<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<div align="center">
<center>
<p align="left"><big><font size="+1"><big>Google News Alert for: <b>glassblowing</b></big></font></big></p>
<div align="left"><big>
<a style="color: blue;"
href="http://www.nj.com/living/ledger/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1194587141249390.xml&coll=1"><b>Glassblowing</b>
studio opens new windows for teens</a><br>
<font size="-1"><big><font color="#666666">The Star-Ledger - NJ.com -
Newark,NJ,USA</font></big></font><br>
<font size="-1"><big>By learning to make glass beads, casting glass in
kilns and now
<b>glassblowing</b>, the students harness their creativity and boost
their
confidence. <b>...</b></big></font><font size="-1"><big><a
href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://www.nj.com/living/ledger/index.ssf%3F/base/living-1/1194587141249390.xml%26coll%3D1"><font
color="green"><br>
</font></a></big></font></big></div>
<p style="width: 600px;"><font size="-1"></font></p>
<div align="left"><a
href="http://www.nj.com/living/ledger/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1194587141249390.xml&coll=1">http://www.nj.com/living/ledger/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1194587141249390.xml&coll=1</a><br>
</div>
<br>
<div align="left"><img
src="cid:part1.09000906.05030006@glassblower.info" height="34"
width="200"></div>
</center>
</div>
<script language="javascript">
if (_pdata) {
addpdata("ptype", "story");
addpdata("stuid", "1194587141249390");
addpdata("sttitle", "Glassblowing studio opens new windows for teens");
addpdata("stcat", "life");
addpdata("stsource", "star_ledger");
addpdata("stdate", "11/09/07");
addpdata("stpnum", "1");
addpdata("stnpgs", "1");
}
</script>
<div class="fstory cw">
<div class="kicker"><b>
<div class="kicker">
</div>
</b>
</div>
<h1 class="red">
</h1>
<h1 class="red">Glassblowing studio opens new windows for teens </h1>
<div class="subhead">
<div class="subhead">
</div>
</div>
<div class="byln">Friday, November 09,
2007
<div>
<div>BY VICKI HYMAN</div>
</div>
<b><b>Star-Ledger Staff</b></b>
</div>
<p> The teens filing into the open-air workshop behind the
Glassroots studio in downtown Newark at first seem a little
cool to the prospect of glassblowing. </p>
<p> They watch silently as instructor Jason Minami sticks a
steel pipe into a furnace heated to 2,000 degrees and, not
unlike a cotton candy vendor, spins a ball of sticky molten
glass onto the end. Then Minami swings the pipe around,
brandishing the fist-sized lollipop of glass glowing golden
orange just a few feet from the kids' faces. It's
a sizzling salvo, and the kids -- the ones who haven't
instinctively pushed their chairs back -- start to oooh. </p>
<script
src="http://ads.nj.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/li/life/@StoryAd"
language="JavaScript1.1"></script><!-- NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect -->
<script language="JavaScript1.1">
//Be Sure to change Click & Image Link in Both Places
var FlashClickthru=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.charliebrowns.com">"http://www.charliebrowns.com"</a>;
var SWFFilename="charliebrowns_300x250.swf";
var ImageName="charliebrowns_bu_300x250.jpg";
var CodeVersion="Flash_1.1";
var TFSMFlash_VERSION=6;
var TFSMFlash_WMODE="opaque";
var TFSMFlash_OASCLICK=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/li/life/1631693551/StoryAd/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/784658.html/34363539326638363437333636366530">"http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/li/life/1631693551/StoryAd/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/784658.html/34363539326638363437333636366530"</a>;
var TFSMFlash_SWFCLICKVARIABLE="?clickTAG=<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/li/life/1631693551/StoryAd/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/784658.html/34363539326638363437333636366530">http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/star_ledger/li/life/1631693551/StoryAd/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/784658.html/34363539326638363437333636366530</a>?" + escape(FlashClickthru);
var TFSMFlash_SWFFILE=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/">"http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/"</a>+SWFFilename+TFSMFlash_SWFCLICKVARIABLE;
var TFSMFlash_IMAGEALTERNATE=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/">"http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/NJONLINE/CharBrwn04_NJ_Living_Rect/"</a>+ImageName;
var TFSMFlash_OASALTTEXT="Click here!";
var TFSMFlash_OASTARGET="_blank";
var TFSMFlash_OASPROTOCOL=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://">"http://"</a>;
var TFSMFlash_OASDIM="WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250";
var TFSMFlash_OASADID="ad_banner";
document.write('<scr'+ 'ipt src="http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/Upload/js_wrappers/FlashStory.js"></scr'+'ipt>');
</script>
<script
src="http://ads.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/Upload/js_wrappers/FlashStory.js"></script><noscript></noscript><noscript></noscript><noscript></noscript>
<p> "It's what attracts a lot of people to
glass," Minami says, grinning. </p>
<p> These teens, who all live in Newark Housing Authority
developments, have been brought to Glassroots by K.I.K.it!,
a nonprofit group that organizes activities for urban youth.
