Saturday, September 24, 2011

THE Tacoma Museum of Glass.....ROCKS!

Awaiting yet another day for the stinky weather to both arrive and pass, we drove into Tacoma today, (94 miles from Westport) to see the Tacoma Museum of Glass.  I had heard of this museum from both Rahman and Oliver, whom I met on Lopez Island.  I was SO excited!

Tacoma's favorite-son-of-glass, Dale Chihuly is the best-known artist here.

We signed up for the fused-glass workshop and today was also Smithsonian Day, giving us free admission!  Woo-hoo!

 The architecturally PERFECT vent from the Hot Glass studio.

 
The Dock Street side of the building.

Jan is so excited...can you tell???
The reflecting pond outside the museum.

Glass mural at the entrance.

We got checked-into our workshop, then had some time to kill so we ventured into the "Hot Glass" amphitheater to watch the crew working on making a tribal mask.

The "Jane Russell Hot Shop."

 Inside looking up.

 Photo taken from the top row of the amphitheater, complete with huge screen.
You can walk all the way around, the rear wall has individual art pieces.

 Teamwork.

Photo shot from the other side of the amphitheater.

Some individual art pieces along the rear wall of the walkway...





The best-known, Dale Chihuly.


We walked into the main gallery, but were not allowed to photograph any of the pieces.  I was SO thrilled to see a piece from my hero, Lino Tagliapietra!  

Dale who???? Sorry Tacoma.


Lino's art will knock your socks off, check it out!

At 1pm we went to the studio for our glass-fusing workshop!

 Outside the studio.

Here's the flyer, and...

...finished pieces previously done.

Lots of different colors of "frit," crushed colored glass in different sizes from really fine (almost dust) to small chunks. 

Oh my...Jan getting overwhelmed!

Both our pieces will be fired tonight, and will be mailed to our Hawaii address (thanks Loke!) tomorrow, so the photos show the pieces before firing.

 My piece "Sailing on a Rising Sea"

Paul the Glasscutter with his safety glasses on.
He says "I want make mosaic, like break glass."
Grunt.

Paul's piece, the "Salmon that Got Away"
Very cool!


The "annealing kiln" that will bake our pieces and then slowly cool it down.

I HAD to buy a t-shirt in the museum store, where I also saw items from both Rahman and Oliver.
OMG, my tag is hanging out!

After our workshop, we walked outside to see the
"Chihuly Bridge of Glass."

Paul walking towards the wall with individual pieces, shown below.

Just beautiful, this was the entire wall along the bridge.

One of my favorites.

Dale Chihuly.
Paul calls it "Icecubes in the Sky."

Dale Chihuly

Now we await the delivery of our art pieces...

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