Karen LaMonte at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma

I received a lovely note from Scott Wilkinson's Mom, Shirley. Shirley is a docent at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and she gave us a tour when we visited recently. Shirley sent me a brochure and other information on Karen LaMonte. She obviously saw how enthralled I was with her work. I could have stood there all day and looked at this beautiful sculpture. AMAZING!!!

Thanks Shirley for the info. and all my best to you and Chuck.

I'm also very excited to hear that Dale Chihuly is coming to Cal Poly in November for a free lecture. Can't wait!!! I've already gotten four friends to join me.

Museum of Glass on CNN

Check out the Museum of Glass video featured on CNN

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/07/24/wg.tacoma.museums.cnn

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:

http://www.museumofglass.org/live-glassmaking/watch-the-hot-shop-live/

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!!!

Another Day in Paradise

Today is one packed day! Exercise class this morning will hold a celebration for my 'adopted' mother, Gladys. She'll be 92!!! I hear a cake hat is in order for the festivities.

I'm looking forward to a phone call from Ann McDermott of COPE - the Center for Obesity Prevention and Education at Cal Poly. We have the big Hands on Health Symposium coming up in October and a friend and I will be doing the Passport - that's the paper people will carry around the symposium to document their vital info. I did a preliminary layout a few months ago but now we're getting down to details.

Then, it's off to San Luis Obispo to get my oil changed and have the alignment checked on my car. After spending huge bucks yesterday on new tires, they say I need it checked. All of this in preparation for my big road trip to WASHINGTON!!! Call it my Bucket List or my Passion List, I have wanted to go to the Museum of Glass in Washington for quite a long time. Well, the time has come - my sister-in-law has a favorite aunt up there, so five of us are climbing into my car (yes, it'll be a tight squeeze) and heading north. I'm linking up with Scott Wilkinson's mom who's a docent at the museum. Check out the beautiful glass. http://www.museumofglass.org/ I'm taking my good camera so be on the lookout late next week for the photos.

I stopped by my local Michaels store to pick up some beads to make my sister-in-laws aunt a necklace. I stumbled across great travel items for my nephews - all kinds of games and things to do.

Meanwhile, I need to call the Freight Room aka train depot to see if it would work for our class reunion.

Upward, onward and on to who knows what...

Joan