Greenbank, WA

Greenbank, WA

Tuesday, 09. July 2013

In the North West, we found the green landscape with mountains and the sea very impressive.

As we want to keep a trip to the glass-Mecca-city of Seattle as a special treat for later, we have been circling the area around it. That’s why we drove to Katrina Hude at Greenbank on Whitbey Island, via Tacoma and past Seattle to Pilchuck. In Tacoma there is a very nice glass museum which has its own amphitheatre for spectators, while in Pilchuck there is a glass summer school in the middle of the forest. We had met Katrina at the International Glass Symposium in the Czech Republic and had then agreed that we would visit her. Last weekend we made drinking glasses together made out of coloured rods, only using the heating drum as her furnace was having a break. That didn’t matter too much as she already had a whole table full of well-prepared rods. ‘Ready, get set, go!’ was our motto and it was once again fun to be making glass.

In Pilchuck we also bumped into old acquaintances, Anna Mlasowsky and Fred Tschida, who we had met in Corning, and they made our stay easy. Anna had organised everything and we could sleep over at Fred’s. Then we were joined by Jara Sara from the Czech Republic who we hadn’t expected to see there at all, and so we were a nice group in Pilchuck and we enjoyed an insider’s view of things.  The glass world really is small!

Next to the museum in Tacoma there is another glass studio which we visited. This is a place where tourists can try their hand at making glass and we were given a friendly welcome there. After a short tour around the former fish factory and a nice chat, we wanted to say our goodbyes and asked for the nearest supermarket as we were getting hungry. The lady who runs the studio simply said, but we have plenty to eat, opened the fridge door and served us a tasty dinner. Afterwards we found ourselves a nice spot in the forest to set up camp.