01
MGC Portal
A free learning and resource hub for glass artists, with links to hundreds of videos, articles, manufacturer resources, catalogs, classes and community places around the world.
At a glance
Project snapshot
- Audience
- Glass artists, learners and instructors who need specialist knowledge in a form they can return to while planning or making work.
- Studio role
- Product strategy, information architecture, interface design, content-system structure and website implementation for the Portal experience.
- Working interface
- The Portal organizes hundreds of free videos, articles, manufacturer resources, catalogs, classes and product pathways so artists can find practical context before they choose a tool or begin a studio task.
- Current state
- Live · in active development
01 The product
What artists can do with it
The Portal organizes hundreds of free videos, articles, manufacturer resources, catalogs, classes and product pathways so artists can find practical context before they choose a tool or begin a studio task.
It gives artists a clearer place to start, with connected routes into colour planning, template work, kiln schedules, the original studio-reference app and a community map of stores, museums and other glass resources around the world.
02 Why it matters
The problem it solves
Valuable glass knowledge is often scattered across individual classes, maker notes, supplier references and informal studio memory.
A free learning and resource hub for glass artists, with links to hundreds of videos, articles, manufacturer resources, catalogs, classes and community places around the world.
03 Workflow
How the product helps artists
02
Move from knowledge pages into the right creative or studio tool.
03
Keep the product family understandable as new tools are added.
In use
Research, reference and planning in one Portal
The Portal has to work when an artist is reading at a desk, checking a resource on a tablet or opening a link on a phone. That is why the product family starts with a web hub rather than a single-purpose app.
Portal on desktop
04 Inside the build
Built for the way artists work
The technical choices support the same practical workflow as the interface.
Technical detail 01
Static-first delivery
The Portal is built with Astro 7, so the content-heavy structure can render as durable pages while interactive features remain focused.
Technical detail 02
Search, maps and structured data
Fuse.js powers browser-side search across resource collections, Leaflet supports a global map of stores, museums and community places, and Papa Parse handles structured data imports.
Technical detail 03
Domain-specific release checks
The repository includes automated UI QA plus validators for education events and homepage rotations, making changing content testable before release.
05 See the product
The live Portal structure
These screens show how hundreds of free videos, articles, manufacturer resources, catalogs, classes, material references and mapped community places are organized so an artist can move from a broad studio question to a useful next step.
In the product 01
Turn specialist knowledge into a browsable library
The current Learn section brings together original glass-studio guides plus links to hundreds of free videos, articles, manufacturer resources, catalogs and classes, with practical topic filters that make detailed guidance easier to return to.
In the product 02
Browse visual material data
The current material reference turns manufacturer data into an image-led system with product forms, identifiers, material details and save or share actions visible in a consistent grid.
In the product 03
Map the wider glass community
The current Community directory maps stores, museums, suppliers, manufacturers, schools, teaching facilities and other glass-community resources around the world, with location and organization-type context.
Moving walkthrough
See the sequence in motion
A short walkthrough of the live Portal structure, from learning paths to community resources.
06 Why it works this way
Choices shaped by the studio workflow
Lead with the field, not the software
The Portal is framed around artist questions and glass practice before individual product paths.
Make the family legible
Portal, Palette, Template Studio, Kiln Schedule Designer and the App appear as related tools with distinct jobs.
Organize around questions, retain attribution
Guided learning begins with the studio task an artist is trying to solve, while articles, videos, catalogs, classes and resources continue to identify the manufacturer or specialist source behind the guidance.
07 Related My Glass Cookbook projects
Palette
A planning tool for exploring glass colour, compatibility and material choices before work moves to the bench. Palette connects to more than 2,400 unique glasses from 10 fused and stained-glass manufacturers.
Explore next →Template Studio
A digital workflow for planning practical glass layouts and stained-glass template work.
Explore next →Kiln Schedule Designer
A clearer way to configure, read and communicate technical glass firing schedules.
Explore next →