Clearly tree-planting along SE 21st Avenue doesn’t begin to address the environmental impact of glass manufacturing today.

What’s water got to do with it?

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For Gary, Toni and Cynthia: a few more “where we came from” pictures on the way to Talking Values.

This one is Dan – SPF clueless – in 1974. He, Ray and Boyce were building the Bullseye factory, brick by recycled brick.

Most of the building materials for the furnace room came from Zidel’s, a salvage yard in Portland’s south waterfront, a junk-lover’s paradise where dismantled naval vessels gave up their innards to the inveterate artist-tinkerers whose recipe for glassblowing, commerce, and hard-partying pretty much summed up the Zeitgeist of Portland’s ‘60s-sprouted entrepreneurs.
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Every year the same Bullseye people who build the furnaces, ladle the glass, pack the crates, teach the classes, stock the shelves, and answer the phones put together my favorite exhibition: Working Glass.

“Untitled” got my vote: a pair of over-sized pink nuts. From a young woman in the maintenance department.

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BEFORE: Ray Ahlgren & Dan Schwoerer, 1973.

After 33 years in business, Bullseye looks a lot different from the outside. But the soul is the same. So now, finally, I get around to the point of this first week of blogs: who we are, who Bullseye is.

Who we are is who we’ve always been: a slightly eccentric little factory driven by people with a lot of energy, passion about glass, some oddball ideas and a commitment to learning. In a serious, relatively professional way.
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This is circa 1975, maybe 18 months after Bullseye started. From left to right that’s Ray, David, Dan (my partner), Dave (without his magpie), Liz, Kerry and Vicky.

I got here in 1983. More about that – and me – later. For now, what matters is that this is my first blog. Where I’m going to try to tell you about Bullseye, the company. It’ll take a few episodes to get you up to date. Then we can deal with being BE – today.

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