This year’s Summer Series at the Red Deer College has brought a new teacher all the way from Wanganui, New Zealand to teach the art of glass blowing.

Katie Brown has been travelling around the world with her artist skills and made her way to Red Deer recently to share her love of glass during one-day workshops where she taught a variety of techniques.

Brown said she has always been artistic. She has taken a three-year course in New Zealand and now has her own studio, but still finds the time to travel and teach her technique to those who are interested.

“I love Red Deer — it reminds me of my hometown and there are some lovely people here and it is great to come back every year.”

Glassblowing is the art of heating glass with a furnace at 1,100 degrees and transform it into something different. It takes from half an hour to an hour to create a glass piece and there is up to 20 different steps to follow.

“I like the whole process with the hot molten glass, the fire and the heat so you can say I am a bit of a fire girl,” said Brown.

Summer Series is offered to those who want to learn a new artistic skill or just want something to keep busy with during the summer.

The courses range from one week to one day and are available in a wide variety of media taught by world-class instructors. There are a number of different courses such as drawing, glassblowing, painting, photography and acting.

“As an artist travelling around the world it is great to see other countries are doing summer schools as well,” said Brown.

“There are glass blowers all around the world and in every country they do it slightly different. It’s great to travel and see what everyone else is making.”

This is her third time in Red Deer and she hopes to come back next year to do a public demonstration at RDC as well as teach different courses.

If you would like more information on the Summer Series visit www.rdc.ab.ca. For more about Katie Brown check out www.katiebrownglass.co.nz.

tsigurdson@reddeerexpress.com