Making Art Entertaining
The Glass House's touring glass blowing experience was created by Mandy Patchin and Kai George Scholefield in 2015. We developed this type of studio to grow awareness of this ancient art, grow the glass blowing community, gain meaningful connections among different communities, and share our creative ideas.
Kai and Mandy appreciate the art of improvisation, and the theatrics of glass blowing, so it felt natural to combine elements of a travelling attraction where fashionably inappropriate humor and fire may co-exist.
The live show has been said to contain the ingredients of a concert, a play, a comedy routine, and a lecture (yes, a lecture, you will be educated)- all through the informally choreographed dance steps required to create complex glass art (in front of an audience).
In 2018 pivotal business changes came about. Mandy brought on many new glass colleagues to the Glass House Team, these changes included a name change and a hierarchy change. With our new team at Glass House there is over approximately 35 years of experience. With this experience comes travel, lectures and international art shows. Welcoming to the team Carli Castle, Nicholas Baldock, Alana Biffert and Larissa Manser.
The next evolutionary step for the Glass House will be to begin a tour across North America, and collaborate with organizations, institutions and communities along the way. After going through our pivotal changes in 2018 we are excited to live up to our name, XPERIENCE. Stay tuned for updates!
Life has been a roller-coaster since 2020, however we push on. Although we have pulled back on regular operations due to the impact of Covid, we are very much still here! Mandy is in the studio creating every week 1-3 times and on occasion she has the glass truck up teaching classes in Calgary and Prince George, BC. We have been lucky to work with some new artist on the glass truck like Matais Martinez, Kenzie Roth and Graham Boyd. Please reach out so we can create with or for you!
Well Folks it 2023 already and WOW is all I can say, I feel so grateful for the continued support from everyone. Unfortunately in Aug 2022, I made the decision to close the studio for a while, in hopes of re-opening in 2023. I have been so blessed in the past 8-12 months traveling around the Canada and US taking classes to build my skill set. I have been so lucky to TA for Bill Gudenrath in January at Corning Museum of Glass and looking forward to going back in August to do it all again. That being said the impact of covid has me left at a cross roads to sell the mobile studio to a buyer in the USA. I am still very much CREATING, so do not hesitate to reach out. My glass GALLERY is OPEN by appointment or come to one of my openings throughout the year. Alana and I are still creating lots of memorial glass keepsakes for clients across the world which is so meaningful to our practice.
In Oct 2023, I made the sad decision to sell my glass studio to a women in Texas. This included the most amazing road trip, traveling 3500km through a province and 5 states to bring my baby to its new home. I could not be more happy with the 8 years that I have run the studio teaching thousands of students and demonstrating from hundreds of thousands of people and making an impact in the art and entertainment sector. It has been an amazing adventure, but it was time to look inward. Although I am still creating out of another studio, I am happy to hone my own glass skills which includes traveling to take glass blowing classes in places like Corning, NY amongst other places. Please follow me on my adventure of growth and development as I keep creating new designs and continue making meaningful pieces for you and your family.