August 2023 Class - Beads in Snow Farm, MA

This was the second of two residential craft classes I went to in the summer of 2023. I am apparently now an Art Camp kind of person. And I love it.

Snow Farm is in rural western Massachusetts, near the town of Williamsburg, MA. I signed up for the Flameworked Beads class, but there were several other classes being held during the one-week session that I was there.

The grounds are beautiful, and I didn’t share my dorm room with anyone, so it was very comfortable. The one thing to watch out for was that there was apparently a bear that liked to roam around. I never saw it.

My class was taught by the wonderfully talented Lilliana Glenn. The way she taught was great – breaking down each technique into smaller pieces, so if the entire process was too much, you could still master several of the steps. This was my takeaway at least – her beads are so intricate, that if there are 10 steps, I think I have a good handle on the first 3, and maybe in the next 10 years, I can move towards learning a few of the others.

Each day, we spent a ton of time in the studio – watching demos, then practicing the skills by ourselves. Each evening after dinner there was open studio time, and I spent each night there until about 10pm, listening to classic rock and having fun with the other students while we all melted glass to varying degrees of perfection.

It was a great week, and I would love to come back and learn more!

A few of the key take away from this:

1. I liked Snow Farm and wish that it wasn’t a 16-hour drive away from home.

2. When taking these classes, I end up learning a ton from each of the other students as well as what I am learning from the instructor – the classroom banter is invaluable!