A love of birds takes flight in glass
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ST. IGNATIUS—Peter Reuthlinger walks under a canopy of crimson, aqua and amber pear-shaped hummingbird feeders suspended overhead by rope tied to a rack. The rain hitting the aluminum roof of his studio, the Rainbow Studio, sounds like millions of grains of rice falling from the sky as he checks the oven he uses to heat the more than 1,000 blown glass feeders inside his studio and home.
Though a chilly spring day, the inside of the oven was still warm from use nearly one-week prior. Reuthlinger stopped blowing the glass feeders on a Wednesday. Generally, it takes 10 days for the oven to cool from a temperature of 2,365 degrees fahrenheit. Twice a year, in the spring and fall, he spends about two months creating the custom glass feeders.
“I never wanted to be a glass blower,” Reuthlinger said, as he stood next to a display stand full of feeders. “I just wanted to make hummingbird feeders.”
Reuthlinger, 74, started his glass-blowing venture more than 25 years ago while living in California. He wanted to create a feeder that was as colorful and unique as the hummingbird.
“I have no idea why, I was just obsessed by it,” Reuthlinger said. “In Germany there are no hummingbirds and I was fascinated by them.”
He started to take glass blowing classes at San Bernardino College in California and then went on to enroll at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington.
Reuthlinger said during the time he started to learn glass blowing, hummingbird feeders were very primitive—typically made of wine and coke bottles. Some added food coloring to the nectar inside to make it more colorful, which according to Reuthlinger, was harmful to the birds.
“I thought the birds deserved something better,” he explained.
Though Reuthlinger has seen the world twice over as a merchant mariner and traveler, he credited the grandeur of the Mission Mountains with keeping him in Montana.
Originally from Ingolstadt, Germany, Reuthlinger moved to Montana after an invitation to visit the state from his real estate agent who sold a home for him and his first wife, Ahn, in Oregon.
“We fell in love,” Reuthlinger said of their first impression of Montana. He also explained that he preferred high altitude regions because he grew up near the Alps in Germany.
Shortly after their visit, Reuthlinger and Ahn moved to Hamilton where they owned a bed and breakfast for 10 years. During this time, Reuthlinger’s custom bird feeders took a backseat as the bed and breakfast business kept him quite busy. In 1996, Reuthlinger lost his wife to cancer.
In 1999, Reuthlinger met his second wife, Carylon, also an artist, at a café in Hamilton.
Their home in St. Ignatius, an old schoolhouse, houses her paintings and his glasswork. On the dining room table sits a bowl Reuthlinger molded in his studio. Though he occasionally makes other types of glassware, Reuthlinger said most of his creations are hummingbird feeders. In addition to the feeders, he sells and hand stitches one-of-a-kind leatherwork that he stores in the basement.
Standing underneath an awning over his front door, Reuthlinger can usually see the Mission Mountains. But today, they are shrouded in fog and rain. Hanging from the branches of a small tree in the front yard are more than a hundred reject hummingbird feeders. Rainwater dripped from the bright orbs, some with no noticeable defects and others with cracks and lopsided openings.
Though his studio is open year round, Reuthlinger said only a few visitors travel down the narrow road that leads to his home at the base of the mountains.
Few hummingbirds also make the journey to his home.
Reuthlinger said hummingbirds tend to stay around more populated areas where there are a lot of feeders.
“Think of it as a city with a lot of restaurants,” Reuthlinger said.
Despite the remote location, his studio hasn’t seemed to affect business as Reuthlinger’s hummingbird feeders are sold at businesses in Missoula, Arlee and Ronan. He also sells the feeders at three yearly art shows in Whitefish, Kalispell and Bigfork and displays them at several art galleries in Arizona, Texas, Oregon, California and Washington.
Rockin Rudy’s in Missoula has sold Reuthlinger’s feeders for four years. According to Joyce Gibbs, store manager and buyer, Reuthlinger’s hummingbird feeders are the only ones currently sold in the store. They sell an average of 24 feeders a year.
“I liked the colors and the texture of the glass,” Gibbs said. “He is a great artisan.”
Reuthlinger says he was the first to create a hand-blown glass hummingbird feeder. He never had the idea patented and simply stated, “I should have done that 30 years ago but I never had any competition.” He said now most of the commercial hummingbird feeders he sees are made in China and Mexico.
“After all these years I still like the work, the routine and the colors,” Reuthlinger said. “It is my creation.”
Though he still enjoys his craft, Reuthlinger is considering retiring next year. He said he is getting older and the glass blowing has taken a toll on his body.
“I’m thinking about moving to Arizona,” he said. “I want to go where there is more sunshine and more hummingbirds.”
