Handmade glass ornaments are a labor of love at Glass Arts Indiana

Three furnaces sit side by side, emitting an orange glow and a steady hum inside a toasty workshop.

The shop is littered with weathered tools that can turn molten glass into the intricate, colorful art pieces that line the shop's shelves.

Glass Arts Indiana is a non-profit that brings local glass artists together, sells and displays art and offers classes. Its workshop – or "hot shop" – is the center of it all, located inside Circle City Industrial Complex.

The non-profit is made up of a group of artists who share knowledge and equipment, and collaborate hands on. The hot shop has the materials and tools they need to make their art, which they sell in the shop gallery or on their own.

"So that's kind of a key component of Glass Arts, having a shared space, it's very community based," said Kenton Siebold Pratt, a glassblowing instructor and artist. "A lot of the work we make here and have in the gallery you can't make by yourself. It requires an assistant. So having that centralized location where you can all kind of come together is really important and helpful."

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Glass Arts Indiana also offers classes to people of all skill levels, including first-time glass artists. Some classes teach participants to make a piece on the spot and others teach progressing skills over multiple sessions.

One popular offering during the holidays is an ornament glassblowing class, where students create their own spherical bulb to take home.

"Something that is great about glass is it really is about light, where as other materials you can shine light on them, but you can't shine light in them," Siebold Pratt said.

"When the whole point of Christmas and trees and lights is about getting through when we don't have as much sun … Putting a little bit of extra light on the tree, being able to capture that and hold onto it in a really beautiful way that lights up the room is really special."

One by one, students choose their glass colors and follow Siebold Pratt through the well-rehearsed motions, which requires quick movements and non-stop rotation of the iron.

Side by side, they gather a glob of glass, roll it, reshape it and frequently reheat it so it doesn't solidify. Finally, the student blows air to fill the bulb before Siebold Pratt frees it from the iron and takes it to an oven for gradual cooling.

"It's a way for people to come in, try it out, see if they can stand the heat," Siebold Pratt said, laughing. "Get a little taste of it and really just begin to learn that first process."

"It's our way of getting people in the door and a way to teach glass appreciation, so even something small and quick like an ornament is still a very difficult thing to make."

Jenna Watson is a photojournalist for IndyStar. Follow her on Twitter @jennarwatson.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Handmade glass ornaments are a labor of love at Glass Arts Indiana