152. Peter Greenwood Glass Blowing Studio

You Can Blow, But This Place Doesn’t
Riverton/Barkhamsted (Google Maps location)
February 20, 2010

Wow. Where to begin? This place is sort of like three museums in one: A Riverton history museum, a world-class art gallery and a glass blowing workshop/studio – all in an 1829 historic church that once housed the now defunct Hitchcock Chair Museum. I’ll give you a moment to absorb all of that – you can go read all about the Hitchcock Chair Company and defunct museum here. It’s pretty cool.

All set? Good. Let’s head up to Riverton.

Riverton? Yeah, it’s one of these weird Connecticut fake towns within real towns – in this case Barkhamsted – but with arguably more name recognition and cache than the real town. The drive to the town’s center is beautiful from any direction. I love the drive up the Farmington River west branch (on either side) through People’s State Forest. I’d highly recommend you stop there for a picnic lunch along the river, a hike (I did them all here) and a visit to the People’s State Forest Museum (CTMQ Visit here) before heading up the final miles to the Glass Studio.

On your bucolic drive (on the road, by the way, where Hoang saw her first black bear “in the wild”) up the river, you can reflect upon the history of this area, and learn all about the area from the Riverton website.

I had contacted Peter Greenwood ahead of our visit, and sort of explained my purpose and plan. While we didn’t want the full-blown (pun intended) tour, I did want to see the glass blowing operation, at least for a few minutes. You can go and visit the gallery and history exhibit area for free and perhaps unannounced, I’m not sure. But to get a tour of the studio area, you usually have to have a group and pay a fee.

Since we’d have Damian and Damian isn’t exactly a fan of blast furnaces, there was no way we were going to opt for the full hour tour. Peter was very understanding and accommodating and I did my part by arriving right on time. (We were in luck because a woman was taking a glass blowing class during our visit, and we’d get to see Peter teach her some techniques – this was done on purpose.) Peter seemed somewhat harried at our arrival, but was unfailingly polite and left us to ourselves to peruse the first two sections of the building: The history exhibits and the gallery upstairs.

While Hoang and Damian didn’t care too much about the history of the Hitchcock factory across the street or of Riverton itself, I sure did. They mosied on upstairs while I took in as much as I could. I love Greenwood for maintaining this area of his building. With the Hitchcock company and their museum gone, this is pretty much the last bits of it in a museum setting. What a treat to find this stuff here as I wasn’t expecting it at all.

Riverton is a beautiful little hamlet and was once a prosperous center of industry. Today, there are only a couple landmarks remaining from that time. One is the Union Church I was standing in, built in 1829 and another is the Hitchcock Chair Factory from 1846. Five stage coach lines ran through town back then, each with its own tavern to take care of the travelers. Today, the Ives Tavern (1796) still stands as the Riverton Inn and the Phelps Tavern lives on as the Barkhamsted History Museum.

The display cases have several artifacts leftover from the old church’s days as the Hitchcock Museum. It’s like a museum for a museum inside a museum that has nothing in the world to do with the original museum! (Whoa.)

Again, if you want to know more about the Hitchcock Company/chairs/museum, there is a ton of material here. Because now it’s time to move on to the Greenwood Glass blowing Gallery upstairs.

Man, this is an absolutely beautiful building. The church is of Gothic style and was built by local labor with hand-cut granite, chestnut and oak from the nearby hills. That original hands-on work ethic carried over to the Hitchcock Chair Company and now to the Peter Greenwood Glass Blowing Studio, Gallery and School – the full official name of the joint. As you can see from the pictures, the stained glass here is incredible. Now, I regretfully don’t know how old those windows are – did Greenwood do them? Or are they 100 years old? I have no idea, but they are stunning.

Upstairs, the gallery is filled with all sorts of Greenwood glass works. He has a definitive style, but works it into many practical and artistic items. Several striking vessels and whimsical lighting fixtures piqued our interest. But for me, the furniture Greenwood makes is the most impressive. Heck, he’s got a chair there with blown glass around the legs and and chairback.

I wasn’t about to touch the thing though, seeing as it sells for a healthy chunk of change. Once we started noticing the prices here, we held onto Damian a little bit tighter. All those easily breakable vases and plates and bowls range from about $900 all the way up to $7,500. He fortunately couldn’t reach the chandeliers which went even higher – but certainly worth it if you’re in the market.

