Visitors add glass to a 36-foot Christmas tree at Yerkes Observatory

For the third year, glass artists are helping visitors add strands of molten recycled glass to a spinning metal Christmas tree.

The community-made glass tree is at a holiday market at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The event opened Dec. 6 and will run again the weekend of Dec. 13-15, with a star topping on the final night. 

Organizers expect over 20,000 visitors.

Alongside the tree, which the artists claim is the tallest glass tree in the world, there’s a market with local vendors selling craft gifts, art exhibitions and classes, and a warm tent with food and beverages.

On the opening night of the event, the giant steel Christmas tree frame started bare. 

By Dec. 15, it will be covered with over 3,000 pounds of glass, organizers said. 

Lake Geneva resident Deanna Doyle and her children have made a tradition of visiting the tree each year on Christmas Eve, after it’s complete. 

“It’s just gorgeous,” Doyle said. “It’s quiet and it’s beautiful. The stars and the observatory and everything, and you get to take pictures when it’s completely done with the star on top.”

This year, on the event’s opening night, she added glass to the tree for the first time. 

“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do,”  Doyle said. 

Her son and daughter added glass, too. 

“It’s just kind of like a fun thing to look forward to every year,” said her young-adult daughter, Anastasia Doyle-Bruce.

That same night, 7-year-old Autumn West arrived from Shorewood, Illinois, for a “girls night” with her mother, sister, aunt and cousin. They bought tokens to add orbs of recycled glass, heated to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, to the giant Christmas tree.

“I’m kind of nervous,” West said. “But I’m also kind of excited.”

Her mother, Cassie West, and event glassblower Mary Frances Meridian helped her drizzle molten glass onto the tree’s spinning frame. It turned from hot orange to blue as it cooled.

Glass artist Jason Mack built the tree. He said it’s common for visitors to feel trepidation, like 7-year-old West.

“When people first step up,” Mack said, “they’re pretty terrified, typically.”

He gave a tutorial before he handed them a metal rod topped with smoldering glass. 

“I love seeing them walk away feeling very happy,” Mack said. “And just overcoming that fear and trying something new.”

Laila Tran, 22, traveled to the event from Chicago. After adding glass once, she got back in line to do it again. 

“This is really the best day I ever saw,” Tran said. 

She said she’d be interested in taking glassblowing classes in the future. 

Mack teaches classes at his studio in Champaign, Illinois, which he hopes to move to Wisconsin soon. 

Longtime friends run event

Mack and event organizer Robert Elliott have known each other since junior high.

In college, they ran events together out of a humble glass studio in Illinois.

One year, they built a 12-foot glass Christmas tree to attract visitors to a holiday sale of Mack’s glass ornaments. Today’s tree is three times taller. 

“The whole reason, back in the day, we started with recycled glass, was because, truthfully, we couldn’t afford studio glass,” Elliott said. 

At the time, Elliott worked at a bar. He began collecting trashed beer bottles for the operation. 

It’s rare for artists to work with recycled glass, Elliott added.

Today, the tree in Williams Bay is still made with recycled glass, collected from donation bins throughout the surrounding area. 

“I love the fact that the community grows the tree by donating their bottle glass, and then they can actually come to the event and help build it,” Mack said. 

Last year, organizers collected over 17 tons of glass. 

They needed less than one-tenth for the tree. They partnered with a glass processor to recycle the rest.

“There’s no reason for us to be putting all this glass in landfills that should be coming back into the recycling programs” Elliott said. 

After Christmas, the organizers will pull the glass off the massive tree at Yerkes Observatory. Mack will bring it back to his studio. There, they will re-melt it and make it into 7-inch tall commemorative glass trees. 

“You can re-melt glass indefinitely,” Mack said. “It’s one of the easiest materials to recycle.”

This year, visitors can buy commemorative trees made from last year’s glass.

“Like going to the Eiffel Tower and buying a small Eiffel Tower,” Mack said.

For both Mack and Elliott, educating people is a big part of the event. This year, they plan to make a donation to art and science programming at Yerkes Observatory. 

And they hope to continue building the tree there, each year. 

“Definitely want to continue to grow it and make it a fixture for a long, long time,” Elliott said.