Bristol Blue Glass
Glassmaking Experience for Beginners - NEW
Try your hand at the art of glass making at Bristol Blue Glass with this fascinating practical glassmaking experience where you will learn some of the skills required to fashion molten glass into beautiful objects.
This class are designed for beginners to learn about molten glass work, the tools involved and how to shape, gather and blow glass. Courses are usually booked for Sundays or Mondays to enable a private studio setting. Items made during the Course are yours to keep.
Instant download voucher. Just add to cart and as soon as you have checked out a link will be provided for you to download your glassmaking experience voucher, which you can use to book your visit by giving us a call on 0117 928 0818. If you are giving this as a gift to another person , please print off and fill in the 'BG CODE' confirmation order number as the will need it to book.
Please contact us by email with any queries.
Cost : £350 per person
Available dates:
-Sunday 9th February
-Monday 17th February
-Monday 17th March
-Sunday 23rd March
Hours: 11am - 3.30 pm with a Lunch break at 1pm.
Order of the day:
- At the start of the day you will be given a health and safety briefing followed by a short demonstrations on how to gather glass from the furnace. You will be shown how a glass maker gathers, blows and manipulates a piece of hot glass.
- Working in small teams of 2 or 3 for most of the day, you will be given the chance to practice gathering glass using a pontil iron. This will give the skills to assist each other as the day progresses, with our glassmakers always on hand to support and direct you.
- Next you will be given an introduction to the Glass makers tools. This will give you the opportunity to use and get accustomed the tools of the trade.
- Our master glassmakers will then assist you in making a solid object at first, such as a small animal or paperweight.
- The next step will be blowing.
- Making a blown paperweight or bauble. At this point you will shown how to add various different colours to your piece of glass and will be given a choice of what colour mix you would like to create.
- Within your team you will progress next to a blown Wine glass or Vase.
- Towards the end of the session we will conclude the experience will a demonstration of how one of our larger production pieces is made.
- The glass you make needs to anneal (cool slowly overnight), but is then yours to keep. This can either be collected or posted out to you.
Please note:
- As a craft that involves the use of molten glass and related equipment, there are some hazards involved. If instruction is followed you will be very safe - but care should be taken always to minimise the risk of injury to yourself or others. Please listen carefully to any instructions from your tutor.
- Please wear suitable clothing with no loose sleeves (no synthetic fibres), sensible shoes with no heels or open toes and long hair must be tied back.
- The blow pipes used for blowing glass are tipped with a brass alloy to prevent transfer of bacteria. This takes advantage of the oligodynamic effect whereby certain metals are self-sterilising.
- Refreshments will be supplied, but please feel free to bring your own - as well as any necessary food.
- Courses are available on Sundays & Mondays.
- Due to the nature of glass and the annealing process cracking of your glass object may occur.
- For health and safety reasons we regret that are not able to attend this experience if you are pregnant or have lung or heart conditions.
- If you are unable to collect your Glass we are able to dispatch it to you for a small extra charge.
If you require any more information - or have any questions, please contact the Bristol Blue Glass team on 0117 972 0818
Shipping
Free Collection
If you are located in or around the Bristol area you can pick up your order free of charge by selecting the "Pick up" option at checkout. Once your order is ready we will have it waiting for you here to collect at our Bristol HQ and will contact you to arrange pick up.
Please wait until we give you a call or email to let you know when the order is ready as there is a 1-2 week turnaround time for every order.
Lead Times
We aim to complete all orders within 7-14 working days (although often it can be sooner).
Rest assured if your order is likely to take any longer - for whatever reason - we will contact you and let you know. For overseas orders, please allow at least 28 days. We send all of our products via courier (this does not include jewellery, unless specified) so all deliveries will need a signature upon arrival. if you require a specific delivery date for an order then please don't hesitate to call us on 0117 972 0818.
Due to high delivery costs of our works of art we do not offer a Saturday delivery service as standard. However, we can provide this service at a cost if required. Please email or call to speak to us.
Please remember, we are a small company and all of our items are unique and individually handmade. This means our products are given a very high level of personal care and attention until the job is right. Sometimes this takes longer than churning out mass produced, soul-less items, but the wait is always worth it - we guarantee it!
Shipping Costs
The cost of shipping is calculated according to the total order weight and the destination. This is dictated by our Couriers and Royal Mail. We try our best to find the most cost effective options available, despite the astronimicl rises that we have been subject to.
International Shipping
We endeavor to ship as cost effectively as possible. For larger international orders, we will seek the most competitive current quote and will refund any excess shipping charges.
Since Brexit, orders to Europe attract import customs VAT and sending occasions us considerable extra administration. The customs charges are beyond our control.
