“You’re turning, turning. Softly. Okay, stop. Blow. Stand by in three, two, one. Torch it!”

Dancing? Cooking? No, but to artists such as Tony Jojola and his team of assistants, the art of glass-blowing is as choreographed as a dance and demands the precision timing of a chef preparing crème brûlée. Native American glass art

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Benjamin Harjo, Jr. (Shawnee/Seminole) has an infectious sense of mirth and creative energy, which he pours into his award-winning paintings, both large and small. Photo courtesy Ackerman McQueen.

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On August 29, 2001, under blazing-hot sunshine, several hundred invited guests gathered on the grounds of the Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle, Washington to witness the raising of a very special totem pole commissioned to celebrate the roles that artist Dale Chihuly and benefactors John Hauberg and Anne Gould Hauberg played in the founding of this renowned institution. The unique totem pole is the first to combine traditional red cedar with cast, etched and blown glass components, as well the subtle use of neon lighting.

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The vivid yellow, red and jade colors of this Cakchiquel Maya girl’s home in San Antonio Palopo, on the shores of Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan, are not happenstance. They were carefully chosen by her father, Don Juan. Color in the Maya world helps govern cultural and spiritual life.

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In his mind's eye, Isleta Pueblo sculptor Tony Jojola already can see the forms: water jugs, seed jars, decorative pots of every design and description, all blessed by the same sacred element as clay-fire-but made of a substance that radiates the sun-glass. Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee) believes a studio glass center and glass-blowing project now taking form at Taos Pueblo will evolve into "one of the most significant Native American art movements since beadwork in the 1700s and metal-smithing and the use of silver in the 1850s."