My Little Getaway

I slipped away for a visit to New York State last week and wow, did I have a good time! I went to the town of Painted Post in the Adirondack Mountains and stayed with a group of 40 at a nice littel homestead tucked away in the country. We hiked a little and toured museums, did a little wine tasting and went on a boat cruise of the Seneca Lake. We learned about gorge formations and the Iroquois Indians and so much more. I'll show you a few of the highlights of my trip.

The most exciting day of the week for me was a visit to the Corning Museum of Glass. You all know how much I love glass. Well, this visit was equal to visiting the Queen, for me.  

I love the archetecture of the building, first of all. I did think it should have been made of glass however, but it is still a striking building.  

They are really into making glass pumpkins of all sizes at the present time. I'm not sure if this is something that is always offered or not, but I was really wowed by the variety and the amount of pumpkins! They were everywhere you looked! I didn't buy one, although they were very tempting. They were not inexpensive and I felt it was a lot of dough to shell out for something to just put on a bookcase somewhere in my house. I purchased a few other items but I can't show you them now because they are to be holiday gifts for friends.  

I was excited to be able to watch the pumpkins being made. These are students of the studios and they work under the supervision of a teacher (the fellow blowing the glass).  

This pumpkin is just about done and he is getting ready to give it a final going over with the blowtorch to make sure it has a glossy, smooth finish and that there are no sharp areas to it.

Here he is making the stem and the leaves on the top. Looking pretty good, I think! This one will be a keeper and after it spends 12 hours in the annealing oven cooling down it will go into the gift shop collection for retail sale. 

I was also thrilled to see a couple of Dale Chihuly pieces in the museum. Dale is the modern day master of blown glass, for those of you who are not acquainted with him. This is one of his chandeliers and this piece is lighted from inside. I wish I could have seen it with its lights turned on.  

This is another wonderful piece from Chihuly. This is a twelve foot glass tree. Amazing!  

After the museum tour we walked Market Street in downtown Corning. This is a beautiful old and charming town with the most intresting archetecture on the building fronts, dating back to turn of the century and forward. There was too much to take in.  

I did find this one of the most interesting ornamentations, however. This was on the front of a ladies clothing store. Very clever. The giant roses are made of metal, painted black. So striking.  

 

I will show a few more photos at a later date. I have some nice ones of Watkins Glen Gorge that you may enjoy.

It was a very interesting week, for sure, but I am a little glad to be home now.