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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Museum of Glass - Tacoma Washington


Museum of Glass - Tacoma, Washington

We met up with Shirley Wilkinson, my good friend Scott's mom, who was The Volunteer of the Year last year at the Museum of Glass!!! She gave us a tour and pointed out the 'must see' things. Thanks, Shirley, for giving us a fabulous tour!!! It's nice to finally meet Shirley after knowing Scott for many, many years. That's Shirley in the blue blouse.





Dale Chihuly's Bridge of Glass






Water Forest by Howard Ben Tres


More of Chihuly's work in a nearby building.




Museum of Glass - The Hot Shop


Stephen Day (upper corner) was the featured artist in The Hot Shop - the drawing on the floor was of the project they were working on. They're standing on a chalk picture of Sponge Bob Square Pants. Stephen occasionally added to the drawing as the Hot Shop Crew worked on the glass pieces.

Hot Shop from the Ground Up
The Hot Shop Amphitheater, housed in an imposing 90-foot-tall stainless steel cone, includes a hot glass studio, cold glass studio and accommodates over 200 visitors. The cone itself is 100 feet in diameter at its base. It narrows to a 15-foot opening.

Furnaces
Molten glass is kept in 2 large furnaces which run 24 hours a day. Each furnace holds approximately 1,000-pounds of glass and reach temperatures up to 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Glory Holes
As artists blow and shape hot glass objects, they must continually reheat them in one of four glory holes where temperatures range from 2,100-2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. The reheating process keeps the glass malleable.

Annealers
A total of five annealers, which are insulated boxes similar to electric kilns, are designed to cool glass slowly at a specified rate. Glass will crack and shatter if left to cool on its own at room temperature, so annealing ovens are very important pieces of equipment.

Cold Shop
The Cold Shop is adjacent to the Hot Shop. There, as part of the finishing process, cooled artwork is ground, polished and/or cut to add surface details and remove imperfections.


Here are my bro and nephew sitting above watching what goes on down below while the screen shows the up close and personal view of what's happening. Watch it live at:


The featured glass artist in the museum was Preston Singletary and his Echoes, Fire, and Shadows exhibit was very inspiring.

Shirley recommended The Harmon Brewery for lunch - the food and atmosphere were fantastic!!!

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