Tub toys


      Shaken? Stirred? How about floated? Even James Bond might find intrigue in the unique stemware crafted by glass artists Walter Lieberman and James Mongrain.

      "My girlfriend and I liked to drink champagne in the bathtub. We'd fashion floating glasses from paper cups and Styrofoam," explains Lieberman. "One day she asked if real goblets could be made to float." The romance didn't last, but Lieberman's determination to develop floating stemware did.

      Lieberman met Mongrain, a Chihuly ace glassblower, and between them they solved the problems of keeping the glasses stable and the beverages cold. What was harder, says Lieberman, was "not having them look like a 300-pound woman in a life preserver." Mongrain's familiarity with goblet design helped with that. The results? Old-world-romantic champagne flutes with stems for keels, and sleekly sensuous martini glasses with built-in olives for ballast. Hot tub and a toast, anyone?

-by Shannon O'Leary SEATTLE MAGAZINE

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