| My story begins in Portland, Oregon. I was born February 3, 1957, the oldest of three children. I have spent my entire life in the Portland area, my two children have attended the same schools that I went to growing up. On a couple of occasions they have even had teachers that were my classmates when I attended school.
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My first encounter with glass happened when I was in the fourth grade. My mother had enrolled me in a summer school science class, I remember bending glass tubing in an alcohol burner for a class project. In 1970, I visited Colonial Jamestown, where the very first glasshouse for our nation started operating in 1608. It is interesting to look at the postcards from this adventure to Jamestown and see that I am currently using the same kind of tools every day that they were using in 1608.
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| My next encounter with glass would come in a high school ceramics class. Our class visited a stained glass studio where I first saw Tiffany style lampshades being made, I was very impressed with their beauty. At this time in my life, my father owned and operated a service station, which involved my other passion, working on cars. It seemed only natural that I would end up working as an auto mechanic, I did this for the next 10 years.
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I sustained a back injury and needed something to keep me busy while I recuperated, I started taking a class in stained glass windows. This is where my ideas about glass really started to take off, I started visiting art galleries to look at stained glass windows to get different ideas and see new styles. In exploring the galleries, I rediscovered another form of art glass, mouth blown glass. The art glass pieces that I was seeing weren't the same crude vessels that I was familiar with from Jamestown years ago. This glass was beautifully shaped and the colors were bright and bold. I knew at that time that I would not make any more stained glass windows, I was enthralled with the idea of making mouth blown glass.
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I investigated and soon found a glass blower in Portland that was giving classes, this was where I was introduced to glass blowing. By the time that my eight week long, two hours a week class was finished, I had constructed a studio in the garage of my home. I consider myself to be 90% self-taught, my style has been inventive to achieve the looks that I envision as nobody has ever told me what I "can't do". In doing this, it has eliminated restrictions, allowing me to be creative from inside of my mind. Glass blowing takes patience, timing and a passion to accomplish. Timing is imperative with blowing glass, you can do just the right thing at the wrong time and it will turn in to a complete disaster.My desire to be successful in this craft draws me to my studio, the pleasure that others receive from my work keeps me there.
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James Alloway combines superb craftsmanship and vivid imagination with an artistry not describable in words. His work speaks volumes. To fully understand this statement one must see his creations first hand.
This picture on the left was taken in front of the glowing hot "Glory Hole" andshows that the thermometer reads 150+ degrees fahrenheit and it was only 1:00 in the afternoon.
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