Due to traveling and also selling our old camper I did not work on my new miniature bookstore at all. Hope to have something to show next Friday............ but meanwhile......................
This past week we were fortunate enough to go to the
Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY. What an amazing display of Glass from over 4500 years
When you enter the museum you are first greeted by this beautiful sculpture. Each of the tendrils is a separate piece of blown glass.
Next you enter the modern glass exhibit, a section of incredible glass pieces donated to the museum by one man. He had collected for years. There were pictures of his New York (I think) apartment filled with the items before he donated them. I can't remember his name but you can probably learn it on the site. I am just showing a couple of pieces that were our favorites.
After we left that section of the museum we began to see older and also ancient glass. Some of the pieces were from as far back as 2500BC. I was stunned at the quality of the work considering they had no tools like we do today..
These are a few pieces that were old though I neglected to write down info on them. They are mosaics and pieces made by making canes of glass and cutting them into designs for the mosaics. Much like we do in Polymer clay today.
And those of us who love beads and occasionally do beadwork, here is a picture of a basket. The card said it was made by "amateurs." Would love to have seen what the professionals could do. Click on the picture to see a LOT more detail.
After we left the museum part we visited the Hot Glass blowing demonstration. Impressive is an understatement. The real surprise is that we won the door prize drawing.... it was a vase they made a few days earlier. At first glance it just looks like an ordinary vase but when you see it in person you can see evidence of the blown work and where it was "broken" off of the work stick or what ever they call it at the bottom.. We were so pleased to win it.
After all this was over we went down to what they call the glass market.... lots of stuff to buy. Some rather pricey I might add.
These were all hand blown pumpkins. But pricey at $50 to $80 a piece. Nice to look at though.
We did not spend much in the glass market, just some coke glasses to use in our camper. They were on the half price shelf......
After leaving the museum we had to go out into the rain. Fortunately there was a shuttle bus to take us to the parking lot. It will take a while to take in all that we saw that day. Well worth the visit if you are ever in the area!
