Free Beginner's Glass Course

We are delighted to announce that we have secured additional funding to offer a limited number of our incredibly popular free Beginner’s Glass courses. This hands-on, practical course will take you through some of the key skills and processes involved in the art of creating beautiful pieces of work and sculpture from glass. During the course you will work in small socially distanced groups alongside one of our specialist glass tutors. You will get the opportunity to experiment with using frits, tacks, stringers, mica powder, bullseye glass and tekta glass plus much more to create bespoke and unique pieces of artwork to take away with you. You will learn the skills involved in cutting glass, as well as discovering how glass fusing works, and there is lots of scope for you to personalise the work you create to make it really special to you.

The course will be delivered over five days from 10am – 4.30pm, one day per week for five weeks. This is a five-week course and not drop-in sessions, so you must be able to attend the full course in order to take part. The course is completely free, and we will even provide your lunch! We will cater to dietary requirements.

During the course you will create a fused glass coaster, fused glass decorations, and a fused glass landscape incorporating a range of textures and inclusions. You will also get the chance to try your hand at glass painting, creating a beautiful tea light holder or painted glass goblet. You can choose your own inspiration, whether you focus on Sunderland’s beautiful skyline and landmarks, or a favourite pet, or the rich colours of the seasons. We will work with you to help you create your own inspired works each week.

ELIGIBILITY:

You can take part in this fantastic course if you meet the following criteria:

1 – you must live in the Sunderland City Council area. This includes towns such as Houghton le Spring and Washington. If you’re not sure, check to see if you live in Sunderland Council’s area by following this link and entering your postcode: https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council

2 – you must be aged 19+. There is now no upper age limit!

3 – you must be either unemployed, working fewer than 16 hours per week, or retired

4 – you have not taken part in one of our free glass courses before (however, if you have taken part in a paid one off workshop in glass, or have taken part in a free ceramics course, you ARE eligible to sign up for this course!) 

1. Starts Thursday, 24th June, every Thursday for 5 weeks (finishes Thursday, 22nd July), with our tutor Jayne

2. Starts Friday, 25th June, every Friday for 5 weeks (finishes Friday, 23rd July), with our tutor Kate

3. Starts Tuesday, 29th June, every Tuesday for 5 weeks (finishes Tuesday, 27th July), with our tutor Jayne

4. Starts Tuesday, 29th June, every Tuesday for 5 weeks (finishes Tuesday, 27th July), with our tutor Kate

5. Starts Wednesday, 30th June, every Wednesday for 5 weeks (finishes Wednesday, 28th July), with our tutor Kate

6. Starts Wednesday, 30th June, every Wednesday for 5 weeks (finishes Wednesday, 28th July), with our tutor Jayne

WHERE WILL THE COURSE BE HELD?

The courses will be held in our brand new large learning room, which is fully disabled-accessible. Please meet at MBC HQ, 31 Norfolk Street, Sunderland, SR1 1EE. Our new learning room is a 30 second walk from our HQ; we will go over together, so please make sure you are on time!

Please note: there is no parking at the back of our building. The nearest parking is at Nile Street car park.

WHAT COVID-SAFE PRECAUTIONS ARE IN PLACE?

We take the safety of our service users very seriously. We have full Covid-19 policies in place. We will provide sanitiser and masks for anyone who does not have one. We have safety screens and one way systems in place, and our new learning room is large enough to hold a small group of people with social distancing measures in place. Each learner will have their own set of equipment to use during each session, which we will sanitise before and after the session.

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We look forward to seeing you soon!