to market, to market

After glassblowing and looking at glass art and having a bite in downtown Tacoma, Julia and I headed to Federal Way to meet up with Julia's sister, Laurel, and Laurel's boyfriend, Roland. Roland's house is up on a hill with awesome, unobstructed views of Puget Sound. If I lived there, I would probably just sit on the couch and look out the windows all the time. I didn't really get a chance to really take in the views, though, but I did get to take a couple of shots.

We followed them to Seattle, where they had made late lunch reservations for us at Wild Ginger. (I'm actually eating there later this week with APALA folks, but I didn't think it was worth it to change lunch plans at the last minute. Anyway, I figured it was a good way to try more of the menu.)

For appetizers, I had the short rib, while the other three had different kinds of satays. Below is my dish and Roland's boar satay. I enjoyed my dish, as well as the tastes I had of the satays.

For our main entrees, we had a full order of fragrant duck and a small order of seven flavor beef. Roland had seafood soup. The duck was alright--I've had better, though I do enjoy the dough. I only had a bite of the beef, but it was good. I didn't taste the soup, but Roland seemed to enjoy it.

Since this was already my third meal of the day (I had cinnamon cake before glassblowing and a weird combo of clam chowder and waffles after the museum), I was too full to get dessert. (And, I was thinking that there might be other food choices later on that afternoon.) The other three had coconut gelato. (If I really want, I could always try this when I come back.)

We then headed to Pike Place Market. As it was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, it was crowded. I've been there before, but there are always new things to see. Plus, I figured I'll take a couple of pictures.

We passed by the first Starbucks store and saw this street performer doing hula hoops and balancing his guitar.

After pretty much going around the shops both in the market and across the street, I finally suggested that we go to Le Pichet. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've been looking for thick hot chocolate like I had at Naked Chocolate Cafe in Philly. I happened to remember to do a search while I was planning my itinerary for this trip, and I read about Le Pichet's and Cafe Presse's chocolat chaud. It seemed to fit what I was looking for so I put it on my potential to-do list.

When I found out we were going to Pike's Place, I knew we had to stop by at Le Pichet. So we did. Here's my chocolat chaud--a decadent cup of ultra-thick dark chocolate. I have to admit it was just a tad bit bitter for me, so I actually had to use some of that whipped cream. I was glad I skipped dessert at lunch so I could have this gooey goodness.

On this note, we called it a day and headed home. We got home relatively early but we were so stuffed that we didn't have dinner anymore. It was a good day.

glass art

After the glassblowing experience, we headed to downtown Tacoma to the Museum of Glass with its distinctive stainless steel cone.

With Tacoma being the hometown of Dale Chihuly and the location for several glassblowing studios, I expected great things from this museum. Sad to say, it was a let down.

There are two things to do in the museum: go to the galleries or go to the Hot Shop to watch the glassblowers. As I had just experienced glassblowing, I wasn't too interested in that, so we went to the galleries. There was White Light, an exhibition of opaque glass sculptures by Daniel Clayman (shouldn't he be working with clay instead of glass? lol). There was also Chihuly's Laguna Murano Chandelier, Dante Marioni's Form, Color, Pattern, and Contrasts: A Glass Primer.

While there were some fantastic work on display, I expected to see much more. We probably went through the exhibits in 10 minutes! (This reminded me of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, where I expected to see many O'Keefe paintings, but there actually weren't that many.) Having paid $10 and $8 (for students--college students are actually free on Sundays), we didn't feel like we got our money's worth. So, we headed over to the Hot Shop, which is housed in the conical part of the building. This is the view of the cone from one of the audience seats below.

At the Hot Shop, glassblowers do work and someone explains what's going on and answers questions. There were a number of glassblowers there. Here are some shots of them working. However, as I said, having just done it, I didn't have the same fascination with watching as other people did.

Afterwards, we went to the gift shop. I almost feel as if the gift shop had more glass than the galleries. They're all quite expensive, though, which made me feel better about how much I paid for the glassblowing experience--that price alone is worth the finished product.

Outside on the plaza, took this picture of the bridge and the Tacoma Dome.

After ascending the "grand staircase," took this shot of the cone, an old industrial building, and the bridge.

We then headed to the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. On the way to the museum, we had seen it from the ground.

When we got up there, it was fantastic. There were numerous pieces, all by Chihuly, and everyone can see it for free.

The bridge has three aspects to it. First is the Venetian Wall, an 80-foot installation with over 100 sculptures. I took pictures of sections of the wall.

The second part of the bridge are the two Crystal Towers. Julia says that, from the freeway, it looks like someone put together a bunch of bluish plastic bags, and I agree with her. Even on the bridge but from a distance, it still looks like that.

It looks better up close. Here's a shot closer shot.

The third part is the Seaform Pavilion, a ceiling with over 2,000 pieces that is meant to give the feeling of being underwater. This was my favorite part of the bridge. It was really awe-inspiring. It was really too bad that it was a gray day so we didn't quite get the full effect of sunlight poring through the various shapes and colors.

I didn't take pictures of all the sections, but here are some shots.

