Corning Museum of Glass
We spent the night of Saturday, January 12, in Corning NY. The purpose of our trip was to visit Corning Museum of Glass. Corning is an approximate 3-hour drive from our home in Warren PA. We could easily have driven to Corning, visited the museum, and driven back home all in one day. Spending the night in Corning, though, made for a relaxing weekend.
We arrived at Corning Museum of Glass around 9:30 am. For the next 3 hours we toured the museum. This was the first time either Bob or I visited Corning Museum of Glass. As described on its webpage, the museum “tells the story of a single material: glass … The story of glass is a story about art, history, culture, technology, science, craft and design … Nearly 50,000 objects representing more than 3,500 years of history are displayed in the galleries…”. It would be a daunting task to see and read about each glass object in the museum in a entire day’s visit, let alone a 3-hour visit. We didn’t even try to see or photograph everything.
Mosaic Portrait This portrait shows Elena of Montenegro, who was queen consort of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
Stained Glass Window from Rochroane Castle
We did watch a 30-minute Hot Glass Demo, while at the museum. The Hot Glass Demo was a live, narrated glassblowing demonstration. A glassmaker took glowing gobs of molten glass on the end of a pipe and skillfully shaped them into a bowl. A narrator talked through the process, and cameras inside the 2300°F furnace ensured that we didn’t miss a single step of the process.
Hot Glass Demo – Gathering a little glass out of furnace.
Hot Glass Demo – shaping and cooling glass
Hot Glass Demo – Glass goes back into the furnace.
Hot Glass Demo – Glassmaker goes back to the bench.
Hot Glass Demo – shaping and cooling glass
Hot Glass Demo – glass blowing
Hot Glass Demo – glass blowing
Hot Glass Demo – adding foot to bottom of glass
Hot Glass Demo – adding foot to bottom of glass
Hot Glass Demo – working on upper part of bowl
Hot Glass Demo – glass blowing.
After this step, the bowl was placed back in furnace and spun.
Hot Glass Demo – Bowl after spinning in furnace
Hot Glass Demo – Bowl after spinning in furnace
What an awesome demo!
We purchased our museum tickets online a few days prior to our travels. Tickets may be purchased at the museum as well. Tickets cost $20 for adults. Kids and teens under the age of 17 are free. Tickets are good for two consecutive days.
We left the Corning Museum of Glass at 12:30 pm and drove to Elmira NY, where we ate lunch at Old Country Buffet. It had been a long time since we enjoyed a meal at Old Country Buffet. The Erie restaurant closed its doors some time ago.
On our way to our night’s accommodation we stopped at Wegmans to pick up a few grocery items that we felt were needed for the rest of the day, night and next morning.
From Wegmans we drove to our Airbnb accommodation. It was a short drive, as Wegmans is only a mile away. Check-in was 2:00 pm. Our arrival was around 2:20 pm.
We spent rest of the afternoon and evening at “home”. We watched TV and surfed the internet. We stayed in for dinner as well, having eaten two meals out already. Lunch at Old Country Buffet was very filling. We chose to eat a light dinner — a bowl of soup.
I went to bed at 9:00 pm. Bob followed about 1 1/2 hours later.
We planned to make a return trip to Corning Museum of Glass the next morning. Our plans, though, changed. I will write about our change of plans in my next blog post.
4 Responses to “Corning Museum of Glass”
This looks like a fascinating place to visit. We’ve seen a glass-blowing demonstration at Jamestown, but it was nothing as elaborate as what you saw.
I would sure enjoy visiting this place…you chose some great pics to show.
What a wonderful museum! I have seen glass-blowing demonstrations before and always find them fascinating how they create such beautiful creations. The glass pieces in the exhibit were very impressive. I think my favorite was the large window and then the mosaic portrait of lena of Montenegro . I am putting this place on my bucket list. Thank you Linda, as always your photos are outstanding and very enjoyable.
Hello, what a neat museum. I love the glass exhibits, very pretty. Enjoy your day!