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BEEVILLE - When hard, it is cold. When soft, it is hot: sparkling surfaces deep of color and curved shapes, mesmerizing swirls and soothing movement, shining reflections materializing and vanishing, bending light and changing appearances, please the ones looking on.

Glass and its transformation during the process of making an object of art is the answer to the riddle above.

More than 12,000 students have taken the class since it began in 1990. The class instructor has garnered a reputation for excellence in the art world. Instructor and students learn and work in the longest-established facility of the glass genre in Texas.

The answers to the second riddle are glass artist and instructor Jayne Duryea and the Coastal Bend College in Beeville.

In 1990, Coastal Bend College began offering an art class in glass blowing. Its instructor, Duryea, had come from New York, where she was raised in Manhattan.

Duryea recently was nominated for designation as a Texas State Artist. The nomination could lead to recognition by the state for her works of art, which include glass and oil/watercolor paintings.

"The Texas Commission on the Arts contacted me and requested materials. I replied as requested. As for me it is quite an honor just to be nominated. Then they contacted me to inform me of being among the 10 finalists, and of course I was ecstatic for the recognition," Duryea said.

Duryea will know if she will be one of the four artists selected by the state sometime after a Legislative committee meeting on Jan. 9. A date is not known when the committee will announce the final four.

"Many of us work very hard at what we do and truly appreciate just the acknowledgement. Time will tell the outcome after the first of the year. I do not know what this will bring, but it is very exciting and I am looking forward to the challenge," Duryea said.

Duryea noted that working with glass is an old craft, and some of the best glass comes from Italy - not just now, but for centuries dating back to the Ancient Rome Empire before the time of Christ. But Duryea has taken the craft and used glass as a medium to create art. And she said it really is part of her life - her entire life.

"I've collected art and glass since I was a little kid. When I was in the second and third grade we went to a glass factory in New York," she said.

Since that time, she said glass has always kept her spellbound for its otherworldly qualities.

She said if a single glass marble was heated to 2,000 degrees and pulled quickly enough, the glass would stretch from Beeville to San Antonio.

"That's 90 miles of glass fiber in one marble, the beginnings of fiber optics," she said.

"Glass is magical and alive. The glass influences you as you influence the glass. The molten fluidity of glass is so alive; it's a tremendous material to work with. You and the glass have to become one," she said.

She said glassblowing is traditional Italian style, which is a hot process for glass shaping. There's also flame working for small work using a torch; cold glass shaping refers to stained glass and crystal, which is carved.

Duryea's mentor was glass sculptor and watercolorist Robert Willson.

"He passed away in 2000 at the age of 88 years. In the late '90s, I went to the ARS Murano Glass Factory in Italy to blow glass with him," she said.

While in Murano, Italy, she also worked with Elio Raffaeli, the maestro master in glass there.

"Willson will come to be known as the master of glass sculpture in the United States," Duryea said.

Duryea said she hopes to continue traveling to Italy every year to experience blowing glass with the best in the world. She also has spent six months in France studying with artists. And she continues to create glass art, as well as oil and watercolor paintings.

She has her own studio in Beeville, and prospective customers can see her works by appointment only. Contact information is on her Web site: www.jayneduryea.com.

Other Web sites that show Duryea's works include The Gallery of Rockport at www.thegalleryofrockport.com/jayneduryea.html, and Glass Art of Texas at www.glassarttexas.com/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=26.

In addition to her personal art career, Duryea engages in teaching art, one of her great loves. She is the founder and director of the glassblowing program at Coastal Bend College in Beeville.

"They started building the facilities in 1989. The first classes were held in 1990."

Duryea said only 10 students are allowed in her glassblowing class for safety reasons. Each of the two furnaces is 250 pounds. They can be used for cobalt and clear glass.

"We use recycled glass from the community, but it must be clear, uncolored glass clean of labels. We would appreciate more if the community would like to donate. We save from $2,000 to $3,000 a semester in glass costs by recycling," she said.

"And we blow 300 to 500 pounds of glass a week."

Duryea said the University of Texas-Arlington has become the second academic institution in Texas to offer glass art classes. UTA's upper-level courses allow students to continue in glassblowing and earn a degree.

Former students of the glassblowing program at Coastal Bend College include Gina Garcia Glass in San Antonio, Michael McDougal studio in San Antonio, and Glenn Krum and his wife Ann, who are setting up a glass facility in Rockport.

"They are glassblowing and fusing mosaics," Duryea said.

Current glassblowing student Larry Harrison of Nixon said he was pleased with his progress in blowing glass. Harrison was in the process of making a twisted look for a glass-like bowl.

"I love the course," he said.

Helping Harrison was Deborah Beseda of George West.

"I wear these dark glasses because of the heat and brightness of the furnace," she said.

Both students were obviously captivated by the glassblowing process and spent little time conversing.

But then glass is magical that way. Duryea said it is representative of what the great glassblower Alfredo Barbini said:

"You do not force glass, you follow glass."

Tim Delaney is the Advocate Web editor. Contact him at 361-580-6313 or tdelaney@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.