Tacoma Museum of Glass

The Hubster and I spent the Thanksgiving holiday visiting with our son and his fam. While there, our son and daughter-in-law treated us to a field trip to the Tacoma Museum of Glass.

What a fantastic opportunity! We learned so much!

The museum had so many incredible works of glass art on display and not one of us took any pictures of it! Oops! We were all just so mesmerized by all of the galleries, including the adorable children’s art pieces!

However, the Hubster and son did take photos while we were in the Hot Shop.

The Hot Shop is where the magic happens and it was such fun to observe! As you can tell from the photo, it is easy to see. There are bleachers to sit in (where the Hubster, myself and granddaughter were) and a platform to stand (where son and daughter-in-law were), as well as large screens, and a person with a mike who takes questions and tells you what you are looking at. You are free to move around.

Those large ovens are called glory holes and are 2100F degrees! The glass must be kept heated (called flashing) or it will crack.

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

The visiting artist was Jason Christian. Jason is a glass artist living in the Seattle area.

That hot blob of glass will become a very large yo-yo when he gets finished with it!

These two assistants are shaping a disk to add to the piece that Jason is working on. The torch, as well as the glory hole, help to keep the glass hot and prevent cracking.

Here you see the disc attached:

And here is Jason shaping the glass while an assistant helps to keep the heat off of him with the boards.

Another piece of glass is being attached. The announcer (the man in black with his back to you) shared that the glass is about 20 pounds. It seems heavier because it is like balancing it on a fishing pole. The ‘fishing pole’ is a steel rod and is called a punty.

After much shaping and flashing, Jason is opening up the glass into large disc shapes.

Glass blowing takes a lot of team work!

The glass is heated very, very well so that it can be broken from the pole without cracking!

This is a tense moment, let me tell you!

An assistant, wearing heat resistant gear (I saw him stick his gloved hands in a glory hole to preheat them) catches the glass as it is cut from the punty.

The glass goes into the annealing machine to be reheated to its glass transition temperature and then allowed to cool gradually.

Once cooled, it heads to the Cold Shop, where the shape and surface of the glass will be finished (a process we did not see).  

We did not get to see the finished project, but I strongly suggest visiting Jason Christian’s website to see his art. There are lots of yo-yos, as well as other art pieces to see…he has even created an amazing black dragon chandelier!

There is a gift shop at the museum.

You can also walk around outside to see glass art pieces. We walked on an overpass where there is an entire wall of beautiful glass art pieces!

Don’t forget to look up!

If you are ever in Tacoma, you just might want to put the Museum of Glass on your bucket list!

They even have a Hot Shop Livestream if you can’t be there in person!

See the world around you!