This course will cover the fundamentals of glass blowing and is designed to develop a student’s foundational knowledge and skill upon which more advanced ideas can be built. Participants will learn to gather hot glass out of the furnace and how to manipulate it with a variety of tools and techniques in both the hot and cold shop. Productive practices including working as a team, timing, and choreography, and using natural elements to execute ideas will be demonstrated. This course may include readings from Ed Schmidt’s Beginning Glassblowing and a screening of Glassmakers of Herat. In this class students will investigate glassblowing from a historical approach and look at objects from different periods in history, including works made by Pino Signoretto, Bill Gudenrath, and Karen Willinbrink-Johnsen. Projects will range from functional cup making, executing complex forms, and methods for coloring and patterning.