Pacific Art Glass AGASC Event   
             by Jon Simpson   

   On Saturday, May 5th Jack Wade, Paul Czajkowski and I headed north to Pacific Art Glass in Gardena, CA to meet up with about 15 others from the AGASC for a fun packed day.  Since this was my first time at Pacific Art Glass I had high expectations and they were exceeded.  When we pulled up it looked like your typical warehouse, but upon entering we quickly learned it was anything but.  We met up with Susan Hirsch, who was instrumental in getting John Williams, the owner to set aside the afternoon for the AGASC. 

   While she and others went next door for some great Italian food we were left to start shopping.  Fortunately the store was divided into three sections:  the front was tools and supplies, the left was all COE 90 and the right was all COE 96.  I was like a kid in a candy store going up and down the aisles looking, inspecting and contemplating all the sheetglass, the rows of frit, the aisle of dichroics, tools, kilns and whatever else we could find.  When we had finally gotten it all together we made our purchase and headed for the demonstrations of lampworking and hot glass.

   At the hot glass demonstration they were letting AGASC members take turns making stringers for their fusing projects.  We had so much fun and lots of laughs as Marcy Stinton, JoAnn Pastori, and Connie Govier took turns with the blowpipe first getting a gather, then the colored powders and then using jacks to pull the glass in strings twirling them, then cutting them with the shears.  Try as they might to hit the metal table with the glass there was always a few stringers that would crash to the floor and break.  We didn't even get to the lampworking, but from what I understand they kept them mesmerized with the making of beads and marbles. 

   At the end of the day John Williams was kind enough to give us a tour of the whole facility.  First we started in the front room which houses the store.  Besides the lampworking table with several torches, the hot glass area which we had been in, we saw a kiln large enough to park two small cars in.  Then we left the "store" and went in the back rooms of the warehouse.  We started in the beveling room, which had several large machines used make bevels of all types.  Then we went into the water jet room, where there were two large computerized machines where they cut the dichroic firesticks and other shapes and can make pattern cuts to any glass.  We finished in the meeting room which has much of their art glass collection which were absolutely spectacular.

   Thank you to John Williams and his staff and Susan Hirsch for a fun filled informative day.  I can now say I've been to Pacific Art Glass and I'll be back. 

 For more pictures click here