Sanda Glass Art Center opened in 1993(Heisei 5) as a facility attached to the Sanda City Clean Center, which was put into service in 1992(Heisei 4).

At Sanda Glass Art Center, visitors can actually experience various types of glasswork. Limited seasonal experiences and courses that can be experienced even by children are available, so that families, friends, couples, and groups can enjoy the experience from children to adults.

It is a facility of great popularity in Sanda City, visited not only by local residents but also by many people from outside Sanda City.

It is open from 9:00 to 17:00 and closed on Tuesdays. In the lobby on the first floor, original works by instructors and students are displayed and sold.

It is exciting just to look at the elaborate and beautiful works. In addition to experience, it also offers courses, highly recommended for those who want to learn in earnest.

Arima Fuji Park is located near Sanda Glass Art Center and is one of the largest parks in Hyogo Prefecture, with many attractions such as asobi kingdom, an ecological garden, and a nature study center.

Known as a park where visitors can enjoy any season, many enjoy the park together with the Sanda Glass Art Center.

At Sanda Glass Art Center, you can choose your favorite glasswork technique from 7 different types and experience the real glasswork techniques that you cannot experience everyday for 30 to 120 minutes (reservations are required for all courses).

・Blown glass
　Time required: 30 minutes Price: 3,300 yen, from 3rd grade elementary school students and up
　Create an original cup or vase.
　The work will be delivered (pick up or pay-on-delivery) in about one week.

・Sand blast sticker course
　Time required: 60 minutes Price: 1,300 yen (from 1st grade elementary school students (kindergarten students if accompanied by a parent)
　Using a craft punch to make stickers with various patterns, paste them on a cup and engrave the patterns by blasting.

・Sand blast free design course
　Time required: 120 minutes Price: 2,600yen (from 3rd grade elementary school students and up)
　Cut out stickers freely with a design cutter, and engrave original patterns on colored cups by blasting.

・Burner work (Minimum 2 people)
　Time required: 120 minutes Price: 2,300yen (from 3rd grade elementary school students and up)
　Glass rods are melted with a burner to make three glass beads.
　Then, they will be made into necklaces and straps.

・Stained glass
　Time required: 120 minutes. Price: 2,800 yen, from 3rd grade elementary school students and up
　Wrap glass parts with copper tape and make ornaments by soldering.

・Glass laminate
　Time required: 30 minutes. Price: 1,200 yen. 5 years old (3 years old if accompanied by a parent or guardian) or older can participate.
　Draw a picture on a plate glass with colored pencils, stack glass plates, and insert the picture between the plates.

・Baby Handprint
　Time required: 30 minutes Price: 8,000 yen (for children under 1 year old only)
　Why don’t you leave a glass handprint with your birthday and name on it to commemorate your baby’s birth? The handprints will be delivered (pick-up or freight collect) in about one and a half months.

The one-day class includes handprints for babies under one year old, and glass laglass laminate can be experienced from 5 years old. The time required for the shortest class is 30 minutes, and you can choose the content of the class according to your child’s age and receive support so that you can try them with ease.

Each experience is different, and some are more difficult than others, but many visitors enjoy the experience. For example, in the popular glassblowing experience, there is no time to stop.

Glass will harden as it cools down while you think about it, thus making it necessary to work quickly while the glass is still hot and molten. The basic shape is fixed for the experience, but it may not be exactly how you want it.

The fact that no two pieces will be the same and every piece will have its own unique taste is part of the enjoyment of blown glass.

If those who are anxious about using tools and making glass for the first time, skilled lecturers will provide full support, allowing you to enjoy the experience with peace of mind.

In addition to the regular one-day experience, we also offer special experiences for limited periods of time. Please come and have fun with experiences associated with seasonal events.

Following is a detailed explanation of the process of making blown glass, which is one of the most popular experience courses.
The blown glass experience involves working near a high-temperature melting furnace, so be sure to take the below precautions.

・Wear comfortable clothing.
・Avoid wearing stockings, sandals, or revealing too much skin.
・Wear socks and low heeled shoes.
・Tie your hair if it is long.
・Shirts and long pants made of 100% cotton.

Introduction of tools used
Pincer, File, Paddle, paper phosphrus, Jack

・Seat at the work bench first.
・The glass is rolled from the melting furnace to the blow pipe together with the collector.
Then wrap frit (fine particles of colored glass) around the pipe to add color, shape it, and breathe into it.

