Asher Antoine became interested in glassblowing the summer after his freshman year. Now 15, he makes ornaments, jewelry and other things in his basement studio in Northeast Portland. For Antoine, glassblowing is a way to center himself and decompress from the stresses of the day.

“I’m working with solid glass right now. If I’m melting something big, then I’ll turn it up so it’s hotter. It melts the glass faster. It’s gravity, too. With this, you always have to be turning it so it heats it up all evenly. When I first started Grant, I was stressed. I didn’t really know any of the teachers. I kind of winged it. So I went in, got a lot of homework the first couple weeks, a couple essays. So I just came down here and made some stuff for me or my friends and kind of relaxed. It brings you back down to your own head. You’re not really thinking, ‘What if I’m bad at this? What if I’m not doing so well? Or if I’m going to fail this test.’ You just focus on what you’re doing right now.”

-Asher Antoine, sophomore