Glassblowing Demonstration at Chihuly Garden and Museum

May 5, 2017

One of the interesting things at the Chihuly Museum was a glass blowing demonstration in the garden. The glassblowing ovens were built into an Airstream trailer which can be hauled to other locations.

Two men worked as a team to make a bowl. Here are the materials they are starting with .  

The rod is heated until it can stick to the glass and then the rod/glass are put back into the furnace, constantly spinning it at the same rate gravity pulls it down.

Then they added some color and reheated it

What it looks like while rolling the shape.

Then they heat and blow a small bubble into the glass.

Which blows it up into a sphere. Then back it goes to the furnace where it expands further.

The glass is worked further.

Until finally they attach second rod to what will become the bottom of the bowl.

And removed the first rod from what will become the open top of the bowl.

Then the glass has to be smoothed where the break occurred and the end is worked with several different tools.

To keep that spot hot,  and help smooth the glass, they used a blowtorch.




Ii has to be heated several times during this process

The second guy started another bit of glass in a different color for edged of the bowl while the first guy heated and worked the bowl.





This is how the molten glass looked after he rolled it in the color.

I  didn't get a picture of how they added the color but I think it happened just before they opened the glass to form the rim of the bowl.

The second guy opened the neck by inserting the tool while the first guy helped hold it steady even while constantly rolling the bowl with his other hand. See the purple rim?






They both worked the bowl to open it and keep the edges level.

A closeup

Polishing the bowl.

More work on the rim.

Finally they make a check on the bowl and show it to us.

Then worked on it some more.  Here the second guy is using the paddle to keep the heat from the glass off the arm of the first guy.

They are starting to take the bowl off the rod.

Making a final check.

A little more work on the rim area.

Cutting the bowl off the rod.

And setting it on a paddle just before the rod was fully taken off.

All done.

Except for a last smoothing where the rod was.

Then it was rushed to a kiln to cool.  If it cools too fast, it will break. I think it has to stay here over night.

This all happened in fifteen to twenty minutes.


On a personal note, we are having winter weather here. I managed to get in the second bluebird survey yesterday in very high winds and cool temperatures. Soon after I got back, we got intermittent rain which turned to snow over night. We are going to have intermittent snow showers through tomorrow morning.  It's definitely long John time.

Oh That Chihuly Garden!

May 5, 2017

My friend Teri, offered me a lot of things to do but I also researched the top attractions in Seattle.  I found that Dale Chihuly, whose work I've admired in several botanical gardens, was from Seattle and had a whole museum of his work. Teri warned me that the price was steep, but I still wanted to go.  I suggested I just go by myself since I believed that she had had to drag along with multiple guests. But she told me she had NEVER been and wanted to go also.

The Space Center

The museum is right by the space center and you can buy a comprehensive ticket to visit both, but I found you usually have to wait around 1.5 hours to get to the viewing platform, which is still pretty low on the space center, so we  decided to just visit the Chihuly Museum.

Just across from the entrance to the museum are these huge metal flowers.  Teri made me visit them. When you walk near one, a chord plays. Then you have to run to another flower  to get another note. If you run fast enough, or have a helper, or two, you can play a little tune.  It was fun trying to play them, and made for good aerobic exercise.

The flowers are taller than the surrounding buildings

The museum had several free talks scheduled.  We rushed to get to the talk on the garden and had to race through most of the museum, which consists of several rooms,  to get there.  And it was breathtaking. Dale Chihuly worked with a landscape architect to blend his work in with plants.  He used blooms and leaf color to enhance his work. He personally picked the black liriope grass that grows over the mound that makes up the focal point of the garden - behind our lecturer.  You may want to click on a picture and then see all the pictures full screen.

The focal point of the garden and our lecturer - who was very interesting

Our lecturer told us about how the garden came to be and also told us that Dale was really excited to find a robin nesting in that yellow and orange sculpture behind her. While she was talking the robin flew in and posed for me.

The robin whose home is in this sculpture bringing food to its babies

After the short talk, we explored the rest of the garden. 

A view of the central bed

A closer look at one of the balls

The solid looking ornaments are blown glass that then gets a coating on the inside of them, like glass Christmas ornaments

This was Teri's favorite piece

Detail of the red sculpture

These almost looked like the trunks of trees

This was my favorite garden

This sculpture was so tall, you could see if from the sidewalk behind the hedge

This garden was only black and white

A closer look at two of the pieces

These sculptures  seemed to have the movement of grass in the garden

A view across the garden from the museum

These "lilies" were tucked in a tiny bed by the door and it took three passes to notice them

The garden was a photographer's dream

Dale Chihuly loves glass houses and has one adjacent to the garden.  It was being set up for some dinner before we left. There is one glass installation suspended from the ceiling.

The glass house and view to Seattle's skyline

Transformed into a dining room

Then we watched a glass blowing demonstration, visited the rest of the museum, and were blow away by the Collection Cafeteria - but those are stories for other days.

And Teri later told me she told a lady she had been here and the lady told her that she had visited when an inch of snow was on all this and it was magnificant. The docent told us the garden is replanted to have blooms all year round, so if you live close enough, be sure to visit it in each season. Teri plans to do that.

Postscript.  I just found a map and list of the garden plants, if you are interested.

What's happening with me.....

Since I'm the first volunteer in, to Red Rock Lakes NWR,  I get to get to prepare the lodgings for the rest of the volunteers. (Which reminds me - shouldn't I also get to count volunteer hours for the first cleaning of my trailer?) This week, I've done the first bluebird survey - we gather data on the nests of mountain bluebirds and tree swallows - and done inventory and cleaning of trailers. I still have more cleaning and then vehicle washing and detailing to get done.  My bee traps should arrive early this week and I'll start running surveys at three or four sites. That is always one of my favorite jobs, since most refuges don't know the kinds and numbers of native bees they have.  I'll soon have to give up the bluebird survey but I'll be helping other volunteers with fencing and spraying invasive plants.


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.