Holdman Studios Make and Take Class | Stained Glass

Holdman Studios is a stained glass art studio. It is located on Thanksgiving Point’s campus, which is home to lots of our favorite venues like the Butterfly Biosphere and Museum of Natural Curiosity. This working business makes amazing stained glass for buildings around the world. At the Thanksgiving Point location you can view current projects, watch the blowing glass process in action, and buy small glass pieces of your own, including replicas of temple windows. These activities are free and you can read about a visit to their studio here. Best of all, you can participate in a Holdman Studios Make-and-Take class and create your own stained glass piece.

Helpful Instructors

We did a class for date night around Christmas, and it was really fun. We made small glass ornaments that we hang in the window or on the Christmas Tree. This process, though highly technical, was made easy for us by a really good teacher. She helped us know what to expect, and when we had a little mistake or didn’t love something about our project, she smoothed it right out.

Holdman Studios Make and Take Class Process

You must reserve a spot online for the Make-and-Take classes. During the holiday season, we had options including an ornament or an angel. We decided to try one of each. First, we chose our pattern and the colors of glass that we thought would be pretty. There were dozens of colors and every piece of glass was unique, which made it really hard to decide! When we finally settled on our pieces, we scored and cut the glass roughly in the shape needed. This was easy and safe.

Next, we headed over to the grinder. We were guided step by step through the process, which made it really easy. The grinders weren’t at all dangerous, either, and we smoothed and shaped the edges of our glass so that they were nearly perfect. Then we used gold foil around the edges of each piece to give the solder something to adhere to. This was as easy as running a piece of tape around each section of glass.

Finally we headed over to the soldering irons. This part iss a little dangerous, but as long as you keep your hands away from the hot end of the iron, it’s plenty safe. With instruction, we ran a little bead of bright silver solder around each pane of glass, sealing them together and giving them a finished look. They turned out perfectly!

Because of the hot irons and potentially sharp glass, this activity is restricted to those at least 15 years old. In addition, you need to wear long pants and close-toed shoes to keep your skin safe from glass pieces. You’ll be provided gloves, eye protection, and plenty of instruction to keep you safe.

The Holdman Studios Make-and-Take classes happen all year long. They are usually themed for the seasons, so make sure to look at what project they are making this month. The class is 2 hours long, and we took that amount of time learning what to do and completing each step. They also offer more blown glass classes. Here is their website for more info on both types of classes. We honestly can’t wait to try this date night again. For other date night ideas, check out our Date Night Utah post.