North Carolina Glass Center Holiday Market

Growing up in New England, Max Trainque never colored with crayons. Instead, he would press his Crayola art supplies against cast-iron water heaters and watch the colored wax transform into something entirely new. “The blended colors that liquified and captured my imagination began a personal journey into adulthood to recreate that same wonderment and awe in glass,” he explains. Now based in Asheville, Trainque creates hand-blown glass objects, including jewelry, vessels, marbles, sculptures, and lighting. This year, in anticipation of the Yuletide season, he has also crafted three styles of holiday ornaments. Two of the designs are fairly traditional, but the third is a translucent glass pickle — a nod to a German-American custom in which an ornamental pickle is hidden among the boughs of a Christmas tree. The first to find the “Weihnachtsgurke” (German for “Christmas pickle”) is said to have a year of good fortune. Now, whether or not a festively brined cucumber has special powers can neither be confirmed nor denied. But if you are interested in trying your luck, Trainque will peddle his ornaments at the North Carolina Glass Center Holiday Market, running through late December.