This year’s Glass Guild Blowout marked the highest sales ever during the art acution for the Glass Guild. Kaila Mock, senior glass major, said the blowout auction raised $9,545 – about $2,000 more than last year.

“This was the blowout auction’s best year,” Mock said.

Students and community members gathered in the Art Annex Saturday for this year’s blowout, an annual all-day event with free barbecue and live demonstrations by visiting artists, concluding with the art auction.

The clear skies and warm weather – and no threats of a thunderstorm or tornadoes this time around – provided for a significantly larger turnout than last year.

“It’s such a nice day for this,” said Nic Dikin, freshman glass major, as he watched a live hot glass demonstration.

The proceeds of the auction will help pay for future supplies, equipment and educational field trips for glass students. Tools and supplies that were recently stolen from the department will also be replaced. Proceeds will also help fund future visiting artists.

“We had a lot of really cool stuff for the auction this year,” Dikin said. “The quality of everyone’s work is just really amazing.”

Dikin said he is excited to become the new vice president of the Glass Guild next semester. He said the club announced the decision in a recent meeting.

Ross Richmond was this year’s visiting artist. Richmond specializes in glass sculpture art based on the human anatomy, as well as “figurative elements and symbolic objects.”

Richmond said he began working with glass at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1991, and continues to study and teach glass blowing at schools in the United States and Canada.

Senior glass majors Joe Sircolumb and Danny Shipley assisted Richmond during the live demonstrations.

“You kind of just zone out,” Sircoloumb said. “It’s not that different with a bunch of people watching.”

Richmond and Jeff Mack, the artist who did live demonstrations at last year’s blowout, both sold work at the auction.

Sircoloumb, Shipley and Mock, among other junior and senior glass students, also had work for sale at the auction, as well as faculty from the art and glass departments.

Work from Patrick Martin, associate professor of glass, and Roberta Eichenberg, associate professor of art, was also on display and sold on the auction floor.