Lincoln City, OR

Lincoln City, OR

Sunday, 30. June 2013

We are getting closer to the Mecca of glass and the glass studios are coming thick and fast!

The ride north up the coast is frequently interrupted. Our first very interesting stop was back in Berkley near San Francisco at glass artist Marvin Libovski’s. He has been in the business for quite a while and knows nearly everyone. Thanks to him we have got some more contacts in Japan, China, Taiwan and Russia; these are all places where he has worked as ‘artist in residence’. We drove on and were stopping nearly every 20km to take a peek and say hello at various studios. Some work in pairs, others in teams of up to five people and produce glass pieces for, or with tourists. Here along the coast, tourism is a big thing and some glass makers have really crazy stories to tell. Leslie Moody for instance, told us how she taught herself how to make glass approximately 40 years ago and her mother-in-law asked her to turn her ashes into glass. Leslie’s husband experimented for a long time until he found the right chemical formula for the ashes which then came out of the furnace as glass with a milky-opal colouring. They had a very small window in which they could work the glass, before a further chemical reaction would turn it into something unworkable. In the end they made it; it had taken six hours to use up all the glass in the furnace and they had produced some really nice drinking glasses.

The further north we go, the more it has rained, so we are glad to have the car. A 20 year old cyclist by the name of Locke, got stuck in the rain and was holding out his thumb to every car that passed. Louise thought we should ask him what he wants, but it was actually pretty clear that we would give him a lift. We put his bike on top of our bed and three of us squashed into the front. In the evening, he returned the favour by cooking up a tasty curry, and as his tent wasn’t waterproof he spent the night with us in the back of the truck; which was a tight squeeze but quite funny. Louise had made a mess with the curry and was planning to boil her clothes to remove the stains. Locke and I advised her to dye the trousers instead, so she used the rest of the turmeric powder and with glee boiled her trousers in a curry yellow broth. Although the trousers now smell of Indian curry, they have a really great colour, which can be recommended! Meanwhile after I filled our canister with water somewhere in the bushes, I came out with a nasty rash on my ankle. We reckon it was poison ivy, which is quite common round here and is easy to come into contact with.

We then drove on further to Portland, but just before, we found a studio in the evening in Lincoln City, where two people work right by the highway. We took a look and found a really nice community there, to which we wanted to return the following weekend.

Our first stop in Portland was Elements Glass. Being a giant studio with a showroom, it was one of the biggest and most impressive studios we have seen so far. The owners Ian Gilula and Aaron Frankel sub-let working spaces, and fulfil their orders during the day and run courses in the evenings. They produce beautiful coloured vessels, large chandeliers or sculptures, actually almost everything. Another glass studio in Portland that we visited was that of Lynn Read who immediately showed us all of his tricks. Louise instantly noticed the measuring tape glued to the bench and we thought it was also a great idea that he stands his glass pieces on thin graphite mats in the cooling chamber, so that they don’t get scratched on the bottom. Michael Ruh in London gave us the tip to go and see him. Another one of Lynn’s special tricks are his murrinis which he makes from pieces of Bullseye glass fused together. He then uses them in his pieces and everything is compatible as long as he gets the cooling temperature right. We also visited the company Bullseye in Portland. They sell their sheet glass in all sorts of colours all around the world. 

From Portland we drove back to Lincoln City by the sea. Every Friday evening in Jennifer Sears Art Glass Studio they have some kind of demonstration, where every member of staff can make their own pieces and anyone interested is very welcome to watch. We were invited to make something. We were happy to take up the offer and so we once again found ourselves in a completely unknown studio where we worked together using our favourite technique, Incalmo. It all went really well and the bowl turned out just the way we had imagined it.