The Museum of Glass

Last weekend Cely and I took a drive up to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. It was a great day for day for a drive. The museum was smaller than we expected to see more glass. They had one great show Absence Adorned there by a glass artist named Karen La Monte. Her life sized glass dresses were really incredible. These pieces were worth the price of admission. The cone shown in the picture here forms the heat vent for the hot shop in the museum where the work gets done. We watched while the artisans worked on goblets for some new La Monte pieces; nothing as spectacular as her dresses. The museum was set up by the city of Tacoma and Dale Chihuly. The picture also show his Bridge of Glass which has a lot of his pieces in large shadow box wall designed so that the light can come through the pieces. As you walk across the bridge you also pass under a ceiling of glass pieces that look like sea shells. Here is another photo of the bridge that shows the passage with the sea shell ceiling and two other very large installations.