After a chat with Mark and Jeannine Sigafoos at last week’s William Traver Gallery artists’ reception, I felt inspired.  I would, I decided, take Sigafoos up on his invitation and blow glass.

The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio offers “The Glassblowing Experience” where you work through making a float or a paperweight with an instructor.  My guy was new employee Brian Farmer, who cut his glassblowing teeth at Wilson High, through the Hilltop Artists in Residence program.  Farmer also makes a darned impressive rose, a mesmerizing process to watch.

My own clumsy process was watched by a minor entourage, with Volcano intern extraordinaire Jessie Fouts shooting me as I fumbled through the making of my lavender, blue, and yellow float.  I have yet to see the finished product, as it needed to cool down in the 900 degree kiln after its creation in mostly 2000 degree kilns.

And did I mention, glassblowing is hot?  Not only the heat of the kilns â€" which are indeed warm â€" but there’s a decent amount of innuendo happening in the studio, with reference to “glory holes” and very phallic looking rods and wands at every turn.  And yeah, the rods do go into the glory holes.

While it was very cool to be walked through a simple piece, to feel the taffy-like consistency of the molten glass as I gathered the colors I chose, for me the fun was watching the others in the studio.  One family â€" it looked like mom, dad, grown daughter, younger brother, and grown daughter’s kid â€" were all involved in the process as they made lampshades to sell, renting studio time from Tacoma Glassblowing. 

As more of my entourage showed up (Angie Jossy showed up with her daughter, Jesse: by that point there was a whole lot of Jess going on in the studio) the young punk-rock looking son was lured over to us by the youthful heat of my group.  He mentioned that he’s been blowing glass with his family since early days, and I remarked, “how fun.”  He shrugged it off and said it was mostly work.  Because he was young and cool like that.

But the work is mesmerizing and exciting to watch, especially when you watch people who know what they’re doing. 

Then again, it’s awfully sweet to blow the hookah-like pipe and feel your glass expand into a delicate work, aware that at any moment you can completely screw it up, and lose your piece.
But with the help of Brian, I never did lose my piece.  If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go claim it now. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler

Photography by Jessie Fouts