Tacoma Museum of Glass

We are staying at the Washington Unit’s Airstream Park in Lacey, WA.  They have a large facility here with lots of full hookup sites, in a parking lot style. We have met neighbors who are from Oklahoma. They will be hosting in one of the campgrounds in the Olympic National Park.

We decided to take in the Tacoma Museum of Glass today on the recommendations from Lou and Larry Woodruff. They stopped here on their trip to Alaska last year. They also stayed here at the Airstream Park.

If you look close you will see a glass bubble that one of the artist blew for demonstration. The glass was so thin it actually felt like plastic and was some what pliable.  The next picture shows the artist starting to create a vodka decanter. They have contracted to create 12 each month for a local distiller. Each month has a different color and insignia. They indicated that it usually takes at least 20 to get 12 good ones. The furnace on the left holds the molten glass. The bright one is called the glory hole. They use this to reheat the glass as the work it. The third picture is of a finished product. I believe this one has some flaws.

  

Here they are carrying a finished product while it is very hot. They place it in another furnace for around 14 hours to cool it in a controlled manner. The told us that if they were to leave it at room temperature it would explode. This happens because different parts of the glass would cool at different rates. The next picture is looking up from inside the Auditorium where you watch the action. It is a stainless steel cone. I don’t know the reason for this other than to direct the heat out. You can really feel the heat when they open one of the furnaces.

 

Could not resist taking this picture of a glass Airstream which was on display.

After the museum we went across the street where some of Dale Chihuly’s work was on display.

See our other pictures in the album Tacoma Museum of Glass.