TACOMA — The Proctor District is known for its unique features — a Blue Mouse, an oversize salmon, an antique clock and now: glass art.
Within a few months, the neighborhood in Tacoma’s North End has spawned two new glass-art galleries.
The owners of downtown’s Tacoma Glassblowing Studio opened the Tacoma Glass Gallery and Fusing Studio in early June at North 25th and North Proctor streets. It comes on the heels of Marcus Harper GlassWorks, which opened its doors one block to the south earlier this year.
There’s no glass blowing happening on Proctor — that requires a 2,000-degree furnace that runs 24 hours a day. Instead, artists at the two locations focus on fused glass, which requires kilns operating at lower temperatures but produces just as colorful and translucent results.
Mark and Jeannine Sigafoos, the owners of the Glass Gallery, and artist Marcus Harper feel like they’ve finally come home.
“In downtown, we’ve been an island for 18 years,” Jeannine Sigafoos said. “We don’t have a community, so to speak. And here, I was hoping we could create a community.”
Three-foot-long flowers, trays and psychedelic snowflake-like wall hangings greet visitors at Marcus Harper Glassworks. Harper creates the art, and husband Charles Jorgenson handles the business aspects.
Harper has been working in fused-glass art for decades. His process uses sheets of glass or crushed glass melted in a kiln. He uses literary references to describe his style.
“It just reminds me of something that maybe Dr. Seuss would have seen when he visited Alice in Wonderland,” he said.
The gallery has had several locations since the couple moved to Tacoma in 2006.
“There’s a great community in Proctor,” Harper said. “All the different store owners are very supportive of each other.”
Tacoma Glassblowing Studio is still in business at its downtown location at 114 S. 23rd St. The Proctor location allows for events, a larger gallery and a focus on fused glass. The gallery sells both blown and fused glass.
The new gallery is a change of tone from the downtown location, which has to keep its doors locked 24 hours per day to prevent visits from non-customers, Jeannine Sigafoos said.
She sees the new location as an addition, not a duplication, of the downtown studio.
The gallery’s wares are made in Tacoma by a variety of artists, she said. Come fall, it will be the site of their popular pumpkin patch — stocked with blown-glass pumpkins, of course. The studio’s employees have been creating the pieces for several months.
“When we found this space, it really opened up the opportunity to tap into other glass we’ve always wanted to do that didn’t have the elbow room for it,” she said. “We have the skill for it. We have the artists for it. We just didn’t have a place for it.”
Both Sigafoos and Harper have had customers comment on the “competition” down the street. But they’ve been friends for years and knew they each were opening galleries on Proctor. They view the close proximity as a benefit and a way to make the neighborhood a glass-art destination.
“Marcus is incredibly talented,” Sigafoos said. “He’s been doing it for many years, and I feel like his style is totally different from our style, and it’s a different form of glass.”
As if to illustrate the point, Jim and Barb Cieslak of Federal Way stepped into Harper’s gallery carrying a vase they had just bought at the Glass Gallery. The couple said they are attracted to the colors and play of light that glass offers.
“People get so many looks with it,” Barb Cieslak said. “Marcus with the fusing is one thing, and then we like blown glass.”
A few minutes later, two medical convention organizers from the East Coast were looking over the wares in the Glass Gallery. Other customers entered the space at a regular pace.
Glass art is also for sale at The Pacific Northwest Shop across the street from Tacoma Glassblowing Studio and at the Proctor Art Gallery around the corner on North 26th Street.
