Pilchuck Glass School

These two fellows are in the middle of controlled chaos in the hot shop of the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. Arvin and I went there today with a group from Whatcom Community College. My teacher Trish Harding and another artist, Deb McCunn, were leaders of the group. This school was founded by Dale Chihuly in 1971. Today it is thriving as the premier glass school in the United States. And we are lucky that it is only an hour away from where we live. They open for tours only one weekend a year so we were delighted to be able to take this tour from the college. We walked all over campus but my favorite spot was the hot shop where the glass blowing goes on. One of the major contributions of this school is developing glass art as a team endeavor. So the hot shop was full of small groups doing a ballet with very hot blobs of molten glass and shared resources. I was delighted to get a photo of these two as one turned the pipe and the other blew the glass. Take a look at the large version.