On Saturday September 13, 2025, see glass artistry in action with Alex Abajian of Glow Glass Studio in the Hot Shop and Elias Hansen in the flameshop.
Door Open at 6PM!
Hot Glass Cold Beer is an evening of art and entertainment, starting over 15 years ago as a fundraiser to support on-going programming and studio access at Public Glass. This festive evening features two glass artists working in different parts of the studio in an array of processes to highlight all that can be done with glass. There is a live band, a food vendor as well as a variety of beverages available to fill your Hot Glass Cold Beer cup throughout the evening.
With general admission, you'll receive access to both glassblowing demos, get your choice of a handmade glass made right here in our studio, and pick your choice of drink throughout the evening. Alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages are included in general admission.
🔥 Upgrade your experience with VIP tickets: includes a special blown glass piece, prime seating with a stellar view of the hot glass-blowing demonstration along with a complimentary meal from the night's featured food vendor.
Coming up on September 13, 2025
FLAME SHOP ARTIST
Elias Hansen’s work involves hand-blown glass objects that convey a regularity not unlike that of a mass-produced process. Hansen’s installations, comprised of an assortment of pipettes, flasks and beakers alongside rough-cut wood, rubber tubing and light bulbs, are interrelated in arrangements that reference the fragility of both the precious and the discarded, the authentic and the reproduced. The precarious composition of his installations is both spatial and formal. Jagged wood elements intrude into the exhibition space, upon which glass objects are uneasily displayed, suggesting impending shatter. This anxiety within Hansen’s work undermines the traditional narrative of sculpture, subverting its high art status as a flux between discarded context and admired form.
HOT SHOP ARTIST
Alex Abajian, with nearly 30 years of experience, combines his exceptional skills in hot glass manipulation with his keen eye for design to create stunning works of art. Alex and his skilled team specialize in custom lighting fabrication, tableware, public art projects, restoration work, and architectural scale sculpture. Alex explores his ideas at Glow Glass Studio located in Oakland's arts district. Since 2010, the studio has expanded its capabilities, enabling the creation of large-scale glass sculptures and high-output blown or pressed glass. Abajian's exceptional drive and dedication to pushing the boundaries of the medium means each piece crafted at Glow Glass Studio reflects Abajian's love for the process.
JULY 19, 2025
HOT SHOP ARTIST
Anderson Miller earned his MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU, and for the next 7 years worked in New York advertising tech and then worldwide interactive technology consulting. In 2016 he moved to San Francisco to do similar work in a more favored place.
In 2018 Anderson had his first exposure to glass at a Public Glass Team Build Workshop with his team from Twitter, where he made a paperweight. Anderson signed up for the next Level 1 class at Public that evening.
In 2022 Anderson transmuted trauma from 2020ish into a weekly solo glassblowing practice which he's come to call his shift at the Tiny Vase Factory - which ends up being something between meditation, dance party, and social time.Come join his attempt to share this practice with other artists and a crowd in:
Tiny Vase Factory presents Spidervase: “An Evening of Fragile Stability” OR “It’s hard to make a tripod so wrong it falls over.
WARM SHOP ARTIST
Josefina Muñoz Torres is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Chile whose work examines territory, place, and space through glassworks, sculpture, and installations. Her global career encompasses exhibitions, residencies, research, and public art projects across South America, North America, Europe, and East Africa. Beyond her studio practice, she partners with arts institutions, universities, and cultural centers to create meaningful projects that connect communities through art, education, and cultural exchange.
Josefina has been commissioned to work on diverse public art pieces, including a large-scale permanent installation for The United Nations. With a current focus on isolated territories and Southern-Patagonia islands, Josefina’s methodologies stand in the intersection between ethnography, sociology, craft, community-building, and science.
Muñoz Torres holds a MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design (2013) and a BFA from the Catholic University in Chile (2006).
MARCH 22, 2025
FLAME SHOP ARTIST
Abram Deslauriers is a visual, sound and performance artist based in San Francisco. Deslauriers earned his MFA in Craft/Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and studied at University of Washington as an undergrad in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts.
