My favorite piece from my adventures in Jeff Wallin’s workshop.

The truth is, glass has never been as accessible as it is today in the Northwest. What many glassists already know is that not only is our region home to many of the most respected masters in art glass, including Dale Chihuly, but also a number of educational resources and the most respected manufacturer of art glass in the world. This overwhelming network of glass enthusiasts is an amazingly friendly and helpful bunch, and over the past year I have had the chance to delve into this addictive medium and unleash my inner artist.

Recently, I had the opportunity to take one such workshop with artist Jeff Wallin. Jeff’s work is an intimate yet obscure study of the human figure, and each mark he makes expresses his long study of life drawing with a new translation into the glass medium. The class was structured in such a way to be absolutely welcoming to anyone even without prior experience to come, create, and play with glass. During the workshop I created a nice handful of pieces. Compared to Jeff’s process these are only in stage one and would go through a number of additional treatments, so hopefully once my kiln is installed I’ll try my hand at building a few of them up.