Let it Snow!!!

Yesterday, it was 70 degrees where I live in California and I attended a party where my friends had five tons of snow made for us to frolic in on their front lawn. Such fun!!! Kids, adults, babies were all enjoying the unusualness of snow at the coast. The food was fantastic, I met new people and the funness of playing in the snow on a warm day was so fantastic! AND, I got to talk to my friend's sister-in-law who met Dale Chihuly and he not only signed her book, he drew a stylized heart in it too!!! She's going to show it to me soon! My friend is taking a class in all paint mediums and showed me her creations - one she's finishing up for her mom for Christmas of beautiful yellow roses - she mixed pastels and watercolor. So lovely. I told her she was going to bring her mom to tears...

I LOVE things made from wire so my goal is to find a wire tree at a great price after the holidays!!! Anyone find one, let me know.

Enjoy your day whether it's zero degrees or 70!!!

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!!!

My Trip to London

Day 4 - Who Knows!!!

I thought I could do this by days, but each wonderful day melted into another. So, here are some odds and ends photos from my trip.

Here's how fish and chips are served. I'm used to a basket with a tissue liner and several separate pieces of fish.

I'm planning a trip to the Museum of Glass in Washington this summer, so I was surprised to see this amazing Chihuly piece hanging in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London - stunning - in fact, that was my word for my trip - STUNNING!!!

I took some photos around the Henderson's home - eggs from the White House Easter Egg Roll - wow! I'm impressed.

Kathy loves roosters and anything patriotic - here's a patriotic origami bird.

Selfridges is celebrating it's 100th year and I just had to take a picture of the rubber duckies gracing one of their windows.