Ohio City Glass

I bought a groupon with a few friends and we all planed well over 2 months in advance. We all planed to have dinner and arranged for babysitters to come but 3 hours before our class, I had someone from this company call me any say he could not have 4 people in a class and only 2 people could attend the class. He tried to tell me that I scheduled it wrong online but this was the company’s fault. Doesn’t anyone look at the schedule days or weeks in advance! We never went and I would never recommend this business.

Went here for their Introduction to Glassblowing class with the groupon and had a great experience! This is a fantastic way to try a new activity and explore your creative side without committing to a series of classes.
Why I loved it:
–Very hands-​on class! Got to do a fair amount of the actual work, which was surprising considering I had zero experience with glassblowing. It’s impossible to make a glass trinket completely on your own the first time, but the instructor really tries to let you do as much as possible by yourself and steps in when you need help. So even if you’re not a particularly crafty person (like myself), you can definitely get through this class and feel like you’ve accomplished something by the end.
–Lots of one-​on-​one instruction. Classes are limited to 4 people so that each person can individually go through the glass blowing process with the instructor. Definitely necessary since there’s a lot of delicate timing and dexterity involved in making even a simple paper weight.
–You make two little baubles to take home, personalized to your taste with whatever colors, patterns, shapes you want (within a certain skill level of course). You have to come back a few days later to pick them up since the glass has to cool in a special oven over several hours.
Other info/​tips:
–My instructor was Dan, the owner of the studio, who was very hands-​on as mentioned above. He does the morning sessions and his associate Zach does the afternoon sessions.
–Wear shoes that cover your entire foot (i.e. not flats) for your own safety and bring a water bottle since it can get hot in the studio.
–There is a small parking lot right in front.
–When you pick up your bowl/​cup, they can smooth off the bottom to help it lie flat. However, this may take away some of the color there. If you’re like me and would rather have a lopsided bowl with all it’s color intact, don’t do this.

My boyfriend bought class time for me as a gift. We have taken a couple of glass blowing/​forming classes in the past, and this experience was by far the best learning experience of any. Zach was our instructor and he was wonderful. He demonstrated three pieces before we began, explaining each step as he worked, and letting us know that were we to choose a solid piece, we would be doing it more independently than if we chose a blown piece. He explained that the blown work were more delicate and needed an experienced hand to come out correctly. This makes sense, especially as we went along. With some (very limited) experience doing solid work, I can assure you the blown glass was very different. My boyfriend gave me his class time, so I got to make two pieces and I chose blown for both. Zach gave me the opportunity to try as much as I was comfortable with, and provided support to keep me from messing up the pieces with my inexperience. I am looking forward to picking these up. I feel that I had an good deal of personal input and work in both pieces and will happily tell others «I made this (with help of course)». I’ll definitely be taking more classes in the future!

I really wanted to like this place. I came here with a group through a Groupon. Two people were supposed to be present to help us but only one was there. My friend who booked the visit made sure to ask if enough people were on hand to help a group of five. They seemed super unprepared and spent a half hour getting ready for us to do anything. About an hour after we got there the originally scheduled instructor jumped in to help. They rushed us the whole time and were short with us and complained about a bad review they got.
I spent $ 50 on this waste of time and never even picked up my piece bc one of the instructors basically took the tools out of my hands and did it himself. It wasn’t even my work. If I could get my money back I would. Two of my friends are waiting to make contact with them to reschedule that day bc they didn’t even get a turn. It was kind of a nightmare. We were all grumpy afterward and not one of us — of the ³⁄₅ who actually got to do it — picked up our pieces bc it wasn’t a fun experience at all.

We had a great time learning how to work with molten glass. Our instructor was patient, informative and eager to let us be curious and direct where our lesson would go. The studio was safe and friendly. We look forward to returning for another lesson.