Wonder Glass Blower: A Glass Dress

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1939, Page 6

Wonder Glass Blower: A Glass Dress

To watch the deft and quick-moving fingers of the Wonder Glass Blower at the Whangarei Show, commencing tomoiTow, will be to realise that the age of ci’aftsmanship is far from past. Indeed, the chief feeling of those who see this exhibition will be one of bewilderment that brittle glass can be made so tractable and blown into such beautiful and artistic creations while molten. Old Dutch smoking pipes that seem to twist in all directions, fullrigged sailing ships, ornamental vases, graceful swans, kangaroos, glass that floats in the air like feathery crystals, spun glass finer than silk, and thousands of feet in length, are some of the articles that appear in a few moments under the delicate touch and

[ sureness of breath of this talented j artist, who uses no moulds of any I kind to fashion these beautiful works of art. The movement is fast, and one,'becomes absorbed as these fantas- | tic creations appear on the end of a blow pipe from the molten glass I taken from the specially constructed ! furnace. The glass dress is the glassj blower’s greatest achievement. This is I a beautiful blue and gold creation j which looks like silk, and though made entirely of glass, it can be handled and worn the same as ordinary material. Visitors to the Whangarei Show will do well to see this educational and entertaining feature. 837 j | Then and Now. Travelling time between Wellington and Westport was reduced from about 20 hours to one hour 55 minutes when the daily service to the West Coast was inaugurated yesterday by Cook Strait Airways. Formerly Westport was not served by the air service, and the trip from Wellington entailed n ten hours’ sea journey and approximately nine hours’ travelling in a service car.