Here's a view of the glass museum and part of the bridge of glass from the other side of the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge is the Washington State History Museum and Union Station, which now houses the U.S. District Courthouse. We didn't have time to go to the museum, but I wanted to go to the museum, especially since I could see from across the street that it had some glass art. It was closed, though, but we peeked in the doors and could see it had a Chihuly chandelier and a number of glass plates against the half-dome glass window.

Overall, we got our fill of glass art. Though there wasn't much to see in the glass museum, the bridge definitely made up for it.

blowing glass

When I knew that I was going to be staying around Tacoma and I found out that Tacoma was glassblowing central, I knew that I wanted to get in on the action. I love blown glass and, when I saw that I could actually take classes, I immediately added it to my must-do list.

Tacoma Glassblowing Studio offers the glassblowing experience, which is a 30-minute, one-on-one session with a glassblower for $65, and I signed up to do it first thing on my first day here. (I was sorely tempted to do the 4-hour session, but the $300 price tag was just too steep, especially since I have a lot of other things planned for this trip.)

On this brisk and windy morning, I showed up at the studio at 9am. My first task was to choose a shape--a paperweight, a float, a votive, a bowl, and a wall plate (I can't remember what the other choice was). Right off, I couldn't decide which I wanted to do. I was drawn to the paperweight and the float, but then I thought maybe I wanted something more utilitarian as well as pretty. When the person who worked there said the paperweight doesn't really include blowing (though you learn other techniques), I decided not to do that. I also decided not to do the float/ornament because it seemed too fragile. So I went for a small votive.

Then I had to pick a pattern. There were spirals, swirls, a flowery looking one, and another one I can't remember. Though I was thrown off by the appearance and color of the sample, I went ahead and choose the swirl design.

I then had to pick colors. I can tell you that this was just too much deciding so early in the morning, especially for someone like me who takes forever to make decisions. I decided to go with an oceany theme. So I picked deep blue with a slight hint of purple, two shades of what I thought were sea green, and white. I hope that that was a good combination.

With my goggles and gloves in hand, I went to the shop, where I was introduced to Brian, my instructor. Brian told me that he was actually going to do most of the work, and I would just be assisting. I was a little bummed about that, but you know, you have to take what you can get.

So first, he explained some things to me and showed me some of the equipment and materials. Then he picked a metal pole and gathers a blob of molten glass from the furnace (which is about 2400°F). Then, we moved over to the "glory hole"--the furnace to the left of David in the picture below. This furnace is 2000°F and is where the glass is reheated between steps.

He showed me how to slowly roll the pole back and forth to shape the glass a little and to make it workable. I then did some of the rolling, though I can see the glass dropping. But David then took it back and rolled it a little bit more and made sure it didn't turn out a mess. (lol)

Then we rolled the glass in the color--first one way, then back, then flat on top. We put it back in the glory hole to reheat, then rolled it some more in the color and reheated it again. Then, David rolled the glass onto this steel surface to shape the glass.



When the pole got a little too hot, then he cooled it off in this water apparatus thing.

After another reheating, we then shaped it with a block, a ladle-like wooden tool that helps to shape and round out the glass. At this point, or maybe it was the step before, we created the swirls. Basically, you pinch a bit of glass with the tweezers and twist it around and around then take off the tweezers. We were supposed to do 3 swirls, but we did 4 or 5.

David then gathered another layer of molten glass. This makes the piece bigger and, I would think, gives it more depth.

He blew a short puff of air then covered the hole. I can't remember what that was supposed to do. Then he added this tube extension thing with a blowhole. And while he rolled the pole on the rail, he asked me to blow softly for a while then stop. Then he had me blow harder then stop. Then he asked me to blow as hard as I can until we heard the glass popped. That's what created the bubble in the piece.

He tooke the tweezers to create and widen the opening before reheating the piece yet again. Then he shaped it some more.

The shape I had initially asked for was a votive that was more straight-edged, but while he was shaping it, I actually really liked it more rounded. So while he was still opening up the mouth, I asked him to stop while the edge was still a little bit inwards.

Once we had the right shape and size, then we had to split the piece from the pole. He tapped a couple of times at the seam. That, I think cracks the glass. Then he went back to the steel table, puts the piece on a piece of towel, taps the pole, and--voila--the piece came off. To finish it off, he gathers a small piece of molten glass and smashes it flat to make the bottom. He stamps the studio's stamp, and I stamped a "J" on it.

The picture below is what my piece looked like before the bottom was added. You can see the swirls already, but this is isn't the real color yet. While we were working, the glass was mostly orange. It only got some color was it was cooler.

The process isn't over yet though. We put the piece in a 3rd furnace, which at 900°F will cool off the piece. Then it will cool all the way down overnight. My piece should be ready to pick up after noon tomorrow. I'll post a picture once I see it. I'm excited!

Addendum (3/8/2008): Well, I picked up my piece today. It was a bit of a letdown. I was going for an ocean theme, and it turned out greener than I wanted. Then I had added white on top as a final color, but that actually turned out to be the predominant color of the piece. I think that tells me that the top part gets stretched out more So, if I do this again, I should put broader strips of the colors that I really like.

I think I liked the piece better when it came out of the furnace. That's partly because it's upside down, and all the colors I like are at the bottom. For all it's worth, here are pics of my finished piece.