If only I had such money to spend… I really like some of this bowls and more free form wall art. We actually perused the gallery for quite a while; I think Damian liked all the bright colors and swirly shapes.

And check this nook out:

On the left there are hand-carved rosewood and mahogany bed head and foot boards. They were incredible. And see that rope up to the ceiling? That rings the bell of the church, which has its own cool story. The 1875 relic was broken in 1911 during a July 4th celebration. In order to recast it, church parishioners and friends donated silver spoons and services. As a result of a rather large quantity of silver in the bell, the bell has a very unique mellow tone. We didn’t ring it though.

For we didn’t want to get kicked out just yet. We still had some glass blowing to watch.

But who is this Peter Greenwood fellow? Let’s have the man himself (or at least his website) tell us:

Peter thinks three dimensionally with ease and is a natural builder. His works include finely crafted wood furniture, hand forged iron, stainless steel fabrication, and stone fireplaces. Peter’s insatiable desire to develop and refine new designs motivates him to continually explore the infinite possibilities of working with hot glass.

Wow. Impressive to say the least. I also dig this commission Peter has up at Bradley International Airport.

Greenwood walked us through his off limits studio space, amid a bunch of old machines and glass bits and grinders and buffers and polishers. To the back of the church where he has his furnaces and blow poles and … well, I don’t know what glass blowing tools are called, but he has them all.

The furnace was loud, but somehow Damian didn’t mind it too much from the comfort of the stairs about 20 feet away. We all watched as Peter shaped molten glass; spinning and prodding and poking it, always keeping the end open with those caliper things you always see glass blowers using.

He was very kind to show us the steps along the way, even though he was also teaching the random lady who paid the bucks to do it. (Though she was nice to us too.) We watched as they chose a color palette and sprinkled in the colored glass pieces to melt through the piece. It was all very interesting to see so intimately. The only other time I’ve seen glass blowing was on crowded tours in Corning and the like.

And if you want to get even MORE intimate, or do some craftsmanship yourself – you can! One way to do it is to stay over in Morris at Winvian check out CTMQ’s crazy tour here and select ‘glass blowing” as an activity. That’ll be $250. But Greenwood offers other ways to join him at lower rates, though I must admit, it’s all a bit confusing. But know this: You needn’t drop a quarter grand to blow some glass.

Greenwood Glass is not only a glass blowing studio/gallery but also a school offering a variety of workshops suitable for all levels. Whether you would like to try glass blowing for the first time, or you are a glass blower with advanced skills, we can offer workshops designed to fit your needs. There’s a bunch of options here.

If I haven’t sold you on the virtues of Greenwood Glass and glass blowing in general, I invite you to read the following, straight from the Greenwood website:

Steaming a Pipe: Never place a pipe in water without capping the end. If you forget to do this, a column of ultra-hot steam will surge up the pipe, and burn your hands or you’ll be scaled with flying boiling water.
Sharing Blowpipes: The Gaffer and assistants will take turns blowing on the pipe during the course of a piece.
Glory Hole When you accidentally drop a piece in the glory hole, use the pipe or punty…
Puffers & Steam Sticks (Not nearly as exciting as they sound.)

Wow, I had no idea glass blowing was so dirty. I also enjoy the warning on the site: “Do not blow glass if you have been drinking.” I really can’t imagine doing anything stupider.

After watching the glass attain its final form, we gathered ourselves and hit the road. It was really cool for Peter to allow us to sit in on his session and to watch. His stuff is beautiful and his experience and skill is readily apparent, even to a schlub like me who doesn’t know a thing about glass art.

And you’ll never guess where we went after this place… Curling!

Hey buddy, we’re here to watch glass get blown, not to goof off with Mama’s scarf and to give people the finger in their ear.

…………………………………………………….

Cost: Somewhere between free and $250
Hours: Tue-Sat 9-5, but call first
Food & Drink? Here are your Riverton options
Children? Probably not
You’ll like it if: You like sharing your blow pipe with a puffer in a glory hole
You won’t like it if: You don’t get the previous joke and have no appreciation for creativity
Freebies: None

For the Curious:

Peter Greenwood Glassblowing Studio
Random awards that Greenwood made
Glassblowing video with a relative cute woman