The Modified Flux Capacitor, the Hot Shop and More Artistic Glass from Tacoma

A few days ago we drove up to Tacoma to see yet another glass museum.  

While we were walking to the museum we went past this older Volvo with an updated version of Michael J. Fox's "flux capacitor" attached to the roof.  You might recall this technological advancement that was used in the movie "Back to the Future."  It made my day.

At the Glass Museum in Tacoma (a neat city by the way) we were 
fortunate that the "hot shop" was featuring a renowned glass blowing artist by the name of Ben Sharp.  Never having been anywhere near molten glass and glass artists it was a real treat for me and Sandy to observe the process. 

While it was a little warm in the galley, I was able to move freely around the perimeter to take the following photos.

Ben uses a pair of metal calipers to define the indentation in the glass. On the metal table you can also see the basic tools used in the process of shaping glass. 

This large glass object just came out of the furnace and Ben's assistants keep it hot enough to shape with the application of additional heat from hand-held torches. 

Here the artisans are "welding" a hot piece of glass to the large cylinder.  The temperature of the glass at this point is well over 1000 degrees. 


And here are some of the works of blown glass art on display in the museum:

I purposely took a close up here to show the texture of the glass

Stay tuned for our next adventure. 


For new readers, here is a link to my older blog:

http://sangeo-travels.blogspot.com/