Every year for at LEAST eight years, we and our friends Leigh & Bruce have been making New Year's resolutions (perhaps that's a bit of a stretch but close...) that we HAVE to go to the Corning Museum of Glass. So, with you all as inspiration (after all I did promise you a new place each week and promises are more binding than resolutions), we finally did it. Printed on the glass entrance doors is "Corning Museum of Glass" as proof that we actually gave up a BEAUTIFUL day to venture indoors. (Just so you know how beautiful it was, our car and about a dozen others - probably staff cars, were the only ones in the parking lot. There were, however, about 2 dozen tour buses with mostly Asian visitors. In fact the glass blowing demonstration received a live interpretation in Mandarian so that gives you some clue.)
So what was it like? It was as beautiful as the day and well worth the trip. We started out diligently reading every sign board, then just the title or the artist, then just sort of strolling past all these glass objects. Our eyes were about as glassy as the display of glass eyeballs by the time we came to them.However, I LOVED this little "perfume diffuser". The sign said they didn't actually know for sure what it was used for. (I also saw it during my "strolling" phase so forgot to note where it was from - maybe Italy????- or when it was made. Sorry. You'll have to go yourself and find out.) Anyway, did you ever see an object like this with such an attitude? And in something so small? It was only about 8 inches tall.
You probably guessed the window is Tiffany. It's the first one that was commissioned for a private house. (They didn't say how they happened to acquire it. Somewhere on the Hudson is probably "what used to be" a grand house with a plain old Anderson window.) Tiffany said something to the effect that he didn't understand why Americans had such a problem adding color to their clothing and their architecture. Perhaps I'll try to add a colorful shirt to my wardrobe - am not sure I'm ready for a purple house yet.
Just so we didn't get too bored with "the collection" there was a large exhibit of innovations including an exhibit on lenses and mirrors. Since you seldom see a photo of me... (By this point we had moved from our "glassy eyed" to "loopy" phase.)In case you missed it, Saturday was Derby Day. We stopped on the way home at a bar in Ithaca to cheer for "our horse". LUCK is our middle name!!!! (We didn't have a dime bet on "our horse"...)
Until next week...