・After cooling down a little, the glass is rewound again.
Shape the glass with paper phosphorus (folded newspaper, wetted with water), breathe into it, and shape it.

・Use jacks (chopsticks) and tie so that the mouth part can be detached.
☆The technical term for cutting the glass out of the blow pipe is “kukuru”.

・Crush the bottom part with a paddle (wooden board) to flatten it.

・Attach a ponte rod (a rod with no holes and a little glass wrapped around it) to the center of the bottom. Then, file and lightly tap the blow pipe to separate it from the joint.

・Open the mouth with a jack and you are done.

The glass is melted in a melting furnace, containing a crucible (an unglazed crucible called a nekotsuba) in which a batch of raw materials mixed with silica sand and soda ash, called a batch, is placed and melted at about It is melted at about 1300℃.

The temperature of rolled glass is about 850-1000℃ at the time of operation. If it cools down during the process, we continued while re-firing in a glory hole.

The finished glass pieces are placed in an electric furnace, called a slow cooling furnace, which is maintained at approximately 480℃ overnight to allow them to cool slowly, since they will become distorted and crack if they are suddenly brought down to room temperature.

The works are then removed from the slow cooling furnace, and finished.

You can choose to pick up your work at the reception desk in about a week or have it shipped to you by cash on delivery (international shipping is not available).

Sanda Glass Art Center also supports the Republic of Palau.

The Republic of Palau has always been known as a tourist destination, and although it has a population of only 20,000, about 100,000 tourists visit there throughout a year.

While the Republic of Palau has many marine tourist attractions such as scuba diving, glass studios are attracting attention as a sightseeing experience that can be experienced on land.

Republic of Palau is an island nation and has a serious waste problem, so it focuses on recycling, melting down waste bottles collected at recycling centers and making blown glass.

Hyogo Prefecture has a friendship and sister city relationship with the Republic of Palau, and has also signed an agreement with Sanda City, where JICA’s “grassroots projects” have begun.

The Glass Art Center is also supporting the project by dispatching instructors and providing actual technical support so that the project can be operated solely by local people and accept tourists by enhancing local technical capabilities.

For Sanda city, our goal is not only to provide the technology, but also to actively work to incorporate the best of Republic of Palau.

We are working to make the glass experience more accessible to the citizens of Sanda by planning Palau tours for them.

When President Whipps of the Republic of Palau visited Japan, he donated a marlin tuna figurine to Prime Minister Kishida.

It was created by the Belau Eco-Glass Center, a glass studio supported by the grassroots technical cooperation project “Getting the Belau Eco-Glass Center of the Republic of Palau back on track.

Sanda Glass Art Center also introduces many of its works on social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Sanda Glass Art Center also actively holds various events, which have been a great success.

・Workshops at various locations (Kobe Kitano Ijinkan, Kazamidori-no-Yakata, Kita-Kobe Rural Sports Park)
・ Glass and Marche events (spring and fall)
・ Limited experiences every two months.

We would like to introduce four lecturers who are active at Sanda Glass Art Center.

Sachio Motohiro

In charge of stained glass. He studied design in the past, and encountered glasswork at that time, which led him to glasswork. His hobby is to grow houseplants. Please visit Sanda Glass Art Center where you can experience various glassworks!

Kyoko Hisamoto

In charge of blown glass. After studying glasswork at university, she moved to Crafts Center to continue glass-making career. Her hobbies are art appreciation and music. It would be my pleasure if you could get interested in glass as a material through my hands-on experience and classes!

Yuka Shiotani

In charge of kilnwork. After studying glasswork at university, joined Glass Art Center because she wanted to work in her hometown, Sanda. Good at firing glass at moderate temperatures and plaster melting. Please come to Glass Art Center for an extraordinary glass art experience alone, with friends, or with your family!

Natsuho Osaka

In charge of all experiences other than glass blowing. She was a member of a club that made stained glass in high school and also studied at university. Good at handmade and stained glass. I will do my best to convey the charm of glass!



All of them are in this job because they truly love glass and feel the charm of glass. Everyone is kind and friendly, and you can tell that they are enjoying the experience and classes.
The atmosphere in the classroom is great, and it is easy to ask any questions.
Please feel free to ask anything you don’t understand. Lecturers will support carefully in every experience.