This trip was from White Rock to Maple Ridge, BC, to visit Arte Vargas Glass Blowing Inc. The Vargas father and son team demonstrated their specialty of “hand crafted art glass.” Most of us had never witnessed the process of producing a piece of art in blown glass, so this was an experience about which to tell others. Two kilns are heated to 2200 and 1800 degrees F. An oven holds the finished article at 500 degrees and is allowed to cool during the night.
The Vargas team asked our group to suggest an ornament they could make for us. My suggestion was, an angel, and they accepted the challenge with gusto. After many procedures such as shaping the body, adding the head, arms, hands and halo, it was given the finishing touch, which were the wings. The son said, “Every angel must have wings.” When it was finished, it was beautiful in shape, size and color and was immediately placed in the cooling oven. It would be presented for sale the next day and could be shipped to any part of the world. Their web site is, www.aratevargas.com. One can custom order from them or select from hundreds of vases and ornaments they’ve made.
As an optometrist I was anxious about their eyesight because they have to look directly into their kilns which radiate harmful light rays. These can cause “glass-blower’s cataracts.” The father has a filter in his glasses, but his son doesn’t wear glasses. I had to impress upon him that he must wear protective lenses even though they may not contain any power.
After this exciting exhibition of artistry, we drove to Clayburn Village Store and Tea Shop in Abbotsford. This is a 100-year-old general store that at one time sold everything from groceries to dry goods. It was central in a town that manufactured bricks. Today, it specializes in all sorts of candy and at the same time, it’s a Tea Shop where people can satisfy their noon-day hunger. We enjoyed red-pepper soup and a sandwich, topped off by a small piece of coconut cream pie. Our expert bus driver delivered us back to the church by four PM. The trip had been most enjoyable.
Our pipe band practice is on Thursday nights, beginning at seven o’clock, so there still was time to drive there and prepare for the Legion’s Remembrance Day Celebration in November. This definitely made it a full day.
The next day was also very special in that we had tickets for a musical concert in our church. The acoustics are considered so good in the sanctuary that choirs and instrumentalists elect for this church venue. Friday night we were guests at a piano extravaganza, consisting of four seven-foot grand pianos with two duo pianists, namely a father and son team, Alexander and Daniel Tselyakov from Brandon Manitoba and Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann from White Rock, BC. The audience consisted of about 500 enthusiastic classic music lovers and they were not disappointed. The music was wonderful.
The web site for these concerts is, www.whiterockconcerts.com and one may Email either, rickgambrel@gmail.com or gzuk@telus.net to learn more about them.
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