Chad Parker works on a statue. A giant marble made by 36 different artists is on the right. The smaller marble is signed by all the artists who helped make the larger one.

HILLIARDS — A world record was more than likely set in Hilliards last month.

Those that claim so aren't just blowing smoke. They're blowing glass.

A collaborative marble, made up of the works of 36 glass artists, was created during the 17th annual Art Glass Invitational Aug. 7 through 12 at the Glass Blowing Center, 114 Leonard Road.

The AGI is an annual event staged to promote education and camaraderie within the glassworking community, said its owner Tom Doner.

“I started this invitational to break the 'glass curtain,'” said Doner.

“It's to show this is not Murano, Italy, where you couldn't share secrets,” Doner said, mentioning the island in Venice where master glassmakers used to be confined lest they let their secrets be known.

A wide variety of hands-on demonstrations, slide shows and lectures took place every day, he said.

Doner said the center has more than 60 flame working stations for guests to use for practicing techniques they have learned during the event and to work with others.

One of those in attendance was Chad Parker of Fawn Township, Allegheny County, who stopped by the Glass Blowing Center eight years ago on the way to his family's camp and fell in love with the art.

So much so, he now has his own studio, Monsterz, named after his glass faces.

Parker said, “I call them monsters with a z.

“I was making smiley face characters with a tongue on them and it just evolved from there,” he said.“I have a day job and was looking for a hobby,” Parker said. “The possibilities are endless. Every time I turn on the torch I learn something.”Of the glass invitational, Parker said, “I go every year. Since I've been blowing glass, I have been involved in it.”He added, “A lot of great people come in. It's a big glass party.”“In attendance I believe there was 65 artists, but only 36 joined in the world's biggest collaborative marble.“The collaborative marble was 3.6 inches in diameter. Everyone contributed their own separate piece and three people put it together, and that took the better part of the day — six to eight hours.”I do the faces in glass, so the face in the collaborative marble is mine,” Parker said.Doner said, “He had his first lesson here. He got absolutely hooked. Now he's world-renowned. I'm very proud of that. He's developed his own style.”“People order them from all over the world,” said Doner of Parker's work.But not the collaborative marble, said Parker.“It's going to be auctioned off for charity on Sept. 19 on a Facebook group called Black Market Marbles,” said Parker.Auction proceeds will go to the Sweetwater Center for the Arts in Sewickley.Parker said, “We try to keep it local. It's going to go to Sweetwater's children's arts program specifically.”Doner said he and his wife, Elaine, moved to Butler County from Long Island in 1998 because they attended a wedding in Butler and noticed “how nice the people were to each other here.”Doner gives demonstrations and works the glass while his wife runs the center's gift shop.

A giant marble made by 36 different artists is on the right. The smaller marble is signed by all the artists who helped make the larger one.