Finally pics from the Glass Museum!

I think it was worth the wait.
It is situated close to the water, and parking was around the corner which was okay. It was raining off and on most of the day so we were able to dodge the rain going in and coming out. There was a large patio area (I guess?) with a glass sculpture that would likely be even more dramatic at night.

 

 Multiple posts with various clear glass shapes that almost looked like one of those fountains with the bell shaped water being blown by the wind. There were lights in the water so I bet it was incredible at night.
The clouds moved in after we went inside, rained and then cleared off again like this when we came back out.
The picture on the left is a wall size stained glass in the more literal sense. The artist created it for the museum entry lobby. Each of the smaller square panels are at least 2' square so that gives you an idea of the size. Not stained glass in the mosaic style but in the true Renaissance style of painting on the glass sometimes with liquid glass. Truly amazing artwork.

This is a display hall with a huge glass chandelier, the small ladder like displays are bowls that were for a glass project and charity. They were all for sale, and I could have afforded one but honestly could not find one that just wanted to justify the cost. Not really expensive and it would go to something worthy, most of them kind of rustic looking.

Then came the displays of the glass sculptures from the Children's Glass Project. Children visiting the museum were given paper and coloring utensils (crayons and pencils) and told to draw whatever they wanted. The glass artists then chose a few dozen to turn into actual sculptures.

That was one of the simpler ones too! There were a few that were rather elaborate and the artists reproduced them in glass perfectly!

So as you can see from these few pictures they were quite wild! There was one little boy that was going through cancer treatments and lived somewhere back East I think, they actually sent him video of his sculpture being made and asked questions on exactly what he had in mind. I think it was this one:

Then there came the actual glass shop:

This is a panorama shot of where the actually work glass. It is kind of curved with seats on the right of where we were standing, and catwalks around the upper area. The kilns are along that wall and right of center the guy in the red shirt is actually working on some glasses. There is a charity ball that happens every year and they produce glassware, usually stemmed glasses for the occasion fitting the theme. They were going to make several dozen of them, gold stems with a gold rim on a martini style glass. They already had a dozen or so finished and some were in the open box way over on the far side. Really, really cool.
Then there's the gift shop.

 There were hand blown glass ornaments hanging in the window, all for sale and I SO wanted a lot of them. Surprisingly, they were very affordable, only $20! I really should have picked one out to bring home. I couldn't believe though that these ornaments hand made of blown glass by someone who had to go through some training was that cheap. Here I was trying to sell my beaded ornaments for double that! Oh and there were also small glass umbrella ornaments too.

 Some of the sculptures were amazing, but the one that caught my eye was glass knitting.

At first I was amazed at how it could be made, knowing how both glass and knitting is done.. but it turns out that she makes a wax mold of a knitted piece then pours the glass into it. Drat and here I thought she worked with actual glass thread.. haha.

There there was the jelllyfish in glass...

and other sea life.
Just so much beautiful glass art it was amazing. I was rather disappointed in a few things though, I saw some glass dishes that were made right there in Washington.. but they are mass produced because we sell the same exact things at the nursery, for the same price I was glad to see. Also some earrings that I could have made myself from Czech glass and seed beads.. for more than I think they were worth as far as skills needed. They didn't involve any artistic glass construction other than stringing beads onto a head pin with supplies that I have at home.
There was supposedly a glass bridge somewhere nearby but we only saw some balloon like structures on an overpass. It was clouding over again when we were leaving and decided it was better just to start heading south and get to Miki's place before it was too late.
The weather up there, despite the seemingly close distances, (it was about 20 minutes without traffic from Seattle to Steilacoom, with traffic which is horrendous around Tacoma added another ten or fifteen minutes) changed sometimes dramatically. It was cloudy and raining in Seattle but partly cloudy and warmer further south. Which is why I want to settle in that part of the state.
That's another rambling story though.
 Here's the link to the Museum of Glass website:
http://museumofglass.org/exhibitions/kids-design-glass