Glassblower turns up heat, readies studio

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Other than the recently painted door, passersby wouldn’t know this Quarry Road building is undergoing a transformation to become a glassblowing studio. Debbie Griffin photo

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A small building along Quarry Road soon emerges as the Quarry Glassblowing Studio where local artist Pauly Cudd will fire up the furnace on his career.

The building, about 850 square feet inside and visible from the Main Street/Paulson Road intersection, used to have a plain door but now sports a colorful silhouette of Cudd working glass as well as the soon-to-be studio’s name.

Local artist David Markson, owner of The Sign Guy, painted the garage-style door.

Cudd owns the property that used to be a rock quarry and has been using the small building as storage for many years.

“We started building the equipment in fall,” he said about the studio.

Working as an artist for several years, Cudd has had a “cold studio” at home for grinding and polishing but uses other studios’ equipment to finish the work. He might go to Foci in the Twin Cities or Nichka Glass Works in rural River Falls.

Cudd said his family and other artists have helped in researching and preparing for the project.

He intends to hold a grand studio opening and show this fall or soon after.

Read more in the Aug. 20 print of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: pauly cudd, business, glassblowing