Corning Museum of Glass

My mother has been visiting this week and I've been busy concocting new, original things for us to do while she's here. Anyone who's lived in upstate New York has likely seen the Corning Museum of Glass advertisements, which encourage you to participate in their hands-on glass workshops. Because I'm a big geek, I've always thought they looked like fun but never seriously considered signing up for one until last week. I though they're probably not as fun as they look and suspected that anything I tried to make would end up resembling a glass blob rather than a glass flower or ornament. But with my mother visiting, I thought it might make a fun outing and give me a chance to compare reality to the advertising hype. So, Aviva, my mother and I went to the museum and made glass flowers. Though it was over quickly (it took only about 30 minutes), we really enjoyed the whole process. The museum was also really amazing--full of wonderful works of glass from as long ago as the 6th and 7th century. We managed to catch a few minutes of our glass workshop on film so feel free to check it out here. Unfortunately, I've not managed to reduce the file size so it might take a while to open it!

We also watched a glass blowing workshop where two glass artists created a large, absolutely beautiful glass bowl. It took them about forty minutes to create it and we were amazed to see this large, yellowish blob of glass go through its various transformations. At the end of the show, they raffle off one of the items made in the shows but we weren't lucky enough to win.