With subject matter ranging from a wheel of forearms to Klingon-like severed heads, it’s obvious this glass collection is far from your grandmother’s menagerie of candy dishes.

The students and professors of the Ohio State Student Glass Organization have compiled a collection of their work to display in the pavilion lobby of the OSU Medical Center, 2050 Kenny Rd.

“Specify Glass” includes pieces by glass artists of all levels of experience.

“All of the grad students are represented, but this was (also) a shot for a lot of undergraduate students and even a few beginning glass students to show their work,” said Brent Sommerhauser, a graduate student in the OSU Glass Department.

In addition to having pieces from different skill levels, the show features a variety of creative and technical styles.

“We have everything from sculpted glass projects and those using found glass items to glass blowing,” Sommerhauser said.

The show is juried, meaning a panel choose which items would make it into the exhibition.

“This helped keep the show representative of all different styles,” he said.

Many of the projects were mixed-media, utilizing circular saw blades, plush fabrics and even sugar to enhance the glass pieces.

Yuki Wakamiya, a senior glass student, employed metal wire, tiny fabric pom-poms and thick green trimming to create her surreal piece.

“I cut a ring out of the sides of the piece and then played around with different materials,” Wakamiya said.

The piece was initially a part of a series she did. Wakamiya’s classmates said they thought the cotton candy-colored piece didn’t fit in with the others in the series.

“I decided to put it on its own pedestal and realized it looked significantly better by itself,” she said.

The piece is intended to create a fantasy, dream-like environment.

“Like a landscape almost, that housed all these different materials,” Wakamiya said. “It’s about your eye moving from one material to the next and the transformation of glass into metal and fabric.”

Wakamiya has been blowing glass for four years, starting at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, N.Y. She transferred to OSU two years ago and has studied under the program’s visiting-artist instructor, Robert Wiley.

Wiley, an OSU alumnus, has had a great amount of experience with the glass program at OSU.

“I’ve been on all sides of the Ohio State art experience – from an undergraduate student, to graduate student teaching and now to full-time, temporary faculty,” Wiley said.

Although the classes Wiley teaches are for advanced glass majors, there are many beginning classes that any student can take.

“There is a class called ‘Intro to Cold Glass Working’ that involves manipulating glass in kilns, cutting it and constructing it,” he said. “This way people get to have an experience with glass and making art, and also get to be around the studio and learn some of the jargon that’s required.”

The glass program’s instructors encourage students interested in the arts to take one of these introductory courses.

“Anybody can be an artist, anybody can have an art experience and that’s why we offer these entry-level classes,” Wiley said.

“Specify Glass” is being offered from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday until July 18.