Oregon Glass

image credit here

right by the beach house there's this little place called ocean beaches glass. not the best name in my opinion ... what's it saying?? there's an ocean with a beach, and hey, we blow glass? i seriously thought they found pieces of glass from the beach that had been washed up by the ocean and melted it down to blow all of their pieces.

nope. they buy high quality glass chunks and melt them down to blow their pieces.

so i don't know why they're called ocean beaches glass. but they are. and they blow. glass, that is. they blow glass.

well, they blow right there in the shop ... it's amazing! the guy's left arm has no hair from the intense heat of the "glory hole" - true story. and his right calf had all of these burn scars, and also minimal hair, from him tossing pieces on the stick right along side it.

so we decided we wanted to get something for our new home. (a moment of silence for the impending and stressful joy of home ownership ... thanks.) but what to get? we saw this clam shell we LOVED with a black pearl in it ... of course all out of glass. a glass clam shell with a glass black pearl. and there in our child-free state (cause a glass shop is not a place you take young children... seriously) i thought, "PERFECT!! let's get it!" but case was level-headed enough to realize it would be broken instantaneously. so the hunt was on ... bowl? not practical. figurine? broken. vase? for what flowers? light shade? hmmm, light shade....

so light shade it was. and then, get this, we got to pick our own colors and shape and size (i wish our bodies were this way ... pwah haha!!) and he blew it, right there, just for us. we watched it get blown, thrown, etc.!! seriously so cool!

apple green and rust red were the colors we picked. apple green was the main color and rust red was the swirly color in the apple green.

and basically the shade shape we picked is a large (like 18") upside-down bowl.

but there's oh so much more to the story. like how shipping was like $80 so we decided we'd take it to UT with us and stick it in the POD. and how the piece had to cool overnight in a kiln, so we were kinda squinched for time. and like how he didn't have much left of the apple green color we picked, but he made it anyway and ordered more that should've arrived before we left (note the word "should") in case there was a problem with the first one. and how when he was grinding in the hole for the light fixture the glass cut his finger and he lost control of it, and the grinder ground across the entire shade and completely ruined it. and how the apple green he ordered never came. so we picked new colors, and he re-blew it for us (teal and rust red). and during the second blowing it was heating up too quick so he wasn't able to get the edge trimmed off like he wanted, so the edge is thin and brittle. and how we like the second one better than the first anyways, different colors, brittle edge and all.

so here's videoage of the most intense part(s). enjoy!

and some pics, cause pictures say a thousand words, and the video didn't have many words ...