensive.
They have a Holiday Open House on November 20. Worth stopping by if you’re in BKLYN and looking for some unusual and cool gifts or Christmas tree decorations.
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[1] I like to think that melting glass has the consistency of a gummy bear in the NYC subway on a very hot summer day.

Urban Glass won me over with it’s triple Ds:
Design: In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, UG hosted an open house that allowed us to add designs to a pre-​made beer mug/​pilsner/​irish coffee glass, that would be sandblasted on. They provided all sorts of stencils, stickers, and shamrocks for your glass to personalize it… but I chose a simple star motif for my 24 oz beer behemoth.
Demos: several artists were at the kiln in the Hot Shop blowing gorgeous glass shapes with such grace, that for a brief moment, I actually regretted dropping out of art school. While wandering through the large space, we encountered mosaics, cold-​casted vessels and soldering tools for sculpting.
Drink: Unlimited Brooklyn Lager and Jameson (for Irish Coffee) in their showcasing gallery while we waited for our mugs…6 beers and 1 hour later we decided that maybe, for the sake of everyone’s safety, we should leave, but not before drunkenly vowing to sign up for one of the 10-​week introductory glass-​blowing courses.
Adult Arts-​N-​Crafts. I could get used to that…

I took couple classes there and yes the place is amazing. At first glance you might think the price on the courses are high, but no, they are not. I love the 10 weeks programs and the instructors are extremely helpful (most of them are full time artists, so you get to see some crazy stuff they make for their clients) in many ways. The place contains a hot shop where you deal with got glass for blowing or sculpting, a neon shop/​jewelery shop, a casting shop, cold shop, lots of kilms, annealers and a gallery. You can rent studio time with a good price, if you are a student there you can even get a discount!
Take a look, you will defiantly be amazed.