Festive Fused Glass Workshop

Paula Andrews is running festive fused glass workshops at Middleport Pottery on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November, from 11:00 to 13:00. It's a couple of morning sessions rather than a full weekend, so you can pick whichever day works best.

If you've never worked with fused glass, here's the gist: you arrange pieces of coloured glass on a pattern, and then they're fired in a kiln until they melt together into one solid piece. The workshop is set up for all abilities, so you don't need to have ever touched glass before to get something decent out of it. You can make fused glass wall art, hanging decorations—including Christmas ornaments—fused glass dishes, and freestanding glass art. The project you go for is up to you, and you can do more than one if you're feeling ambitious.

One thing to keep in mind is that the firing happens after the workshop. Paula takes the pieces back to her studio to be fired, and they're returned to the pottery on a designated collection date, so you won't be taking your work home the same day.

Paula herself is a regional glass artist with more than 40 years of experience in glassmaking, and her work draws on the nature that surrounds us. Through fused glass animals, birds and landscapes, she encourages people to look at their everyday world with fresh eyes and to celebrate the colour and vitality of life. That nature theme carries over into the projects you can choose from: a fused glass bird is £9, a series 1 Collage is £15, and a slumped dish is £18. There's a £5 admission fee on top of whatever you spend on your projects.

Tickets must be booked in advance and there are no walk-ins, so you'll need to get yours sorted before you turn up. The workshops run from 11:00 to 13:00 on both 7 and 8 November at Middleport Pottery, Port Street, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST6 3PE.