Sat 29th Nov 10am-12noon - HOT GLASS ART! Festive Fused Glass Christmas Decorations Workshop

🎅✨ Festive Fused Glass Christmas Decorations Workshop

📅 Saturday, 29th November | 🕙 10am – 12 noon

Step into a world of sparkle, colour, and Christmas magic in this joyful, hands-on fused glass decorations workshop! Guided by the wonderfully talented Kaylene of Sandy Beach Studio, you'll spend a merry morning creating beautiful, kiln-fired glass ornaments to treasure or gift. 

🧑🎨 Kaylene is a Russell Island-based Hot Glass Artist with over 20 years of experience crafting bespoke jewellery and whimsical glass artworks. Inspired by her North Queensland roots, the tropical hues of the reef and rainforest shine through her work. Her workshops are bursting with colour, creativity, and Christmas cheer!

🎄 In this 2-hour festive session, you’ll:

• Create two unique fused glass Christmas decorations — perfect for your tree or to give as handmade gifts

• Learn safe and simple glass-cutting, shaping, and layering techniques

• Explore the magic of kiln-firing and how glass transforms through heat

• Use your imagination to design festive shapes like snowmen, trees, stars, baubles — or something totally original!

🎨 You’ll have access to a merry mix of materials, including:

• Glass caviar – tiny, sparkling glass beads full of character

• Stringers – thin rods of glass for stripes, details, or curly accents

• Glass frit – crushed glass in magical textures from powder to chunky sparkles

“I love sharing my passion. It’s pure delight when I see students light up like Christmas trees, surrounded by colourful glass like a festive lolly shop – and the joy when they say, ‘I made this!’” – Kaylene

🎅 Want to make more than two? No problem! You’ll have the option to make extra decorations on the day for a small additional cost — perfect if you’re feeling extra inspired or have gifts in mind.

🔥 Your creations will be fired in the kiln overnight and ready to collect the following week — just in time for Christmas!

🧯 All tools, materials, and safety gear are provided. No experience needed — just bring your festive spirit and love of colour!

Meet the Facilitator:

Kaylene is a Russell Island based Hot Glass Artist who works from her home studio creating bespoke jewellery and quirky kiln formed glass artworks. Kaylene has been working with Glass for  about 20 years. Born and raised in North Queensland, Kaylene attributes much of her work to her childhood adventures, the colours of Great Barrier Reef and Tropical Rainforests.

“The Colours I am most attracted to are calming blues and sea colour greens, my mermaid colours I call them. The aqua, teals and turquoise, violets, lilac and purples, with a bright splash of pink, gold and magenta to liven things up.”

Kaylene’s childhood home was always a hub of creativity with both parents skilled musicians, her siblings and herself all learned to play instruments. Art and craft was as normal as a Sunday roast, everyone was creating something, painting, crochet, macrame or models. Her Mother was a skilled seamstress, and she along with Kaylene’s Grand Mother both award winning cake decorators - a skill also passed to Kaylene who created a Cake Art business for herself in her 20’s.

Kaylene’s Grandfather was a Master Jeweller and when she was very young her Mother worked in a fine jewellery store in Townsville. Kaylene spent much of her early years playing quietly on a blanket in the jewellery workshop.

“Jewellery always intrigued me and I especially loved the quirky, and unique pieces in my mum’s jewellery box

The Jewellery I create is wearable art. I strive to design super stylish pieces of art in their own right. I want my art to make you feel proud you are wearing something as unique as yourself”

Kaylene’s schooling pathway was designed around architecture, to follow her brother into the drafting world, however her art teacher aunt encouraged her to pursue a career in graphic arts. Enrolling in a commercial art course at the Townsville College of Art, led to an apprenticeship in sign writing and screen printing. Kaylene spent the next few years working in various art fields from computer graphics, textile design, silk sarong printing, and commercial art.

A turn of luck saw a career “sea change’ working in the dive cruise industry and meeting her marine biologist husband which opened up a new world of inspiration living and working amongst coral reefs on a daily basis.

When her husband took a job in Brisbane, they moved south. Wanting a view of the ocean they purchased a house on Russell Island. The home was previously a Bed and Breakfast and working glass gallery. It is full of colourful contemporary stained glass windows. Perhaps it was subliminal, or sweet serendipity, but soon after moving in she was drawn to do a fused glass workshop which opened a world of endless possibilities to her. Hundreds of sheets of coloured glass and a few kilns later, It’s fair to say that Kaylene is now addicted to glass.

Today she shares her knowledge gained from a collection of workshops and endless imaginative experimentation of techniques. Her workshops are vibrant, full of fun and colour. You will be expertly guided through different techniques to create a unique treasure that truly is one of a kind.

“I love sharing my passion, It’s pure delight when I see the students expression when they see the assortment of glass, like a lolly shop. Their disbelief when they see the beautiful creations they made come out of the kiln and the pride they have when they say I made this!”

Studio Address - Unit 11, 7-9 Grant St Cleveland.