We ship to the UK and overseas as follows:
Total Order Weight (kg) |
Cost / £ |
| United Kingdom | |
| Jewellery (all items) | 4.50 |
| Up to 0.69 | 8.25 |
| 0.70 - 1.19 | 9.20 |
| 1.20 - 4.99 | 15.00 |
| 5.00+ | 30.00 |
| Europe | |
| Up to 0.24 | 13.50 |
| 0.25 - 0.49 | 15.00 |
| 0.50 - 0.74 | 16.50 |
| 0.75 - 0.99 | 18.00 |
| 1.00 - 1.24 | 19.50 |
| 1.25 - 1.49 | 21.00 |
| 1.50 - 1.74 | 22.50 |
| 1.75 - 1.99 | 24.00 |
| 2.00 - 2.49 | 50.00 |
| 2.50 - 2.99 | 52.00 |
| 3.00 - 3.49 | 54.00 |
| 3.50 - 4.00 | 56.00 |
| International | |
| 0.00 - 0.24 | 15.00 |
| 0.25 - 0.49 | 18.00 |
| 0.50 - 0.74 | 21.00 |
| 0.75 - 0.99 | 24.00 |
| 1.00 - 1.24 | 26.00 |
| 1.25 - 1.49 | 29.00 |
| 1.50 - 1.74 | 32.00 |
| 1.75 - 1.99 | 35.00 |
| 2.00 - 2.49 | 79.00 |
| 2.50 - 2.99 | 83.00 |
| 3.00 - 3.49 | 88.00 |
| 3.50 - 3.99 | 93.00 |
| These international prices are guides and occasionally orders can cost considerably more for us to ship overseas. If this is the case, we will contact you with a shipping quote before proceeding with your order. | |
Packaging
Our products have been shipped to customers for over 30 years with very few breakages. If you are worried about fragile items in transit to your door then don't be!
Once production of the order has been completed your item(s) will be expertly packed and handled by our dedicated staff. It will be wrapped very carefully in order to make sure it arrives at your door in the same perfect condition as it leaves the factory floor.
Also, we are proud to announce that we use exclusively-recycled and recyclable boxes and packaging. This includes our bubble wrap which is biodegradable.
You can choose for your order to be placed in a special gift box for a small additional charge, so be sure to select this option on the product page if you would like this. If you are buying a gift for someone then we would recommend the gift-wrapped option.
Payment & Returns
Payments
Ordering is quick and easy at our website.
The products are handmade to order and we strive to make you very happy with your purchase.
We accept the following methods of payment:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Maestro
- American Express
- Paypal
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Shopify Pay
This is a secure website and you will notice a small padlock icon on the left hand side of the browser address bar at the top of this page. This signifies the website uses the SSL protocol (a data transfer security standard that is used to encrypt data and authenticate the server and the integrity of the message).
Your order
As soon as you place your order with us you will receive a confirmation by email with details of the product(s) ordered, the amount paid and your Bristol Blue Glass order reference number.
Work then gets underway on making the product(s) you have ordered. Every product is made by hand from scratch. It will very closely match the image shown on the relevant product page but please bear in mind that because no moulds are used in manufacture there is no mass-production and no short-cuts are taken. Your product will be one of a kind and unique. Molten glass is moulded and shaped by hand using basic tools so very slight deviations may be apparent, although we guarantee you a perfect and beautiful glass product!
Within approximately 7-14 days your order will be ready to ship. If you have selected the "Gift-Wrap" option then it will be beautifully gift-wrapped for you. Either way, the item is packaged very securely and sent on its way to you by courier. We know these are fragile products and rest assured they will be packed very well. The last thing we want is for you to receive damaged goods! We will advise you of the courier tracking number at the time of dispatch so that you can follow the parcel's progress to your door.
Returns
We want you to be completely satisfied with your order and we will do everything we can to achieve this. We pride ourselves on the beautiful, artisan products that we sell and we back this up with an excellent customer service.
However, we realise that not every customer will want to keep their purchase, for whatever reason, and if you change your mind then your are entitled to return your order to us for a full refund
If there are ever any problems we will do our utmost to put them right for you. However, if you receive your order and it is not what you expected or that it just doesn't suit the space you had intended to put it in, then all you need to do is let us know that you wish to return it by sending an email or calling us within 14 days of receipt. Assuming the item returned to us arrives in an undamaged state and in the same perfect condition as it was sent to you originally then we will duly refund your original payment.
If you receive a product from us that is faulty, damaged, or otherwise defective in some way (instances such as this are very rare and are out of our control but the occasional problem can sometimes occur) then please get in touch with us as soon as you can (and no later that within 3 days of receipt of the item). Depending on where you live and if it is a large item we will arrange for a courier to collect it from you, otherwise we will reimburse you the postage cost once you send it back to us.
Please note for hygiene reasons all earring products are non-refundable. Further, all custom-made and bespoke items (e.g. memorial glass) are also non-refundable.
As soon as we receive the returned item we will either send you a replacement or provide you with a full refund, whichever is preferred. In any event, we will address any problems as soon as we possibly can. You can read our full Terms and Conditions here.
FAQS
Every piece is as unique as you
The products are made by highly- skilled glassmakers, creating the finest glassworks using basic hand tools and traditional techniques to shape and craft each item. As a result, every item is unique and one of a kind.
Jewellery
On this website you can buy some very desirable glass jewellery too. Blue glass jewellery and coloured glass jewellery will make wonderful additions to your collection.