nature is the glass

The weekend road trips continue. There's nothing like planning a drive through the scenic Finger Lakes region, only to have it rain the whole weekend. (doesn't it always rain when I go away somewhere??)
For those not familiar,
they are called the Finger Lakes because they look like this

So it was a good thing the Corning Museum of Glass was such an amazingly wonderful distraction. I was almost glad of the rain so I didn't feel torn between getting outside and hiking acres of hills and staying inside and looking at acres of glass.

Okay, actually, the museum was the main focus of this trip with a little hiking at Seneca Lake to be the bonus. The museum turned out to be the bonus. It has to be the best themed museum in the world. The website says to plan about 2-3 hours for your tour. That is very misleading - you will need 2-3 days. Seriously. You would need 2-3 hours just to peruse the gift shop (even if you don't plan to buy anything).

The Museum

I think my jaw dropped as soon as I saw the building and getting inside, it dropped a little more.

The Studio

Usually, with any visit to a gallery or museum, after a couple of hours, I feel too overstimulated to take any more in. So, you might think a museum with just glass in it might get a little ... boring, or "look, more glass". Not at all. I started at around 2pm and stayed until 7:30 with an hour or so to check into the hotel. Then I went back the next day (your ticket is good for two days and teens and kids are free) and stayed from 9am until it closed at 8pm. Then, I went back for more on Monday (afterall, you don't have to pay to get into the giftshops or the cafes). If you do get a little tired of the glass, or just need a change, there is a free shuttle bus to the historic Market St in the town of Corning. It is an architourist's dream.

There are interactive displays, tours, demos, special collections, discussions, history, science and art. There are hands on classes you can take and make your own glass. The glassblowing demonstrations are full of wow factor and heat and interesting facts and a rather large bowl or vase or plate at the end of 15 minutes (and a raffle after the last one of the day. I didn't win either time). Every demonstration was different enough that I learned something new at each of the five or six demos I went to.

I didn't even bother trying to get pictures of the glass (okay, maybe I did try a couple of times) but it is notoriously difficult to photograph glass, espcially glass that sits on glass shelves inside glass cases with lots of bright lights shining on it. So I bought a book.


the works of one man, Frederick Carder

a table with a huge ship on it. for what purpose, I know not.

this mosaic has thousands of tiny pieces of glass
(this is only 1/3 of it)


I was thinking of this blog post, so took some photos during the glassblowing demonstration.

a small amount of this molten glass goes on this blowing rod. it is easier to blow the glass than a balloon (so they say)

you must always keep turning the rod, or gravity will deform the glass

into the fire, many times, in order to keep the temperature of the glass high so it can be shaped. the oven is about 2100 degrees. you could feel the heat from 15 rows away

an assistant gets another rod with molten glass and together they attach it to make a base. later another hot rod will be attached to this base and the glass will be cut awayfrom the first rod, then quickly back into the fire to reheat. it is spun around so that it expands and the top of the bowl can be shaped.

in this case, he is making a bowl that resembles a handkerchief (not the same bowl as above)

et voilà! it is snipped off and will now go into a cooling oven for several hours


I could go again next week and probably still be as impressed as the first time.

and now, the torch

watching in anticipation, still 20 minutes away, flags and noisemakers ready… the convoy begins, cheers rise up as we look beyond the big vans for the main attraction, still minutes away there he is, the torch bearer (don’t know his name, sigh) … and by the magic of post editing, the sky darkens to illuminate the main attraction who is almost obscured by the all the lights of the vans and cop cars and streetlights… in a flash, the flame passes by
somewhere in the melee the torch is passed…

The End (for today)

55 more days to go.

"With Glowing Hearts/Des Plus Brillants Exploits"

There was a poll out not too long ago that said, in a way most polls are wont to do, that very few people were interested in the Olympic Torch Relay. Pollsters are always negative. It is their role to play Eeyore in the woods of our acre.

It is, of course, very much a media centred and media driven event.

Anyway, nobody asked me. And I actually have been following the torch relay.

106 days. 12,000 torchbearers. 45,000 km. 1,036 communities.

Of course, as anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of what Canada looks like, will realize that most of the torch relay involves driving the thing from place to place with the runners only actually running for 300 metres before passing it on. The torch will also travel by seaplane, snowmobile, canoe, dogsled, dory, double-decker bus, streetcar and kayak to name a few of the interesting alternative modes of transport. Unfortunately not by camel. I would have liked to see that.
It started in Victoria and is wending its way across the country, up and down and around, until it finds its way back to Vancouver. Some have said the torch looks like a huge joint. I wouldn't know about that. Ask Pinklea. Mostly, it seems to resemble a giant barbecue lighter. Sleek and elegant and resembling ice and snow (so they say).

Even with all the myriad things wrong with the Olympics, I still get caught up in the spirit of the Games. And the athletes. I've started reading the sports section that outlines the worlds' and qualifying events and gives stories about the athletes to watch. I find that much more interesting than football or hockey. Or Tiger.

I read the Globe and Mail every day and the first thing I go to is the daily account of the torch relay. It isn't so much the relay itself, as the communities it passes through. The stories of those communities and the different personalities of each. Some have been through such a hard time of it lately that the idea of this expensive journey of a giant barbecue lighter just seems to be an overblown pointless extravagance. I can understand that. Other communities have been so hard done by and isolated over the years, that the very idea of the torch coming to their town just overwhelms them in pride. A chance to feel included. A chance to shine and let the world see where they live. I have found much of it fascinating.

The Olympics are coming here, whatever we think or want. So we might as well make the most of it and get interested and involved. There really is nothing sadder than a party where the hosts are bickering and unhappy about the whole affair. Or completely indifferent.

Now, I am not a fanatic about this. I do not watch the webcam, nor do I keep abreast of its tweets.

But on Day 51 of its journey, when it passes through my town, I will be there.