The name may be misleading but South’s Lampworking club is not at all about making lamps. Students at the break of dawn use real fire power to make small glass objects like beads or even exciting festive ornaments.

Lampworking means melting glass and shaping when hot enough. This club meets each Friday morning and is advised by Biology teacher Shelly Rothenbuhler. Rothenbuhler has been doing lampworking for many years at the local Neighborhood Club as a side hobby, and later introduced it to her class, eventually evolving into a small club.

“Oh, it is fun, it’s really fun, and once you get into it, it’s very mesmerizing,” Rothenbuhler said. “It’s a little stressful when you’re first learning but it gets to be very relaxing when you’re done.”

Students don’t need any prior experience to join the club, even Kelsie George ’25 used to be new at lampworking. Now she’s the student leader of the club, helping newcomers and running things along while focusing on her own work.

“There’s just a couple of us, we have more (members) some weeks, but it’s just something that’s fun,” George said. “It’s relaxing and something you can come and do in the morning and kind of just decompress from school.”