In March 2009 I started taking glass blowing classes at Espace Verre. The Espace Verre studio is part of a community college and is in an old fire station in the old port of Montreal.

Laura Donefer, the teacher is from north of Kingston and she was assisted by the ever groovy (and talented) Victor.

The class had 7 students and Laura tried to form good blowing teams by matching skill levels. Each team had their own work space (glory hole, bench and tools). I did miss having a torch to flame polish and fix my bo-bo's. The class shared access to a pipe heater, 2-400 lb. day tank glass furnaces and annealers. The technicians kept it all running smoothly and managed the annealers after cool down.

It was a very worthwhile time even if some of the tools were not quite the best and it was difficult to keep the work space (and the glass) clean.

I liked the experience enough to repeat the intermediate class and take the advanced class in the fall of 2009