Published June 2004

Wildfire Glass Studio:
Bothell business celebrates art glass
with classes, demonstrations

Snohomish County Business Journal/KIMBERLY HILDEN Will Paschal, an 18-year veteran glass artisan, takes hot glass out of Wildfire Glass Studio’s hot-shop furnace to begin work on his next project. Along with creating blown glass, Paschal teaches classes on the subject at Wildfire.

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Dennis Hamper, owner of an art-glass gallery in Bothell, hopes his newest venture, Wildfire Glass Studio, catches on like, well, wildfire.

The studio, which opened in January at the Country Village in Bothell, is part tourist attraction, education center and retail outlet for art glass — a combination lacking in a region well known for its glass artisans, Hamper said.

“The Northwest has numerous hot shops around the Puget Sound, but those are usually for the artists,” said Hamper. With Wildfire, it’s about engaging the public.

Housed in an old Empire Builder railroad car and adjacent “hot shop” — complete with a furnace running at 2,150 degrees Fahrenheit — Wildfire offers visitors a chance to take courses in fused or blown glass, watch skilled artisans at work and buy from a selection of art glass produced on site.

“We’re here as a community asset and learning experience,” said Hamper, who has been selling art glass with his wife, Lilo, at their nearby Crystal Gallery for the past six years.

Since opening, Wildfire has hosted children’s birthday parties and school field trips. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the studio holds a kids clinic — “for big kids, too,” in which participants make an art-glass item, either fused-glass tiles or jewelry or a blown-glass paperweight, for $20, Hamper said.

Open daily for viewing from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wildfire holds a series of classes in the evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Cost for four three-hour sessions is $180 for fused glass and $360 for glass blowing, Hamper said.

While building a business takes time, “the reaction from customers has just been outstanding,” he said. “Everybody who has discovered us, who has taken a class, has had a marvelous experience.”

Two Wildfire customers so enjoyed learning the art of fused glass that they started a fused-glass club at work, with a group of co-workers coming out to the studio one night a month, Hamper said.

“This should become a tourist attraction,” he said, noting the growing interest in glass blowing thanks to the works of such artists as Dale Chihuly.

To what does he attribute that growing interest and his own affection for art glass?

“Glass makes people happy,” he said.

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