Anniversary Trip

Boy, it has been a long time since I have last blogged.  We have been busy with outside projects, enjoying our pool and going to see our son get married in the Dominican Republic.

For our 30th anniversary we took a quick trip to Ithaca, NY.  Yes, it is a vacation hotspot!  It is a gorgeous area near the finger lakes.

On the way to Ithaca we stopped at the Corning Museum of Glass. It has been on my bucket list for awhile now.  We spent a few hours exploring the galleries and exhibitions.  Then we took a turn trying to make our own glass.

I read about this activity online and thought it would be a once in a lifetime experience.  Michael 

was game for doing "crafts" on our vacation.  

So we both signed up to make something.

 Michael was going to do the most "glass making", so he had to suit up to protect himself from the 2300 degree heat. 

The workshop staff got all the glass from the ovens.  But they did let Michael pull and twist his flower. 

 

 Now it is my turn.  I am blowing an ornament.  She pulls out my glass and dips into the colors I have picked out.

My experience was not as hands on as Michaels.  All I did was blow into a pipe and the girl did all the work.  

Here are our projects that we made.  They are unique and something we will remember from our trip.

  The cost for a professionally made flower or ornament was 25 dollars.  We paid 29 dollars "to make it yourself", so you are only paying an extra 4 dollars to get a glimpse into the glass making process.  From that perspective it isn't a bad deal.

But the quality of the product is kind of, let's say amateur.  Yes, I know we are amateurs, but I thought mine would turn out better since the staff did all the work.   

I think I would have liked to just buy a professionally made ornament.  Michael's flower turned out really cool and he got more of a real feel for how to make something from a blob of glass.

Now a quick recap about the rest of the museum.

You walk through many galleries that display both modern and historical pieces of glass.  

This is a glass mosaic.  There are 1400 glass tiles in one square inch, totally amazing!

 This diorama depicts a glass blowing factory during the industrial revolution.
It is interesting to see how they etched glassware.  The details are so pretty.

 
We learned all about the history of glass light bulbs, windows, windshields, lighthouse lenses, eyeglasses, dishes and the list goes on......

Over all this was a very interesting place to visit.  If you are a homeschooling family, I would definitely make it part of your art and history lessons.

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day! 

My next post will be about our visit to the 

many waterfalls in the area.