Glassroots caters to Newark teens, in particular at-risk
youth culled from local schools and through cultural
institutions and community organizations. </p>
<p> Richard Paz's mother is a librarian at
Rutgers-Newark, and she heard about Glassroots and signed
the boy up for a class. He says he was little hesitant at
first, but decided to come back for another class. That was
two years ago. "Everybody was so nice and kind,"
says Paz, now 12, as he pieces together a Santa out of red
and white glass tiles. "It just felt so good, getting
the stress off your shoulders, relaxing." </p>
<p> Felix Santiago, 13, had always been interested in art,
but glassmaking opened up a new world of possibilities for
him. "I'll probably become famous for making
dishes for people." </p>
<p> By learning to make glass beads, casting glass in kilns
and now glassblowing, the students harness their creativity
and boost their confidence. But Glassroots, the brainchild
of Pat Kettenring, a business professor at Rutgers-Newark
who specializes in arts entrepreneurship, also shows them
how to budget for their operations, and price, market and
sell their work. </p>
<p> The glassblowing studio, which opened last month, has
been long anticipated, both for its "cool factor"
and for the precision, dexterity and cooperation that the
craft cultivates. </p>
<p> In the studio, the glass ball is beginning to cool, so
Minami carries the pipe to another furnace, where he cradles
it in the center nook of a Y-shaped stand that is attached
to a wheeled platform and rolls the rod inside. When it
heats up again, he pulls it out, and, resting the pipe
against a platform, blows into one end a quick poof of air,
and the glass ball begins to expand. </p>
<p> Many beginners, he explains, "try to blow a house
down," which can cause the ball to explode. That's
okay, he says. "They need to go to that point where
they blow it up. And then they can bring it back." </p>
<p> Using a blackened wood block, he shapes the ball into an
oblong, then gathers more glass from the furnace, repeating
the process until a vase emerges from the end of the pipe.
He calls Glassroots student Michael Raman, 12, who gathers a
small ball of glass from the furnace on another pipe and
stamps it to the end of Minami's vase. </p>
<p> Minami uses steel tongs to separate his end of the vase
from the rod, and then reforms the open end into a graceful
mouth. More oohs from the crowd. </p>
<p> Theresa Concepcion discovered Glassroots as part of the
Newark Museum Science Explorer program, and was so taken
with bead-making that she continued to study and eventually
became an assistant there. Now she's a senior at
Rutgers-Newark, double-majoring in psychology and visual
arts while continuing work part-time at Glassroots, and
she's considering going into art therapy </p>
<p> She says one of the most valuable things she learned is
that mistakes can turn out to be blessings. She's seen
kids struggle when their designs on paper don't
translate perfectly to glass. "Even if it doesn't
come out the way you want, maybe it's better," she
tells them. "It's still looks good, it's
still something you made and can be proud of." </p>
<p> GlassRoots opens its bead-making studio on Saturdays from
10 a.m. to 1 p.m., charging $30 for adults and $15 for
youths for supervised use of the lampworking equipment.
There are also workshops in bead-making, kiln cast glass,
kiln forming and glassblowing. A winter open house and sale
is set for early December. Call (973) 353-5961, or go to
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.glassroots.org">www.glassroots.org</a> for more information.<br>
<br>
</p>
</div>
</body>
<br />--
<br />This message has been scanned for viruses and
<br />dangerous content by
<a href="http://www.mailscanner.info/"><b>MailScanner</b></a>, and is
<br />believed to be clean.
</html>