Place/Event: Ciccotti Art
Location: 2306 258th St, Ames, Iowa 50014
Cost: Free
Grade/age range: Older students or those who can stand still and not touch
Group size: small (the workshop can comfortably hold half-dozen or so and the gallery is about the size of a living room with expensive glass pieces on pedestals and shelves.
Hands-on: limited – the fire is lit and glass is being blown late fall-early spring. In the summer the artist is traveling around to expos.
Stroller friendly: No
Bathrooms: No – only one in his private residence that is detached from the workshop/gallery
Food: No
This year we were studying ancient history and the Phoenicians; learning about how they developed glass.
One day, driving through the country, I saw a sign for an open house at Ciccotti Art Glass and demonstrations for glass blowing!
Stop the van over – this is perfect! I pulled into the gravel driveway and took a look around, wondering if I was crazy to take my two 7-year-olds into a glass shop. We forged ahead and had a delightful afternoon.
Art welcomed us into the studio where we stayed for an hour watching Art and his two helpers make a large vase.
I visited with Art’s wife and we scheduled an appointment to come back on another day to watch our own pieces of glass being made. It was a few weeks before Christmas and I needed to get some gifts.
Watch my videos on our glass projects.
VIDEO 1 – this one is the longest and shows the whole process 
Video 2 – Short version of a different bowl
- Art with the kids and the bowl we made for Grandma June
- custom made hand blown glass bowl
Art offers workshops where you can blow your own ball, vase, or mug. Emily really wants to go back and do that. We are thinking maybe for her 8th birthday!
If you go blow your own glass, please let me know how it goes!