Kids Design Glass

Kids Design Glass began as a temporary educational program at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, but has developed into a delightful collection of art. Watching the pieces as they are made is fascinating for the Museum's visitors - and creating them is a test of the glassblowers' prowess.

Young visitors to the Museum of Glass are encouraged to submit drawings of whatever their imaginations can dream up for the program. Each month, the Museum's Hot Shop artists choose one drawing and change the two-dimensional design into a three-dimensional glass sculpture. The child, friends, and family are invited, along with the public, to watch the object being created. The child and audience share in the agony if the glass cracks or breaks and the Hot Shop must begin anew - and share the joy as the finished work is placed in the annealing oven to slowly cool down. Two objects are made, one for the child and the other for the Museum of Glass collection.

Visiting artists have also been intrigued by the program. John Miller, Nancy Callan, Joseph Gregory Rossano, the Bee Kingdom, Dante Marioni, Preston Singletary, Martin Blank, and even the maestro of Venetian glassblowing, Lino Tagliapietra, have all volunteered to make a creature.

This book includes 52 works of art, with full-color photos of both the object and the original drawing. A children's comic-style booklet,"Pip! The Baby Monster and How He Was Made at the Museum of Glass" and a DVD showing the creation of Recycle Robot are tucked inside.

Benjamin W. Cobb is the Hot Shop manager and a lead gaffer and designer for the Museum of Glass. Susan Linn is a psychologist at Harvard's Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston and director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.