Ocean Beaches Glassblowing & Gallery

Ocean Beaches Glass was established in 2005 by Bob and Vicki Meyer.

Bob got things going by setting up a shop in a smaller building on the property to pursue his new-found passion. From the fall of 2005 through most of 2007, the shop was in the old building, was staffed solely by Bob, and only Bob's work was on display.

During this time, though, it was starting to look like a larger-scale operation might be successful. Since the property extended all the way to Highway 101, planning was started for a new gallery out closer to the highway. After a lot of planning and subsequent excavation, the new building went up in the summer of 2007.

Part of the present gallery, though, also includes a 1960's - vintage building that had been built onto a trailer home on the site. The old trailer home was removed and the old building gutted before the new building was constructed. Once the new building was up, Bob spent the rest of 2007 finishing the inside of the entire structure, finally opening for business that December. You can see pictures here of the entire construction process.

The new building was set up to include a glassblowing studio at the center, glassblowing being the main focus of the gallery. The new building was set up to be about 2 feet below the old, providing an excellent viewing area for visitors to watch the glassblowing demonstrations.

Once the new gallery was running, Vicki became active in the operation of the business. Vicki has brought in some work of her own (she does glass fusing), is responsible for arrangement of the displays, helps coordinate new artwork coming in, and shares in personnel responsibilities with Bob.

Bob continues to blow glass and run all the other aspects of the business - keeping the books, producing the pamphlets and other forms of advertising, developing the website, and, of course, continuing the refinement and maintenance of the building.