Thursday January 23 - Museum of Glass and Almond Roca

Today was such an interesting day and the weather is definitely on the up. It was cloudy at first and then the sun burned off most of the clouds although it took until mid afternoon before Mt Rainier appeared and what a sight it is!

We headed to Tacoma but stopped in Gig Harbour on the way, it is very pretty and reminds me very much of similar villages in Cornwall although on a slightly bigger scale. We then headed to Tacoma and the Museum of Glass but had to stop at the Almond Roca factory to see what specials were on today!! Needless to say, we managed to find a good deal!!

We then headed to the Museum of Glass and what an incredible experience it was, right from the glass sculpture outside to the world's largest Hot Shop where we saw glass being worked. 

At present there is an exhibition called "Links" and is about links that have been made between mainly local glass workers/artists and similar people in Australia, many from South Australia. 

The Waterford glass company has been a leader in providing facilities for many of the artists to share their ideas and work. I even found one artist who was born in a small village about 10 miles from where I was born in England!! As well as running workshops together, these artists have collaborated on pieces of work together!

We then passed through an area with work from Irish artists, many of them as the result of collaboration. There were many spear heads and swords among other items. 

We then spent over in hour in the Hot Shop, which is set up like a theatre with seats up high, watching while the three workers produced a glass goblet. It was a fascinating process and the "bowl" part was made first followed by the stem and the foot. 


Glass is used as glue to put the pieces together and while the stem is being produced, the bowl part is kept in a "Garage" at a high temperature so it will be easy to mold the final goblet. (These goblets were on sale in the shop for $175!!) Colour can be introduced into the glass in a number of ways. The glass they use is specially produced so it has no impurities. It is interesting to see how fluid the glass is when it is heated and it requires a good eye to actually make sure the goblet is aligned correctly. on our way out we walked through the shop and the pieces of work are very expensive!!

Most work produced by the artists is as the result of collaboration, sometimes in teams of as many as six people. More often than not, the design is drawn up on paper first!

By the time we left, Mt Rainier had appeared from behind the cloud and it looked quite magnificent. Jim drove us some way until we managed to get a really good view for some photographs.

We also managed to get some more photos as the sun was setting when we stopped for a meal. Unfortunately, there were some telegraph poles in the way and we did not have time to chop them down!!!

Another great day exploring the area, thanks to Jim and Cheryl.