Entry No. 28 — the Buffalo file — filed under: flameworking
Expressive Glass
Expressive Glass is glass sculptor Vicki Schneider's flameworking studio on Lake Shore Road in the South Towns, where she teaches beginners to melt solid rods of soda-lime glass over a stationary torch and shape them with simple hand tools. A lesson runs $80 per person with instruction, all materials, and the overnight kiln cycle included; two people takes about two hours. You choose the project — beads with dot-and-swirl designs, pendants from thirty-plus patterns, blown ornaments, watering globes for your houseplants — and couples can make coordinated pieces with different colors. Her own lampworked sculptures fill the studio, and experienced lampworkers can rent torch time.
→ Three more hands-on workshops & classes in Buffalo — never the same twice
The story
Vicki Schneider was ten years old, on a trip to the Corning Museum of Glass, when she watched artists turn a rod into a sculpture. Then fifty years went by. At sixty she went back to Corning — this time as a student — and started training in earnest, eventually working under lampworking names including Lucio Bubacco, Loren Stump, Emilio Santini, Bronwen Heilman and Wesley Fleming. In 2009 she opened Expressive Glass on Lake Shore Road as a nine-torch teaching studio.
Her own work fills the shelves: lifelike flowers built in soda-lime glass, which most soft-glass artists will tell you can't be done. Two of those pieces, Mama's Tulip Garden (2021) and Waiting for Cinderella (2025), were juried into the Burchfield Penney's Art in Craft Media biennial. She took first place in flameworked glass at Delphi's online festival in 2018, landed the cover of The Flow, and wrote the 'Artist to Artist' column for Glass Art magazine for five years.
The business runs on two tracks. Beginners book a private $80 session and pick a project — beads, a pendant off a wall of thirty-plus designs, blown ornaments, icicles, houseplant watering globes. Experienced lampworkers buy bench time instead, working a 24-foot shared bench that gives each person four feet, a minor burner, a ventilation hood, quick-release regulators and an adjustable chair, with kilns, mandrels, tools and goggles included and a standing inventory of COE 104 soft glass to pull from. Both tracks share the same kilns, which is why nobody leaves with their glass the same day.
What it's like
You will not stumble in; the door opens because you booked it. When you get there it's Vicki and you — she teaches every session herself. Expect a few minutes of procedure first: how to hold the rod, where the flame's hot zone sits, why you never grab the end that just came out of it. Then you're at the torch in goggles, melting solid glass and turning it against gravity while it decides what shape it wants to be. Two people takes about two hours, mostly quiet concentration broken by her leaning in to fix your rotation. Nobody wears gloves — glass doesn't run heat back down the rod the way people assume. Sessions wrap by roughly 4:30pm, and your pieces go straight into the annealing kiln overnight, so you go home empty-handed. That's the system, not a mistake.
The move: Text 716-481-5664 for a two-person slot — she runs sessions seven days a week between 11 am and 4:30 pm, with weekend times bookable online — and spend two hours at side-by-side torches making matching-but-not pendants. The pieces anneal in the kiln overnight, so picking them up is your built-in second date.
📍 Before you go Appointment-only: call or text 716-481-5664 (or email [email protected]) to book; pre-scheduled weekend slots are on the online calendar. $80 per person, ages 10 and up. Sessions end by roughly 4:30 pm, so this is an afternoon date, not an evening one. Finished glass needs 24+ hours in the kiln — pick up later or pay a $10 flat shipping fee. About 20 minutes south of downtown Buffalo.
- 📍 Blasdell
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 3333 Lake Shore Rd, Buffalo, NY 14219
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Penn Dixie Monthly Stargazing — Same 14219 zip code, a few minutes up the road — melt glass in the afternoon, then watch a Devonian shale quarry turn into an observatory floor after dark.
- Original American Kazoo Company Museum & Factory — Fifteen more minutes south in Eden, and the same basic pleasure: a working shop where the visitor gets to press their own object out of raw material.
- Eternal Flame Falls — A short drive east into Chestnut Ridge for the contrast — you spent the afternoon making a flame do precise work indoors, now go see one that has been burning behind a waterfall without any help at all.
More weird in Buffalo
Good to know
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
$80 per person, covering instruction, all glass and tools, safety goggles and the overnight kiln cycle. One person is about 1.5 hours of instruction, two is about 2, three is about 2.5.
How do I book, and how far out of town is it?
Call or text 716-481-5664 or email [email protected]; some weekend slots sit on the online calendar and custom times get arranged by phone. Sessions run seven days a week, generally 11am to 4:30pm. The studio is at 3333 Lake Shore Rd and puts itself at 10–15 minutes from downtown Buffalo. Cancel with under 24 hours' notice and you forfeit the fee, with illness and emergencies at her discretion.
When do I actually get my glass?
Not that day. Everything anneals overnight, so studio pickup is a minimum of 24 hours later. If you can't come back, it ships for a $10 flat fee to one address.
Can kids do this?
Ages 10 and up. Anyone between 10 and 17 needs a responsible adult with them at the studio.
I already lampwork — can I just use a torch?
Yes, if you're self-sufficient. Studio time is sold in blocks starting at $15 and glass rod packages start around $18.40; you pre-purchase online, schedule your session, and report your usage on the way out. Bulk renters get a covered bin for on-site storage.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site
last checked: 2026-08-25