Jewell Gardens TOUR operations are canceled for the 2021 season, and until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to your travels. We are hiring staff for 2022, and have limited volunteer or employment opportunities this season as well. Please contact us with special requests and stay in touch!
We appreciate your support and understanding during these difficult COVID years, and we wish you well!
While there are a few glassblowing studios in the Last Frontier, none are as open to the public or nestled in a more beautiful setting than Garden City Glassworks in Skagway.
Jewell Garden’s ‘Hot Shop’ sits at the base of an impressive rock wall amid the beauty of Jewell Gardens, arguably the state’s most impressive show garden. About a mile from town, the Gardens are a welcome retreat from the busy-ness of downtown Skagway which can see up to 15,000 cruise ship visitors per day in the summer season.
Our studios, named after Tligit clans and moieties-- Eagle, Raven, Salmon, and Wolf-- are where the magic happens. We have two furnaces and four reheating chambers bringing the heat to SE Alaska! Our artists work with a type of glass called soft glass which is made up of silica, limestone, and soda ash. You will be amazed at what they can create with such simple inputs!
Between tours, our team is constantly working on the Jewell Gardens glass product line to fill our gallery with unique glass art. We look forward to showing you around!
We have six full time glassblowers who blow glass and facilitate amazing tours full time April through October. We turn our funcaces on in April and don’t turn them off again until the last cruise ship leaves. Our glass team has a variety of background experience and skillsets that they bring to Jewell Gardens making our tours unique and ever evolving.
Thank you for your support!