It's a substance that's rarely seen as fluid, but at Dallas Glass Art transformation is their specialty.
"Glass is a very magical material to me," said owner Carlyn Ray. "It's one of the only materials you can shape with your breath, so literally breathing life into dust."
Carlyn first fell in love with glassblowing when she was 8-years-old.
"I didn't see a female blowing glass probably for the next 10 years, but I'm like, 'If they can do it, I can do it,' right?" Carlyn said.
Her passion to share the joy of creating led her to start the nonprofit Art Reaching Out.
"The idea came from how I struggled in school being dyslexic and ADD and how I wished I had more of a hands-on learning to really grasp and understand foundation," Carlyn said.
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According to the Art Reaching Out (ARO) website, its goal is to involve students in creating art glass installations using STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art and math.
One group who has taken part in one of ARO's summer camps, is Irma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School.
"It was really inspiring and it made me think like, 'Wow, even I could technically one day do something with STEM and create my own business out of it." said Veronica Ledezma, a senior at Irma Rangel. "This experience has given me another sense in that STEM can mix with art and it made me really excited for what the future holds for me."
The glass art installations that the students make with ARO are made as a team and then displayed in public for others to admire their work.
Through that experience, these students were able to get hands-on experience with science.
"This opportunity really made me think, 'Well, science can be fun!'" said Diana De La Paz, a senior at Irma Rangel.
Diana said experiencing science through ARO is much different than learning about it in the classroom.
"It's really just, 'Oh, well we're looking at the periodic table and there are these elements' and they're very abstract, but here we saw that these elements like calcium and gold became these wonderful colors on our glass," Diana said.
The lessons at Art Reaching Out also bring a sense of accomplishment after overcoming a new challenge.
"It's scary at first. It's 2,100 degrees. It's moving, it's molten, it's glass, and it's also exciting," Carlyn said.
"It was amazing seeing that, like, I could do it. You know?" said Stephanie Hernandez, a junior at Irma Rangel.
"Like that's something really, really hot right next to my hand! I was like 'Ahhh!'" said Elizabeth Hastings with a laugh. "But it was really cool to see how you could mold something because glass to me is always hard and you can't move it unless you're breaking it."
Melding art with science, while teaching students that within them, they too, have the power to create.
"It's putting them out of their comfort zone and then seeing them excel," Carlyn said.
Dallas Glass Art is open to anyone who wants to learn how to create art with glass. Head to their website to learn more: dallasglassart.com.
