Vines Art Glass

Bandon, OR
Rt. 101

"Ooo! Ooooooo! Blown glass! Turn around! Turn AROUND!"

 

We have a problem with blown glass places. They have a tendency to cause sudden braking and swerving of our vehicles, move our clocks forward, and either empty our wallets or leave us forlorn at the sight of our empty hands... I just realized that none of that sounds at all enjoyable, but we do it anyway because each store is almost guaranteed to be unique and filled with shiny things.

We used the petting zoo down the road to turn around.

I can only imagine that this is the saddest petting zoo ever.

Vines Art Glass is run by a lovely young couple, Bryce and Miyuki, who make and sell mindblowingly gorgeous vases and ornaments. GORGEOUS.

Budget? What budget?

There were vases, ornaments, lamps, necklaces, little spheres containing distant galaxies swirling off into infinity, and perfume bottles like the one above. Mikyuki also showed us thick glass tumblers that were dishwasher-safe. And by showed, I mean she grabbed two of them and smacked them together with a proud smile. We must have spent over an hour there, oohing and ahhing over every single piece while a sense of dread enveloped us as we looked at the prices. They weren't mad expensive. They were something far, far worse. Affordable. Britt selected the perfume bottle shown above (called Blue Wisteria) and brought it to the counter. As with every piece we set aside to purchase, Miyuki did a careful last inspection. Neither of us could see it, but she noticed there was a chip in the perfume bottle stopper, so Bryce took it out back and fixed it right then and there.

I couldn't decide on this one or the next...

 

Obviously I just gave up.

While we browsed and made some difficult decisions, Bryce gave us tips and advice for our road trip, such as getting gas in Eureka. Apparently there are no signs to tell us we wont find gas for another four hours, and we wont have cell phone reception either. He printed out directions of a place to check out the redwoods, and made a list of some his favorite wineries in Napa Valley, CA, solving one of our frequent problems - decision making.

Conflict resolution and random encounters, brought to you by Koplow Dice

As we were leaving, Miyuki ran out the door after us to recommend we eat at Redfish, a restaurant with a great view half an hour down the road. We wanted it like it, but it was a bit artsy, pricey and pretentious. Although my crab cakes were delicious, Britt said her chowder needed some salt - this is the kind of restaurant where asking for salt would have been considered the worst kind of insult - and muttered that Campbell's soup was better. The view was amazing, though.

We contemplated ending the road trip at this point and never going home.

If you're ever anywhere near Bandon, OR, you absolutely have to stop into their store. Every item successfully combined functionality, artistic eye and glassmaking talent, and having seen the work there, we might have turned into glass snobs, doomed to find all the rest wanting in either value or craftsmanship.

We <3 Oregon!