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Friday, October 10, 2008

Blowing Glass and Falling Leaves

A week ago today we went to the Glass Museum in Tacoma to see Anu Pentinen, a Finnish artist, working in the Hot Shop. She has created a new Pentinen bird in glass to commemorate the museum's on-going partnership with iitala, a maker of Scandinavian glassware. We love sitting in the bleachers in the Hot Shop, watching the team of glass blowers. (If you have a high speed connection, you can actually watch the artists live by clicking the appropriate spot on their website!) A bird handler from the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium also exhibited 3 birds as [art of the Bird Lover's Weekend. Two of the birds, the kookaburra and the Eurasian owl were raised at the zoo and the other, a Western screech owl, was a rescued bird that had been hit by a car somewhere in Oregon. The handler was able to coax the kookaburra to "laugh" which was very fun to see and hear. The little blue heart made in Seattle by Bedrock Industries is my souvenir from an earlier visit. The Pentinen birds unfortunately were not in our budget!
Glass Heart

Fall seemed to arrive last Saturday with very blustery winds. We went for a walk in our neighborhood, and the leaves were just raining down. I picked up this great sample of our bigleaf maple. It lives up to its name as you can see with one of my normal-sized NH leaves nestled on it with lots of room to spare. Later on that evening, we were at a party and heard lots of stories of people's difficulties crossing the 520 bridge in the wind. I was very glad we took a different route!
Two Maple Leaves

8 comments:

Susan Elliott said...

That's a beautiful leaf. Makes me want to applique.

Cat said...

Sounds like a fun visit to the hot shop! I like the birds!

Huge leaf! I'm afraid we are slated for snow this weekend before the leaves fall off... not good!

Enjoy the season. Cat

Paula Hewitt said...

would you believe as i started to typing this three kookaburras started laughing in the tree outside. I was going to say that they sound fun ...but they tend to start up before dawn - two or three of them together and there is no sleeping through it. still they always bring a smile to my face...just not at 4am!

Lapplisor said...

You come around much, dear Judy :-)… the glass art is a marvelous, filigrane work, which I admire.
my children with the grandchildren are now the way to Germany…
♥☼♥ Barbara ♥☼♥

Kris Meares - Tag Along Teddies said...

Hey Judy! It must be the season to visit glassblowers, as we watched Wolfgang Engel (a German artist who moved to Australia) when we were in Bundaberg recently. I watched him make me a special request pendant and matching earrings, plus bought a few Christmas presents - facinating to watch! And the LEAF! WOW! I love the shape, but the large on looks big enough to be a pet blanket! Tee! Hee! Hee! Enjoy your trip and catching up with family! Bear Hugs! KRIS (Tag Along Teddies)

Linda Vincent said...

The glass heart is beautiful Judy - a lovely souvenir.
There's something special about the shape of maple leaves...and the colours they become in autumn.
Very inspiring!
Linda xx

jane said...

Hi Judy, Your sister is finally leaving a comment on your blog. What fun to return the Tacoma glass museum. I am very familar with Iitala glassware being married to a Finlander! It is lovely, isn't it?

Pat Winter Gatherings said...

Love the two leaves together!