BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Using a propane oxygen torch that emits a footlong flame, Grae Drake creates swirling patterns and delicate flowers from molten glass heated to 4,000 degrees.
“I really love making marbles,” he said of the colorful orbs he fashions from glass rods, which are about the circumference of a forefinger and thumb pinched into a circle.
“There’s no functionality — they’re just pure fun,” said Drake, the father of two young children. “I like to hide them around Bainbridge, tuck ‘em into places I think kids will find them.”
Playing with ideas, materials and professional-grade equipment is central to the ethos of the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, better known as BARN to its 1,164 members. Before Drake became executive director of the nonprofit “makerspace and learning place” last year, he was a member and volunteer in BARN’s glass…