Deslauriers’ art explores identity, perception and the pursuit of expressing the authentic self. Often work is presented in abstracted forms, complex networks of lines or fields of rhythm that invites viewers to oscillate perception between minutia and the whole. It speaks to the beauty of personhood that cannot be summed up in words, that is ever shifting in day-to-day presentation of one’s self in the chaotic speed of connectivity. The work itself feels complete, yet evades a final state, a composition that can be scaled and rearranged. A manifestation of personhood's ineffable beauty, a poetic commentary on how our identities adapt and shift our relationships in response to an ever-changing world.
HOT SHOP ARTIST
Douglas Jan Burgess II is an Indigenous artist (Haida, Dakota, Grand Ronde) and his aesthetic is inspired by the Haida art surrounding him during his childhood in Hydaburg, Alaska. He began learning glass at Hilltop Artists in 2009, later continuing his education at Pilchuck Glass School and Corning Museum of Glass. Burgess has exhibited his work at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma Art Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts, and Pilchuck Glass School. In his work, Burgess pays homage to his culture’s traditional practices within a contemporary format. He now teaches at Hilltop Artists, working with middle school students to foster teamwork, perseverance, and to build confidence through working with hot glass.
JANUARY 25, 2025
FLAME SHOP ARTIST
Gwynovear Gillespie, also known as YoungStar Glass, is a glassblower from Oakland, currently working in San Francisco, CA. Her work incorporates natural forms in surreal collages in order to conceptualize body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria. Working primarily with borosilicate glass, she employs hand spinning techniques, as well as lathe working for larger pieces. Since 2015, Gwynovear has embraced a DIY ethos, meticulously crafting most components by hand. She is largely self-taught, engaging in creative collaborations with fellow artists, online demonstrations, and workshops to discover innovative techniques.
HOT SHOP ARTIST
Asher Holman grew up in San Francisco and was first exposed to glass-blowing at Public Glass when he was 16. Drawn in by the dynamic community of artists, the physicality of the medium, and a fascination with the mesmerizing molten material he began down the road of pursuing a career as a glass artist. In 2017 he received his BA at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky with a major in studio art focused in glass. After years of working at his craft, Asher opened his own studio, Small Batch Glass, in Asheville, NC. Opening to the public in February 2023, Asher realized the longtime dream of operating his own space to share his passion for blown glass art.
OCTOBER 26, 2024
COLD SHOP ARTIST
For Hana Dvorak, preschool was a time for collaging, crayoning, and making messes. As a small child Hana played with polymer clays at the breakfast table. Hana made tiny colorful animals out of the clay about the size of a finger tip. Eventually at 10 years old she went into a wheel throwing class where she got to finally work with water-based clay. By the time she hit high school she learned of California College of the Arts where she ended up later going for Ceramics and Glass. After Graduating with a Ceramics degree and a Glass degree she felt lucky to end up working at Public Glass.
HOT SHOP ARTIST
Matt Wesley started working for Public Glass in 2014. Has served as the Assistant Facilities Technician for many years supporting the staff and members at Public Glass. Recently Matt has become the Facilities Manager, maintaining all the equipment and managing a staff of assistant technicians. He first began taking glass classes at SF State University and decided to become a glass blowing artist after studying with Nate Watson. He grew up in Los Angeles, and has lived and worked as a glass artist in the Maldives. Matt is a skilled glassblower, having assisted many others throughout his career. His favorite glass objects to make are goblets because it’s a technical challenge and a great skill building practice. He always learns something new when he is blowing glass. Currently Matt is working towards earning a Bachelors in Engineering.
AUGUST 17, 2024
FLAME SHOP ARTIST
Eriko Kobayashi (b.Tokyo, Japan) fell in love with the color and texture of glass in 2014. This fascination led her to study at Toyama City Institute of Glass Art in Japan (2016), and later pursue her MFA in Glass at Southern Illinois University (2022). Kobayashi recently relocated to Seattle to continue her career in glass.
Kobayashi introduces playfulness to the technically demanding glass works in ways that are positive, and enjoyable to experience. She utilizes forms we encounter in our everyday lives to engage her viewer with the familiar, but also to challenge them to question and rethink these objects.
HOT SHOP ARTIST
Danny White is a distinguished glass artist known for his unique, light-hearted glass sculptures. Born with a passion for art, Danny has been entertaining with his creations for as long as he can remember. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Two Dimensional Studies with a dual focus in Glass from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio in 2008. His artistic journey took a significant turn in 2007 when he discovered the medium of glass, which he approaches much like painting, blending different mediums into a cohesive aesthetic.
