Artist and teacher

If you can breathe, you can be a glass blower, according to Spencer Erlendson. In fact, he’s willing to show you how – to blow glass, that is. The 34-year-old artist teaches his craft in his 4,000-square-foot downtown Coeur d’Alene studio.

And before your class, you can warm up with a cup of java in the coffeehouse portion of his digs, then gain inspiration from the dozens of colorful bowls, platters, paperweights, bottles, vases, veggies, fanciful hats and Christmas ornaments on display in his gallery.

It’s the only glass-blowing studio/coffee shop/gallery in the Inland Northwest, he claims.

Erlendson moved his operation from Post Falls to 116 Lakeside Ave. last April, principally to gain better access to downtown shoppers and summer tourist crowds, but also to pick up a few extra bucks from the coffee trade, especially in the off-season.

Based on production, that move has paid off handsomely.

His old Post Falls studio attracted tour buses, but it was a bit too removed from mainstream galleries in Coeur d’Alene, he says.

“While we were there, I blew 3 to 4 tons of glass each year,” he says. “But since we moved, I’ve gone through 8 tons.”

Erlendson credits a good portion of his business to the Downtown Art Association, which conducts walking tours to galleries on Friday nights during the summer months.

He’s also tied in with tour companies, “and it doesn’t hurt a bit to be just a block away from the resort and the beach,” he says.

Erlendson also picked up some fair change last holiday season. He taught more than 100 folks – including a 2-year-old – to make their own Christmas ornaments at $18 an ornament.

Erlendson began learning his art in 1993 as an apprentice in the Mt. St. Helens Glassworks in Centralia, Wash. He moved to Coeur d’Alene three years later to study under master glass blower John Macpherson.

When Macpherson retired in 1998, Erlandson bought his equipment, and since then has updated his skills in yearly classes devoted to specialty techniques at Red Deer College in Alberta.

His latest technique is “incalmo,” which Erlendson defines as joining different colored bubbles together to form vases, bowls and platters. But his principal concentration for the next year will be on light shades and table lamps to decorate his studio and for sale.

Erlendson’s gallery displays the works of eight other artists, including those of his assistants Steve Farr and Joel Nelson, both of whom help teach his classes.

Farr has been learning his trade under Erlendson for seven years; Nelson has been blowing glass for five years.

And, says Erlandson, he’s continually searching for other artists, to sell their products and to teach their own forms of the art to his students.

In addition to sales through his gallery, Erlendson participates in Coeur d’Alene’s Art on the Green and similar shows in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Wholesalers also sell his work throughout the U.S. and in Australia, Germany and Hong Kong.

For those who aspire to learn the art, Erlendson offers a one-day class for $175 that he labels, “Get Your Feet Wet.” It covers safety, solid-worked glass such as paperweights, plus some blowing, and students take home a finished piece.

Tuition for his two-day “intensive” class is $300. It includes work with both solid and blown glass, covering the same material as the “feet wet” course plus mechanics of the equipment, glass history and its fundamentals, tools, techniques, color, teamwork and communications. Students of this course also keep a piece they’ve rendered.

Erlandson also offers courses through North Idaho College. His class for beginners is March 8 and 9, and intermediate glass blowing will be offered April 12 and 13. Tuition for each is $325, and reservations may be secured by calling NIC at 769-3444, or on the Web at