In the Hilltop and Northend neighborhoods of Tacoma, however, the Hilltop Artists in Residence hot shops have captured the attention and imagination of middle and high school students. Created in 1994 in partnership with Tacoma Public Schools, Hilltop Artists provides a daily program of arts instruction, academics, tutoring, and mentoring. Master glass artist Dale Chihuly frequently works with Hilltop students to teach the skills of this breathtakingly beautiful art form. Glass blowing and glass arts in combination with academic support build on the creative and social strengths of youth. Students become contributing citizens, recognized as assets to their community.
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John Cook Studios creates lamps which are unique. They use their own molds to cast the lamp base, their own dies to stamp and coin the copper leaves. These parts are silver soldered together, the lamp is copper plated and their specially formulated patina is then applied. The tubing is individually hand bent and the glass shades are blown by hand without the use of a mold. These methods insure each lamp is unique even among the lamps of the same style.