Never be afraid to stick your finger in the Pie

Today was my first full day at Pilchuck. I firmly believe that those creative people that put this wonderful place together decided to put the living quarters at the top of a 6 percent grade in order to discourage themselves from sleeping.




All my tools are not in my workplace and I will hopefully only have to make the hike 4 or 5 times tomorrow.

Never have I been surrounded by such a group of talented people! While I am on the older side of the bell curve, there are some older than me. The general population are younger than middle age, this includes most of the staff. But they are talented well beyond their years. I see the list of alumni, and cannot honestly believe that I am walking the same ground.

The hot shop demonstration last night is a great example of the spirit of this place.




To streamline the process, several of the hot shop people spent about 3 hours during the afternoon to prepare a piece of glass. In the first minute of the demonstration the piece accidentally fell off the punty onto the ground and broke.

Then the most amazing thing happened. Without a word, everyone on the shop floor went to work, It was a beautiful dance, only interrupted to hug the glassblower, and huddle up for plan B which was completed in about 45 minutes.





The spirit that built this place in 1971 truly lives on here. It is really contagious.

What did I learn today? I learned that our job as artists is to observe what other people fail to see, and then never be afraid to stick your finger in the pie......

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