Keeping It Classy

Looking to exercise your creative muscles? Local artisanal workshops let you try your hand at something new.
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Glass Act

Creating something as fragile as glass is no easy task, but the Hot Glass Studio provides the know-how and confidence for beginner and intermediate glass blowers alike. Students learn techniques through demonstrations and hands-on practice. Participants will create vessels such as tumblers, vases, and bowls. All tools, glass, and equipment are provided; students must bring their own eye protection. Those wishing to work with color rods, frit, or powders must bring their own supplies ($600).

1604 Clay Ave., Detroit; 313-871-1798; michiganhotglass.com

Bakehouse Secrets

Wish you could bake cookies as good as, no wait, better than Mrs. Fields’? The Zingerman’s Bake! team teaches how to get that fluffy moist texture and more in a variety of baked goods. March classes include cookies, pasta, pies, cakes, pizza, cinnamon rolls, bread, brownies, soft pretzels, and gluten-free goods. Classes start at around $75, but you can also take an extended “bake-cation” weekend. Visit on March 13 for a special St. Patrick’s Day event where participants will be baking two traditional Irish breads plus Guinness Stout chocolate cupcakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting ($100).

3723 Plaza Dr., Ann Arbor; 734-761-7255; bakewithzing.com

Walking Tall

Get a pair of custom, old-school boots or shoes made for you and by you at the Sutorial boot and shoe company. Choose from a derby boot, oxford dress shoe, derby dress shoe, or

a basic women’s pump. Lessons cover everything from design, pattern making, and upper sewing, all the way to a finished pair of shoes. The 15-week classes start at $1,200 per student with a group of four. (Or you can let them make you a pair, starting at $1,000.)

522 Saginaw St., Flint; 810-309-8063; sutorial.com

<>Not Lost in Translation

Ocelot Print Shop’s “Intro to Screen Printing” class teaches students how to translate their drawings or graphics onto a printed T-shirt or poster in six hours. The class is recommended for anyone who has never done silkscreen printing, as well as those who would like to brush up on their skills. Ocelot also allows members to use their studio. This course is required to become a member ($90).

3535 Cass Ave., Detroit; 313-338-3516; ocelotprintshop.com

Pressing Needs

Make your own business cards, stamps, letterpress prints, guest books, and more at this Eastern Market letterpress studio. March workshops at Signal Return include a “Laptop to Letterpress” class in which students learn to transform a digital design into a letterpress print ($180). Other classes include “Letterpress Basics: Business Cards” ($90) and “Bookbinding: Letterpress Guestbook” ($90).

1345 Division St., Detroit; 313-567-8970; signalreturnpress.org

Express Yourself

Thrive Community Studio in Waterford offers creative fun from paint parties and art classes to music lessons. Play around during Thrive’s Thursday Art Club, a six-week course intended to “get your feet wet in the joys of creative expression” ($199 adults/$175 youth). They take participants through various mediums to complete three projects including a mixed media work, an abstract piece, and a free style of choice.

7625 Highland Rd., Waterford; 248-496-1047; buildingthrive.com

The Village Smithy?

Pursue blacksmithing individually or take part in couple’s classes at the Smith Shop Detroit. The studio offers beginning blacksmithing ($485) or an introduction to forging techniques

with steel rings ($95) that include forging with a torch, texturing with hammers, files, and chisels, sanding, polishing, and waxing. Specialty classes include a “Couples Wedding Band Workshop” ($400 plus materials).

1401 Vermont St., Detroit; ccaadetroit.com