PODCAST:

Milk Glass Studio is ready to make glass blowing an accessible experience to all in Charlottesville.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ella Powell: 

Milk Glass Studio is a new entry-level glass blowing experience in Charlottesville, offering public and private workshops. For Arts This Week we spoke to Ceejay Renner-Thomas. 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

My name is Ceejay Renner-Thomas. I am the owner and operator of Milk Glass. It’s a glass-blowing studio operating in Charlottesville, Virginia, where we look to bring the glass-blowing experience to you. So the studio is mobile, we can show up to your front door with the studio. We also have a home base, and if you are interested in glass-blowing, you know, want to take workshops, you’ve wanted to scratch that itch, that’s essentially what Milk Glass is here for, and yeah, just to make Glass Blowing more accessible to folks that you know otherwise wouldn’t be able to try it. 

Ella Powell: 

Nice. So, how did you get started with glass blowing, and I guess developing the concept of Milk Glass Studio. 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

Yeah, so I went to VCU, and I studied craft and material studies. I originally actually wanted to do graphic design, but then that switched to communication arts, so I thought I wanted to be an illustrator, but at VCU they require students to take classes in different mediums, and so I had a wood shop class that I had to take, and there’s something about this class where I got to create tangible objects, and I realized I wanted to make things I didn’t know it would lead to glass blowing down the road, but I knew I wanted to be in the wood shop, so I decided to major in their sculpture program, but I don’t think I was ready to talk about my work. I really just wanted to focus more on the making aspect, and so I switched to craft and material studies, and I did woodworking initially, and glass blowing seemed really interesting. I had a professor that told me about how glass was this interesting material that he couldn’t sort of wrap his mind around. Shout out to Matt Spar. The first class I took, I just sort of fell in love with the material. 

Ella Powell: 

Yeah, would you like to share a little bit about the workshops? 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

Yeah, so for the workshops, there’s two routes you can go. I have public workshop, you know. Anyone can sign up for it. So, there’s anywhere from one to four slots in a public workshop, and you don’t have to have any prior experience, and you’ll be guaranteed a product at the end. And some of the offerings are pumpkins, drinking glasses, mini vases, flowers, and ornaments, and so, yeah, that’s for, you know, the individual who just wants to try the experience out. You basically, you know, sign up for the workshop, you show up, I go over some safety ones and twos, and I’ll do a demonstration, and one by one we’ll make each of the pieces, and then you’d have to come back and grab your piece, if you’re interested. There’s a private workshop, and that’s sort of catered to the individual. I would label it as a build your own experience, so if you’re not worried about the outcome and you just want to play around with the material, I’ll walk through different steps and different techniques that you can practice, but if you want to go the more you know, I need to make something the specific thing for somebody I can guide the client, whoever signed up through the workshop as well, so there’s kind of different routes depending on what the person’s taste is and yeah, a lot of the workshops I offer right now are just, yeah, you don’t have to have any prior experience, and you can just come and play around with the material, see how it is for yourself. 

Ella Powell: 

So, for the public workshops, you mentioned that variety of objects that you could choose from, can people literally make whatever object they want, or would a public workshop be focused on one of those specific objects? 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas:

The public workshops are piece-based, so in the fall I’ll have pumpkin workshops going, so you know throughout the day I might have three pumpkin workshops. They each last an hour and a half, and for each of those sessions, everyone in that session will make a pumpkin, so it just makes the workshop a little bit smoother if everyone is making the same object. 

Ella Powell: 

Yeah, and then I guess similarly with the private workshops, I guess do people just fill out a form and kind of describe what their goals are? 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

Yeah, so for the private workshop it’s an hour long, and it’s basically whatever you want to do in this hour, you know. I can try my best to help you make this happen. It really depends on what the person wants to make, and there is a sort of line. Of like, hey, this is maybe too much for this amount of time, we might need to reschedule it, or you know, figure out how, yeah, we can make this in another setting, but I would say genuinely and generally, when people come for the

private workshop, they aren’t too out of this world with their request, yeah. 

