<< Flight To Tacoma

05/15/09 - Museum of Glass In Tacoma

We didn't have much time in Tacoma, but we did manage to get to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma's waterfront Museum District. Tacoma, like Seattle, is a big glass town, and a lot of the local art involves working, molding and forming glass in a variety of different styles and forms.

Our favorite part of the museum was The Hot Shop where one can watch artists at work with fiery ovens, flaming jets of gas and a variety of tools for pulling, pressing, roughing and otherwise shaping raw glass forms into finished work. We also explored the galleries, one of which offered a sense of the variety of glass, its strengths and uses as a medium. Needless to say, glass is a pretty versatile material.

Overhead on the bridge to the museum

Two glass sculptures on the bridge

Long galleries on the bridge

The Hot Shop, inside the metal cone

Glass and flame

More glass and flame, glass work is slow, but intense

The metal cone of the Hot Shop and a glass fountain

Another sculpture

The waterfront with its marina

Keywords: tacoma