I was so excited to find out about The Olio, I've gone to another glass studio in Durham called Firefly Hotglass and made an ornament and a glass heart, but it's a bit of a drive.
They were having a special session this afternoon for making a Shamrock or a Paisley in celebration of St Patricks Day, and I had to go out and check it out.
The studio is impressive, very well laid out, and I love the glass shop out front where they sell a lot of what they make there. The atmosphere is awesome, it's more of a workshop/glass shop mixed together, and they use a lot of recycled material from the tables and benches, to the actual glass they use for blowing. They purchased a recipe that allows them to recycle beer bottles (clear ones) and other commercial bottles and mix it to make glass that works very well for glass blowing.
The teacher was awesome and explained what we were doing and why, and I had an absolute blast.
If you've ever wanted to try glass blowing definitely attend, if your just curious about how it is done come by and watch it's very kid friendly as well.
Be sure to read the guidelines about what clothes and shoes to wear as you will be working with VERY hot glass :)
http://theolio.com