Ella Powell: 

Do you see people returning to private workshops? Is that a possibility, like continuing mentorship? Almost. 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

I’ve thought about classes, like multi-week long classes. I’ve had a couple people come back and take workshops, but because it’s only been a year, I haven’t had a ton of sane people come back. I do see a path where if someone wanted to take a private workshop and they enjoy it, and they’re like, hey, can I come back and build on this? That is definitely a possibility I’d be open to trying out, or some kind of monthly membership where people pay x amount of dollars, and they’re guaranteed, you know, x amount of hours of teaching, or, you know, glass blowing time. If the interest is there, the opportunity is, I think, available. 

Ella Powell: 

Could you share a bit about where you’re located, and also how people can find information about the classes. 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

The studio, the home studio, is located at Visible Records. It’s 1740 Broadway Street, located near the Woolen Mills area, and right beside Decipher Brewery. So, there’s a lot going on in the area, which is really cool, and yeah, I have workshops on the website, it’s just www.milkglassblowing.com and for the summer the studio will operate on an altered schedule, just because of the heat and the temperature, and so if folks are interested in private workshops, they can feel free to email me, but the public workshops will be paused and will resume in September. 

Ella Powell: 

And I guess, do the private workshops also include you going to people’s house? I know you said it’s…

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

Yes, mobile,yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, for the mobile workshops, I guess they could go either way. It just depends on, you know, whoever I’m working with, what they want to do. Couple opportunities last year where I worked with Timmins Group, I believe it’s an architecture firm in town, and so I packed up the studio, took it to their parking lot. We set up, and then their employees came down in groups of five, and we made pumpkins throughout the day, which was cool. And then another opportunity I had, I worked with Bel Air Farm, and I took the studio there, and they advertised it, and they got people to sign up for ornaments, so people got to sign up and come make ornaments, so that one was more of a public, but it was through that company. Yeah, so there’s multiple ways to go about the mobile setup, just depends on what people are interested in. 

Ella Powell: 

I just have one more logistics question. How do you price like your workshops? And then is there a different method to price like the private workshops? 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

So I think there’s this tension between having the studio be affordable to folks, but then also being able to pay for, you know, whatever the overhead is, and so just flat out the workshops that I offer start at $50 and sort of go up from there. The workshops range from, you know, $50 all the way up to 200 that’s sort of my the price range right now. Normally, in Glass Born Studios, they have a lot of equipment, and the studio is running 24/7 so the furnace is running all the time, but my furnace is sort of a day furnace, so I turn it on the day of, I use it, and then I turn it off. Because of that, it alters the cost that I have to charge. Let’s say, you know, rent the studio for themselves. I would probably have to charge a little more than, let’s say, your traditional glass studio that runs all the time. 

Ella Powell: 

Is there anything else in particular that you’d like to share about either milk glass or just your practice? 

Ceejay Renner-Thomas: 

Yeah, oh, there’s so much to say. A couple things would just be, you know, I think if someone has never tried glass blowing and they want to try, they. And milk glass is a great entry point to see what the materials like for yourself, and yeah, my big thing is just trying to make glass blowing more accessible, and I know not everyone has access to the equipment or materials, and so I feel like that’s why I’m here in Charlottesville to introduce something, and to invite people to a space where they feel welcome, and where they feel seen. Yeah, glass blowing is hard. A lot of people, you know, try for the first time, especially if you’re one of the folks who’s a perfectionist in your craft, and you try glass blowing, it’s going to humble you really fast, but I think that’s good. And in glass blowing, there’s a lot of failure, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. 

Ella Powell: 

CeeJay with Milk Glass Studio is ready to make glass blowing an accessible experience for you. Visit milkglassblowing.com or reach out to studio@milkglassblowing.com to schedule your public or private workshop. The studio is located within visible records at 1740 Broadway Street. Arts This Week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance, music, theater, and visual arts programming. Learn more at pvcc.edu For WTJU, I’m Ella Powell.