Field Trip

Last week my daughter, granddaughter and Barb's daughter were all on vacation so we took the opportunity to get together and take a field trip. One of my favorite places to visit has always been Simon Pearce Glass in Windsor Vermont, and since Deb and Sarah love to go there too and Barb and Breanna had never been there, we decided it was the perfect choice.

All their glass is handblown by a small group of artisans and they have a balcony that goes out over the work area so that you can watch them do their magic. Glassblowing is a delicate dance and a cooperative effort as elegant pieces are blown, molded, rolled and joined together, each person knowing exactly what steps to take as component parts are assembled to create a work of art.

Above are pictures of their showroom.

This is an overview of the front half of the work area. You can see the almost white hot fire in the openings of their secondary ovens, the ones they use to keep reheating the glass as they shape and mold, like the man below.

This is a photograph of their main oven. It heats and melts all necessary ingredients, making the molten glass ready for the glassblowers. It is from this oven that each artisan removes hot orange glass with his or her glassblowing tube. Their judgment for knowing how much glass is needed for a particular project seems infallible.

To the right of the oven in this picture, you can see one of their artisans working with the superheated material, rolling and blowing the glass, coaxing it into elegant shapes. On the floor are troughs of running water. They place wooden molds in these troughs and, for some pieces, blow glass into the mold.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, many of the artisans were at lunch and the work area was rather quiet, and a few of our pictures didn't come out. I'm sorry to have missed one in particular; it was a photo of the sweeping, curved handle of a pitcher being attached to the pitcher with delicacy and perfection.

A simple wineglass can cost from $58 to $108, so as beautiful as I think the work done here is, I will never be able to set a table with Simon Pearce glass. But, some years ago, I did treat myself to a brandy snifter and three glass ice cubes. From the seconds table.