Glass Art

It's always nice when you're on a trip specially in other countries to be able to have control of your time because it somehow allows you to sort of wander around and go to the less beaten tracks.

On our last visit to the land below down-under, the beautiful New Zealand, we had that special opportunity to do a land trip, drive our own vehicle, enjoy the landscape, admire the view, and sample a few of those small cafes, unheralded art galleries, and drop by less publicized but nonetheless amazing natural spots.

One of these stops, which turned out to be a quite interesting spot was a place called the Lava Glass Glassblowing Gallery and Café. We were actually looking for a toilet break (and a coffee break as well) after about an hour and a half of driving. As we were going though a curve, my sis-in-law caught a glimpse of a red roadside sign that had the word café. It turned out that the "café" was also an art gallery and not just an ordinary art gallery at that. It was a glass art gallery which not only featured glass art works but an actual live glass blowing session!

As we entered the unpretentious entrance of a very rustic barn-like building our eyes feasted on the myriad of colors that all those glass art creations exuded. (of course, our first instinct was to troop to the restroom first). But after emptying our bladders, we were right back to the shop and started ogling at all those amazing glass art works. What we saw inside was truly a pleasant surprise. I had no idea that this small building housed such wonderful art treasures.

After a short while we were invited by the lady behind the counter to see the artist at work. The workshop was located right behind the store. And as we entered the door, I could already feel the heat, the heat that was emanating from that miniature volcano they had that was actually transforming all the silica into molten lava, lava that was "harvested" on the tip of a steel tube. That tube is where the artist will eventually "breathe life" into that blob of molten glass and become one of those unique works of art.

Below are some of the photos I took and posted here to be shared with those who care.



This one is incredible not only for it's appearance but also for the wonder on how it was actually created.



This frosted blue glass collection caught my attention mainly because it is a wonder to me how the frosted effect was actually achieved.




These collection of emerald-like glass work has patterns in it that just boggled my mind.


The glass blowing shop can actually be found in the internet - http://www.lavaglass.co.nz/