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Heat can destroy. It can also transform.
The precise origins of human glassmaking are lost to history, but archaeologists generally trace the craft back more than 3,500 years to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. We can imagine someone who built a really, really hot fire in the desert noticing that at fierce temperatures grains of sand melt and bind together.
Other brave people came to realize (I shudder to picture the trial and error) that by using a stout rod, you could collect that liquid sand and shape it, either in molds or with your very own breath.
Today, we use glass every day for countless necessary items. Much of it is made in molds and factories. But the ancient art of glassblowing is alive and thriving in the Pacific Northwest.
The glass renaissance (also known as the studio glass movement) owes a huge debt to the influence of Dale Chihuly and the Pilchuck Glass School he co-founded in the early 1970s. (Learn more about this at Tacoma’s Museum of Glass [museumofglass.org].)
For the purposes of hot summer fun, however, the key thing to know is that glass is beautiful—and a surprisingly easy and satisfying craft, at least with the help of a trained instructor.
Even if the ghost of Patrick Swayze is guiding your hands, it’s nearly impossible to sit down at a pottery wheel and shape a perfect bowl in one session. And unless you’ve got incredible natural talent, it takes most people several lessons to make a painting worthy of hanging. But almost anyone can learn to make a gorgeous piece of artistic glass in less than an hour (mine is pictured above).
Another plus: Glass talk is sexy. For starters, the furnace is called a glory hole. There’s a long rod. You hold it by the shaft. Push and pull back and forth. And, of course, you blow.
There are plenty of places to check out glassblowing in Portland, but the Oregon Coast, around Newport and Lincoln City, has emerged as a mini center, too. And that’s not just strange luck.
Beachcombers in this area had a long tradition of searching for colorful blown glass Japanese fishing floats that regularly washed up on shore. When modern fishing boats transitioned to using plastic floats, the Lincoln City Finders Keepers program stepped in to stock the beaches. Each year, a bevy of Float Fairies hides over 3,000 glass treasures along 7 miles of public beach. Since 1999, Lincoln City has encouraged visitors to search for their own signed and numbered glass floats.
Blow your mind
I decided to make a weekend trip and create my own treasure with Oregon Coast Glassworks in Newport. Run by Robin and Bill Murphy, it’s the first Native American-owned and -operated glassblowing business in Oregon, and offers one-on-one sessions all through the year.
Instructor Jonathan Watson has been working in glass for more than 20 years. One of the things that drew him to the art form, he says, is its collaborative nature. Because you’re dealing with hot fires and specialized equipment, it’s an art form that welcomes more than one creator for a project.
I’ll admit I was a little nervous. I don’t like taking a pizza out of the oven. The thought of working on a ball of glass at 2,000 degrees made me sweat. But Watson was so calm and confident that my anxiety soon melted away.
We began by dipping a rod into an incandescent bath of molten glass and rolling it around the way you put honey on a spoon. As the blob grows, you take it out of the bath and put it into another furnace to maintain the right temperature.
With a careful cadence of heating up and cooling down, you shape the glowing nugget on your rod and add chunks of colored glass that melt and swirl into the form.
When the glass reached the right size and texture, Watson took the rod in hand and blew through the shaft. For an oddly long time, nothing happened. Then a tiny bubble emerged inside the blob. Soon it inflated like a balloon.
I was starting to wonder how we would turn it into a bowl—somehow slice it in half?—when Watson put the tube in his mouth and sucked in. I held my breath. The glowing globe collapsed on itself, creating an exquisite hemisphere mottled with swirling colors.
After a few final twists and turns, we released the bowl from the rod and mashed it against a little glob to make its foot. After slow overnight cooling, my creation sparkled and glistened, the ultimate artifact of summer: a lasting memory of the magic combination of heat and sand.
Learn more about the Lincoln City Glass Floats Finders Keepers program here: explorelincolncity.com/things-to-do/glass-floats.
Where to Blow on the Coast
Prices start around $75 for individual pieces with lessons. Note that many studios offer memorial art glass in a variety of shapes as a way to honor a departed loved one’s memory by preserving a small bit of their ash in glass.
Oregon Coast Glassworks
616 E Olive St., Newport
541-574-8226
oregoncoastglassworks.com
The Hot Shop
3101 SE Ferry Slip Road, #60, Newport
541-760-4020
thehotshoporegon.com
Oregon Beaches Glassblowing
11175 NW Pacific Coast Highway, Seal Rock
541-563-8632
oregonbeachesglass.com
Lincoln City Glass Center
4821 SW Highway 101
541-996-2569
lincolncityglasscenter.com
Go With the Glow
What’s more fun than playing with fire? Nothing! Ready to make some stuff glow? Check out these local hot spots.
Chadly Glass Studio
833 SE Main St., Suite 126
chadlyglassstudio.com
Experienced glassblower Brahim Chadly offers classes in glassblowing and flamework, focused on borosilicate glass (which melts at higher temperatures and is more resistant to shock).
Firehouse Glass
518 Main St., Vancouver
firehouseglass.com
Founders Greg Lueck and Rebecca Seymour and crew offer private classes in glassblowing, lampworking, and fusing. Teams, families, date nights, celebrations.
Rachel Escoe Glass
541-399-7304
rachelescoeglass.com
Learn the art of Venetian glassblowing in artist Rachel Escoe’s mobile studio where you can blow outside!
Sweet Lomy Art
17197 Stanhelma Drive, Gladstone
503-750-4921
If you have really little ones or you’re nervous about working with molten glass, check out this delightful studio. Glass fusion instructor Jenny Wells can make anyone feel like an accomplished artist as they craft mosaics, jewelry, ornaments, and other treasures with bits of glass and metal.
This story is part of Oregon Summer Magazine, Willamette Week’s annual guide to the summer months, this year focused on making the most of and beating the heat. It is free and can be found all over Portland beginning Sunday, June 29, 2025. Find a copy at one of the locations noted on this map before they all get picked up! Read more from Oregon Summer magazine online here.
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