Discover

If you’ve ever stared longingly at Dale Chihuly’s seaside inspirations or Louis Comfort Tiffany’s window panes, then maybe it’s time to discover your inner glass smith. Every week at Sanibel’s BIG Arts, instructor Petra Kaiser teaches the art of glass fusion—a process of melting glass shards together in a kiln to create one larger form.

Your pieces can have the watery, iridescent qualities of turn-of-the-century Tiffany or the bright colors of pop art. And if you’re not satisfied with that, you can smelt your own glass in the center’s specialty kiln—where the molten glass leaks out like ropes of warm taffy. Glassmates say that once you’ve mastered the basics, the only limit to crystalline creations is your imagination. "It makes an artist out of people who have never made art before," says student Francesca Joyce.

For more information contact BIG Arts at (239) 395-0900, 900 Dunlop Road, Sanibel, or www.kaiser-lee-glass-art.com.

—Sammy Mack