PLENTY of family fun will be on offer this weekend when the International Festival of Glass rolls into Stourbridge.

Exhibitions, displays, workshops, archaeological digs and storytelling will all feature at the annual event which returns to the town today (Thursday May 28) and runs until Sunday, May 31.

Visitors can watch as doodles from celebrities including Robert Plant and Lenny Henry are transformed from a drawing to a piece of three-dimensional artwork, as well as take part in creating a glass model of Sir Winston Churchill’s bust from a historic mould.

Inside the Ruskin Glass Centre, visitors will be wowed by a wall of 180 glass postcards which have been created by members of the Contemporary Glass Society to celebrate both the festival itself and pay tribute to the humble, old-fashioned picture postcard.

During the festival, the important role played by women who worked in the local glass industry is going to be brought to light as part of a Heritage Lottery Funded display.

A dazzling multi-coloured chandelier will be created as part of the ‘Community Breath’ project by blind and visually impaired people from the Thomas Pocklington Trust, with the project seeing glass blowers teach members of the public the historic art of glass blowing.

Young visitors can try their hand at sandblasting, glass painting, leather, felt and willow crafts as well as using 19th century photography techniques, while there will also be donkey rides, falconry displays and a real fire engine.

Festival poet Emma Purshouse will be on hand to create sonnets for people in need of a literary pick-me-up and the Fetch Theatre Company will be demonstrating their 16th century Japanese puppetry.

Broadfield House Glass Museum will be hosting a Ladies Day, where visitors of all ages can have a go at glass crafts, take part in a tour and watch glass blowing demonstrations, while visitors to the Red House Glass Cone can learn how to fuse glass, with the chance to make fused glass bugs.

Elisabeth Johnson, festival coordinator, said: “The International Festival of Glass manages to combine world-class exhibitions and breathtaking designs with good old family fun.

“We have a huge range of family activities and family arts and craft sessions running across the Stourbridge Glass Quarter. We even have puppets serving tea.

“The glass doodles project is just another example of how the studio glass industry is thriving in this country and shows the level of support locally for celebrations of our glass heritage.

“The festival takes the celebration of this versatile material to a whole new level, with exhibitions showing just how popular glass as a material and as an art form continues to be.

“People of all ages certainly won’t be disappointed when they head to the festival.”

Elsewhere throughout the glass quarter, members of the Guild of Glass Engravers will host their latest exhibition at the Red House Glass Cone, featuring a wide variety of glass which has been engraved using a range of classic techniques to create pieces with a contemporary edge.

An exhibition titled Cutting Edge: Contemporary Hungarian Glass features the work of 17 Hungarian artists whose work is on display at museums across the world, including the V&A Museum in London.

Dudley Councillor Khurshid Ahmed, cabinet member elect for museums, said: “These pieces are quite different from anything Broadfield House Glass Museum has exhibited before and I think visitors to the museum will be amazed by the skills of the artists’ work.”

Two fun days will give families the chance to step back in time with the Guild of St Edmund, which will be showing visitors what medieval life was like - with knights, demonstrations showing the techniques of glass-making from Roman times and medieval crafts.

People are also being invited to bring any of their glass findings, including jars, bottles or glassmaking tools which they might have discovered in their gardens, to an archaeology roadshow.

For more information, including dates, costs and locations of all the events, activities and exhibitions taking place throughout the festival, visit www.ifg.org.uk