We also attended the Virginia Hot Glass Festival at the Sunspots Studios, which ran concurrently with the Victorian Festival. I was mesmerized when the glass artists blew hot class and turned into different shapes and colors. At some exhibits the artists would explain what they were doing and the techniques they were using. Watching the artists sweat in the hot studio taking a piece of lava like glass put it on a rod, blow on it and make it bigger, add on to it, add color, put it in and out of two different ovens took me to a different land, the land of the fairies. As the artists formed different shaped glass I watched them like someone in the middle ages observe the magicians. It seemed as if nothing was impossible. One moment the glowing red glass would be like a ball next minute it would open up and became a vase. As the glass cooled down it would lose its red glove and if no colorful beads were added it would be white. Sometimes the artists would add different colors together, cut the hot lava with scissors and I would dream that it wasn't a glass but candy.

If you are living near Staunton put your kids in your car and drove to have a really fun day. If you are living a little far, mark your calendar for the Victorian Festival you won't regret it.