Square One Art Glass

This place rocks. I had been introduced to glass blowing when I was very young and decided after about a 15 year gap that I wanted to learn again. After telling my wife that i’d love to try this, she booked us a surprise appointment and it was a blast.
Everyone is super cool and the rates are extremely reasonable.
I will definitely be going back here regularly.

THIS PLACE BLOWS! Glass that is. My wife and I visited Square One last fall during Small Business Saturday. We walked down W Vliet Street checking out each shop. We walked into Square One and they asked if I wanted to «blow my own ornament?». SURE!!! You sign a waiver I believe and in ten minutes they let a complete stranger off the street handle molten glass. The owner/​artists guided me through the process, things like «slower» «roll faster Mike» «blow now» — it was super fun. My wife picked the colors of the glass. We picked up the ornament a few weeks later. Nice people. Cool experience.
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Looking for something interesting to do?! Get a group of 10 together and schedule a glass blowing party! It’s great fun. The guys here are great and will teach you all about glass work.
They opened last November in an old building they remodeled (and won some fancy mayor’s award they are very proud of!). The front is a gallery with glass inspiration. The back is the work area and down the hall there’s a small kitchen and a nice lounge area, including office space that they rent out. Oh, and the back patio off the glass work area is adorable, complete with table and grill so you can BYO cookout.
Parties for glass blowing for 10 or more are $ 35/​person (you can have less but the fee is a little more). With this you learn the basics and create an orb. Or if you are pushy like my husband and I are you can ask Joe the glass man if he can make a hole instead of a hook and you will have a vase! You pick 2 colors and the effect you want (standard blown, twisted, pressed). The options are endless. We’ve had 3 parties now and not one similar looking orb.
If you liked the glass blowing, you can ask them to create a custom glass fusing party for you. This is a set of 4 square coasters or 4 small pendants for $ 45. This is around the work table and fits about 4 people comfortably.
And since you can tell we have become glass work addicts, we also requested lampwork lessons. This is taught in smaller groups (4 maximum) for $ 200 using their equipment (for an additional fee; sorry I forget the exact price you can go home with a lampwork kit w/​all the equipment you need to get started into the hobby). Our teacher was great, it was supposed to be broken up into 2 — 2 hour lessons with time off for practice at home but each lesson lasted well over our scheduled time since teacher was so passionate about showing us all these techniques. And if you don’t like what you made (this has happened to me… they will let you redo w/​out charge).
Glass they used is all 96 COE so supplies can be a little tricky to find but the Stained Glass store in Brookfield does have a selection of things you can purchase and work with here.
The next step after glass orb party would be a shaped glass paperweight party which I have not done yet… planning this for the fall!
They do have a formal certification where you take a weekend glass blowing workshop and become certified then to rent out their space when they are not there for a separate fee (we will probably do this but are a little scared yet!).
Ok, back to parties… they are great fun, BYO food/​drinks and food to use the grill. The items you make require time overnight to cure so you’ll have to go back to pick up your stuff which is great fun to do right away to see everyone’s work of art. The glass blowing itself takes about 15 min/​per person if someone is short on time and needs to get going but wants to try it out but you will want to stay and watch everyone’s work of art! And it’s great for all ages, kids have come through on school field trips.