Pilchuck Glass School

A couple weeks ago, one of my PEO sister's had an opportunity for a group of us to go up to see the Pilchuck Glass School. Lon and I jumped at the chance. Today was the day we were all scheduled to go. It was a glorious day! About 72 degrees, high scattered and broken clouds. Wonderful. Pilchuck is about an hour or so north of Seattle. Out in the boonies. It is surrounded by trees.

This is a large piece of beautiful glass, just outside under a tree. Wow.

This is a blurb from the pilchuck web site.

"Founded in 1971 by glass artist Dale Chihuly and patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg, Pilchuck Glass School has been a primary force in the evolution of glass as a means of artistic expression. By creating an environment with a singular focus on glass, access to resources, and an ever-expanding international community of artists, Pilchuck has become the largest, most comprehensive educational center in the world for artists working in glass."

This is the view from the dining hall. Fidalgo Island and Skagit Bay. How incredible. To be able to study your art, to work with world renowned artists who are there to make you look good! What a great place.

Every year around October they have an auction to raise money for the school. The dinner auction this year is on October 13, at the Westin (perhaps my mother would like to go for her birthday) Just a thought Mom. They have centerpieces they auction off. Since the tour guide told us we could take photos, I did. These are this years centerpieces. They are still working on making enough. This photo is not touched up, nor did I do anything other than click the photo. No special optics on the camera. These objects d'art are incredible. Three layers of glass, a color on the inside, a white layer and the outer color. Then they are sandblasted, and then coated with a special material that will not show any finger prints. As if I would really ever want to handle one of these pieces if I did not have to! Lon was tucked into the baby bjorn and I was standing pretty far away from the tables. No way was I going to let Lon create an accident!

These are more tables with more of the centerpieces. They have all sorts of lovely colors.

I am going to put up a ton of photos of what we saw, it was just all so fascinating.

These are pieces before and during the sandblasting process.

They were working in the *hot shop* making more center pieces. We got to watch one being blown from start to finish. HOW COOL IS THAT!?!

Yep, it is a girl who is working the glass. She has the best looking arms I have seen in a really long time.

They are putting the bottom on to the center piece. The next picture is going to be them opening the centerpiece and then breaking off the pontil.

These a little glass whimsies lined up on the outer shelves of the hot shop. I thought they were adorable. What a fun idea.

This is another piece of gorgeous glass just sitting outside.

This is the Hot Shop, the building on the left, with all the openings to let out all the intense heat. The other buildings are more workshops. The setting is so pretty.

We also were treated to lunch there. I did not want to feed Lon baby chow, one, he takes forever to eat baby chow and it is really messy. They had cold cuts out, so he had turkey, and cheddar cheese, he also had some feta (loved it), he ate some hummus, which he thought was good the first couple finger fulls, but then he was not too pleased with it. But he tried it. It might be too close of a consistency to his baby chow. For breakfast now, he flat refuses his baby chow, and will only eat a 1/4 of a waffle and yogurt. (no, not eggos, but waffles Mommy makes and puts in the freezer so they will keep till we need them)

I am really glad we got to do this tour. Thank you, Virginia! It was a wonderful day outside. Lon did not get any sunburn, my shoulders are a bit pink, and warm. It has been a long time since I had any sunburn. What a great time. I am so happy we went. Lon got to see some things I am sure he will not remember. This is what his Great-Great Grandfather did for a living. He blew glass. Edward Yetka blew all the glass windows in his house. My dad told me when he was a kid it amazed him that a person could blow a window, so he went around and measured the thickness of the glass, there was no more than a quarter inch difference in any of the windows anywhere. Edward had one son follow him into glass blowing, his name was Joe. He moved to Kansas. I found out a bit about Joe, when I just googled the Yetka name. Joe is listed as a master glass blower in the now defunct Fredonia Glass Works. How cool.