Day 16: Exploring Tacoma's Glass Museum, WA

During our day in Seattle yesterday, we learned from a glass-blowing vendor that the state of Washington is known for its glass-blowing schools and artists. Furthermore, the city of Tacoma just happens to be the home to several expert glass blowers, one of which is no big deal really: Dale Chihuly!! We’d been to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York when we were younger and we were excited to see another museum. We realized we had no choice but to check out downtown Tacoma’s Museum of Glass, which holds the exquisite work of famous glass blowers like Preston Singletary, Dale Chihuly (obviously) and guest artists from around the world. Singletary’s exhibit was the first one we went through and we were blown away (no pun intended) by his work. He is a Native American artist who draws much of his inspiration from his heritage. His pieces reflected many stories about ravens, orca whales and other spirit creatures that are a part of the Native American traditions.



Another section of the museum that we really enjoyed was “Kids Design Glass.” This display was filled with glass productions inspired by children’s creative illustrations. Every illustration chosen to “come alive” was crafted in the museum’s studio, in front of the young child artist and their family. Two identical pieces are created; one gets displayed in the exhibit, and the other was given to the child. Each piece was unbelievably colorful and had a picture of the original drawing and a description by the child. It was impossible to pick a favorite – some of our favorites were: “pickled bandits,” “coyotes with rainbow socks,” “banana on wheels” and a “pizza cat.” We thought it was such a cool idea. Just imagine how proud a child is to have their design picked and brought to life by glass artists.



As we came to the end of the exhibit, we entered a huge glass studio shaped like a cylindrical cone. There was theater seating, along with a catwalk that encircled the round room so that everyone could really get a 360-degree view. Several of the visiting/resident glass blowers were hard at work, scurrying to and from the giant molten glass furnaces with Kevlar gloves and masks. We were told that the furnaces are kept at 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit. Each artist had an assistant and it was amazing to watch how smoothly they worked together. Someone was always blowing or pulling or stretching the glowing yellow-white material, amazing us with the properties of molten glass. A man who worked for the museum spoke into a microphone to explain exactly what was going on at each of the artist’s stations. We sat, mesmerized, for over an hour as we watched and learned about the art of glass blowing. We’d love to take lessons now!









The museum also had a lot of neat outdoor displays, one of which is the famous Chihuly Bridge of Glass. It’s a 500-foot-long pedestrian bridge linking downtown Tacoma to the city's waterfront and has three different parts: the Seaform Pavilion, the Crystal Towers and the Venetian Wall. The shapes, curves, colors and reflections cast by the artwork were so beautiful.









We explored Gig Harbor later on in the afternoon; this quaint town was the perfect place to spend the rest of the day and enjoy the late afternoon sun. We came across a small cafe with a pottery studio in the back of the building. Here you could chose a ceramic plate, mug, or small statue and use any of the glazes or paints to decorate your piece. The room was full of creativity and dedicated young artists. We skipped out on the painting and found a table outside to sip our chi tea and plan our next day’s adventures on the San Juan Islands. For dinner, we found an outdoor grille right on the water and watched the boats come in and out of the bay. It was the first beautiful evening in a long time, and Mount Rainier was visible far off on the horizon.