On the west side of Leary Way, tucked in the industrial/maritime area, stands Glass Eye Studio, the hand-blown, for-profit, glass art manufacturer.
Daily the Studio produces incredibly lovely, consistently high-quality artisan pieces that sell in art-quality stores around the U.S. and Canada including the Space Needle, the Tacoma Museum Of Glass, Childhood’s End Gallery in Olympia, and Made In Washington stores nearly everywhere. ‘Handmade in the U.S.A.’ boasts Glass Eye product labels, and more importantly, handmade right here in Fremont.
Yet, Glass Eye hasn’t bragged about its Fremont location. “We’re a wholesaler,” explained Dale Leman. The company avoids selling retail here because, “we don’t want to compete with our customers.” Still, Fremont can take pride in hosting a successful, active studio that not only creates gorgeous works, but has a solid reputation for always doing so.
Building A Secure Business
“We make what we make really well,” explained Leman. He and his wife, Ruth Leman, are majority owners of the company, although Leman quickly points out that, “the name on the door is Glass Eye. We’re not about one person.” A team of glass artists, shipping, research & development, and office staff all contribute to produce the glass ornaments, paperweights, sea globes, dishes, vases and other decorative pieces.
“We’re different from a lot of people,” Leman admitted, “we don’t kid ourselves that we’re artists.” This is a market-driven business. “We’re not just about doing this because we love glass,” he explained, “I really do like glass.”
Yet, he remained clear, “If it don’t sell, we don’t make it. We have to make a profit.” Originally a C.P.A., for all of his 22 years here, Leman has seen the company make a profit, “because we have to keep The Hands. People have to eat, to survive.”
“We’re nothing without The Hands,” Leman said of the Glass Eye team. The company pays well, offers a full benefit package, a 401K program, and incentive pay for exceeding daily production targets.
“It takes a long time,” he observed, to bring new employees along, particularly where seasoned employees have chosen to stay for decades. Also, new people increase the risk of accidents.
“What we do well is to have consistent hands,” Leman said of the Glass Eye craftsmen. “We make handmade glass that is well-crafted,” he observed, “all handmade, all look the same.” Glass Eye craftsmen need to be able to make, “eighty ornaments that all look pretty,” Leman explained. Each one identical to the one before and the one after – just as the Studio promised to its customers, and as those retailers have promised to their customers.
“One-of-a-kind ornaments are not our thing,” he admitted, “Our company prides itself on two things – on-time, and it looks like the catalogue.”
“We make the best glass in the niche we’re in,” Leman humbly admitted, “our heart is really in the paperweights and the ornaments, for which we are world-famous.”
Each year they introduce new ornaments and paperweights, and other items, although Leman admitted that they struggles to find new, profitable designs. The company has purchased designs from other glass artists – including a tuxedo hanging vase designed by Fremont artist Rodman Miller. Of course, several of The Hands – many of whom work beyond the Studio as glass artists – contribute designs.
Crafting Consistent Art
Glass Eye craftsman Chris Steffans designed a paperweight of a rainbow stretched over a Southwest mesa. In front of one of the six gas furnaces that operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and contain between 400 and 800 pounds of molten glass at any time, Steffans created the paperweight, four identical ones, over the course of about half an hour.
He and Sasha Davidson form the mesa – blown glass shaped using a mold. Together, they attach a glob of clear glass on top of the mesa, and shape it into a lopsided globe. Steffans hand swirled the glass to create storm clouds – the same, exact swirls in the same, exact place on each and every globe.
The ‘rainbow’ – a small, pre-made plate of several strips of colored glass – is stretched along the ‘back’ of the globe, across the ‘sky’ above the mesa. Finally, blue glass goes on the globe behind the rainbow to color the sky.
As they work, Davidson and Steffans check each paperweight they make, for size and quality. At one end of the glass-blowing floor, Leman pointed out, are shelves for prototypes of each piece being made so they can be consulted for specific details, colors and shape.
After cooling, these paperweights go to another room for smoothing, a check by quality control, and to have a ‘window’ cut out. The ‘window,’ a flat surface on the otherwise perfectly round globe, better allows viewers to see the scene inside the paperweight.
Around the Studio, while Steffans and Davidson made the paperweights, other Glass Eye artisans crafted raindrop ornaments, heart ornaments, heart dishes and flower dishes – and Travis Murins worked with Dan Friday and Eric Lieberman on the final production of the 2011 Limited Edition Ornaments.
On a hot plate (set to heat between 900 – 1100 degrees Fahrenheit,) Murins laid out a pre-determined series of colored glass pieces. Friday and Lieberman each collected hot glass from a furnace, shaped the glass into a column and then rolled it over the colored pieces. They then slowly blow and shape the glass into perfect balls. Murins’ contribution here appeared simple, except that a single mistake – no matter how small – would create an ornament of different colors than those expected by customers.
As Murins worked, he mentioned the 2012 Limited Edition Ornament – that he designed – and that will be rolled out in January. Glass Eye introduces new products about every six months, to offer about 40 products total. “We’re not trying to be all things to all people,” Leman acknowledged. For him, a part of the success and survival of the Studios has been in realizing “what you are, and what you’re not.”
Fremonsters interested in exploring Glass Eye can check the website about tours. Also, twice a year in its parking lot the Studio does hold a brief, four-hour sale of control samples, seconds and discontinued pieces. In 2012, these sales take place on May 12th and October 6th. To obtain more information, check the Glass Eye Facebook page – or stay tuned here. After all, after witnessing the wonderful work created here, the desire to brag on glass ‘Handmade In Fremont’ comes naturally.
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©2011 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.