Discovering a new artist

Ten-year-old Tessa Rose never would have guessed that her quickly drawn picture would win a contest from entries around the state.

But that’s exactly what happened.

Last spring, the then fourth-grader was in art class when teacher Kathy Marty asked students to draw pictures to enter into the Tacoma Musem of Glass, “Kids Design Glass” contest.

Tessa thought about the assignment for a few minutes, then decided to draw an elephant, based on a pillowcase her mom had made.

She used bright green for the body, with brown polka-dots and blue shading on the tail and back.

In October, Tessa learned that she had won the contest, out of approximately 500 entries for that month.

“I was really surprised, and I didn’t think I would win,” she said. “I was very excited.”

Her mom, Susan, said Tessa has always been artistic.

“She’s always creating things and has taken a lot of art classes like drawing and illustrating,” she said.

The two traveled to Tacoma to watch Tessa’s design being made into a hand-blown glass sculpture. One copy will be kept for the museum, and the other will be given to Tessa.

Tessa enjoyed directing the glass-blowers in the museum’s hot shop as to how she wanted her design to look.

“I was a little nervous though,” she said.

It took approximately three hours to complete the piece.

“I think this was a really cool experience for her,” Susan said. “She’s a little shy, so this helped her come out of her shell more. We both learned a lot about the process by watching, too. It was great seeing what she designed made into something.”