On 08/02/2012 22:39, wrote:
On Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:14:15 +0000, Nightjar
wrote:

I think it was in Muenster that I saw a shop that sold blown glass art.
It had a flat screen display in the window, showing a video of how some
of the items were made. Movement is always eye catching and it was also
very interesting to watch.

I first saw that for real in the Isle of Man - the street that runs
parallel to Douglas Prom had a glassblower doing his stuff in the
shopfront - fascinating, and it wasn't just me as a lad found it so;
the people stopping for a gander were of all ages/shapes/sizes.

I think there was a lot more of that sort of thing in the past. Brighton
used to have 'The Glass Animal Man', who worked in his shop near the
railway station and there was a shop where you could watch them making
pictures from cork further down the hill.

These days, you are more likely to find it going on in a museum, like
this one, which has a small group of craft studios in the grounds.

http://www.bentley.org.uk/#/welcome/4525140631

The museum gains from the display of the craft and the crafter doesn't
have to pay High Street prices for the premises.

I rather doubt that the stuff being shown in Muenster would have been
suitable for doing in a shop though - it involved three men manipulating
hot glass objects up to about a metre in length.

Colin Bignell