Finding one of Lincoln City’s famous glass floats on the beach takes a little persistence and a lot of luck. Making one yourself? That’s something you can actually put on the itinerary.
Glass art has become part of the identity of Lincoln City. One of the most memorable ways to experience it is at the Lincoln City Glass Center. Instead of simply shopping for a souvenir, visitors can make an appointment to create their own piece of glass art alongside a professional glassblower. You choose what you want to make, select colors and designs, and get an up-close look at how molten glass becomes a finished piece of art.
And if a glass float is what brought you here in the first place, there’s a fitting connection. Lincoln City’s Finders Keepers program places thousands of artisan-made floats along the city’s seven miles of shoreline throughout the year. If you’re lucky enough to stumble across one, you get to keep it. If luck isn’t on your side, the Lincoln City Glass Center gives you another option: make a glass float of your own and come home with both the float and the story of creating it.
What is the Lincoln City Glass Center?
The Lincoln City Glass Center is a working glass studio and gallery located at 4821 SW Highway 101 in Lincoln City’s Taft area. The studio gives visitors the opportunity to work with professional glassblowers to design their own pieces.
You don’t need to arrive knowing how to blow glass. The experience is built around working with a professional who can introduce you to the process and help turn the colors and design you choose into a finished piece.
What can you make at the Lincoln City Glass Center?
A float might be the obvious choice in a city famous for glass floats, but it isn’t your only option.
The Lincoln City Glass Center currently offers several choices for its hands-on glass experience:
- Small glass float
- Large glass float
- Round paperweight
- Heart paperweight
- Jellyfish paperweight
- Votive candle holder
- Small bowl
- Large bowl
The Center displays different colors and designs at the studio so you can decide what you want your finished piece to look like.
Current prices listed by the Glass Center range from $75 to $225 depending on the piece. A small float is listed at $75 and measures approximately 5.5 inches, while the approximately 7-inch large float is $110. Paperweights, heart paperweights, jellyfish paperweights and votives are currently $95. Small bowls are $125, and large bowls are $225. Because prices can change, check the Lincoln City Glass Center website when making your reservation for current pricing.
For floats, you can also choose between a loop or a flat base, giving you the option to display your finished float in different ways.
What happens when you make your own glass?
Part of what makes glass blowing in Lincoln City such an interesting experience is getting close enough to the process to understand just how much goes into something that looks effortless when it’s sitting on a gallery shelf.
The Lincoln City Glass Center keeps its clear glass in an electric furnace running at approximately 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Another furnace, known as the glory hole, is used to continually reheat or melt the glass and reaches a working temperature of approximately 2,250 degrees.
The studio also uses specialized tools throughout the glass-making process. Blowpipes are long, hollow stainless steel tubes used to gather molten glass. Jacks help form shapes, shears can cut and manipulate the hot glass, paddles create flattened areas, and wooden blocks can be used for shaping. The Center uses “frit,” or colored glass, to add color to clear glass, with color mixes available for the public to use.
You don’t have to memorize any of those terms before your appointment. In fact, the Center jokingly assures visitors on its tools-and-terms page that there won’t be a quiz. But knowing a little about what you’re seeing makes the experience even more interesting when you’re standing in the studio.
Rather than looking at a finished float and wondering how somebody made it, you get to see the tools, heat and technique involved in transforming molten glass into the piece you’ll eventually take home.
Choosing the colors for your glass
This is where your finished piece starts to become your own.
The Glass Center has a variety of colors and designs available to choose from at the studio. That opens up plenty of possibilities for making something that reminds you specifically of your Lincoln City trip. You could take inspiration from the blues of the Pacific, the colors of an Oregon Coast sunset, or whatever combination you like.
And because this is handmade glass, slight variations are part of the finished product. The Glass Center notes on its retail glass listings that bubbles, variations in color, and other small differences are part of what makes individual hand-blown pieces unique.
In other words, you aren’t leaving with something pulled from a stack of identical souvenirs. Your piece has its own character.
Why you can’t take your glass home immediately
There is one important detail to know before scheduling glass blowing during your Lincoln City vacation: you won’t walk out of the studio with your finished piece that same day.
Hot glass needs to cool gradually. Cooling it too quickly can cause thermal shock and break the glass, so completed pieces are placed into an annealer, or kiln. At the end of the day, the Lincoln City Glass Center runs a program that slowly lowers the temperature overnight.
Your piece can then be picked up when the Center opens the following day. If you’re leaving Lincoln City before then, you can arrange to have it shipped home for an additional charge. The Center says it offers insured shipping and ships completed projects once a week.
That’s worth keeping in mind when planning your trip. If you want to pick up your glass yourself, schedule your experience before your final day in Lincoln City.
Can kids make their own glass?
Yes, with some restrictions.
According to the Lincoln City Glass Center’s current FAQ, children who are at least 8 years old and taller than 46 inches may participate, provided they can follow the necessary instructions and behave appropriately around the equipment.
That makes glass blowing an option for families looking for something beyond another afternoon on the beach. It also comes with a pretty good answer to the inevitable “What did you do on vacation?” question when everyone gets home.
Instead of bringing back a souvenir from the gift shop, kids who meet the participation requirements can bring home something connected to an experience they actually had.
Do you need a reservation?
The Lincoln City Glass Center highly recommends making an appointment to ensure there is space available for you. Reservations can be made through the reservation link on the Center’s official website.
For something you specifically want to do during your Lincoln City vacation, booking ahead is the safer choice rather than assuming space will be available when you arrive.
Current operating information should also be checked directly before your visit. The Center currently lists its create-your-own operation as open daily, generally from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., while noting that it may close at 5 p.m. on some nights during the slower season and recommends calling if you hope to make glass after 5.
What if you just want to watch glass blowing?
You can do that, too. The Lincoln City Glass Center says visitors are welcome to watch glassblowers at work for free, with benches available for spectators. You may also be able to watch other visitors working with artists on their own pieces.
For anyone curious about glass blowing but not ready to make something themselves, this is an easy way to see the process in person. The Center also has a glass gallery adjoining the studio, and its second gallery, Volta Gallery, is located across the street.
Find a Lincoln City glass float or make your own
Of course, before you make your float, you can always try finding one.
Lincoln City’s Finders Keepers program continues the tradition of glass fishing floats that once washed ashore on the Oregon Coast. Those original floats were used to keep fishing nets afloat, and beachcombers prized the glass spheres that traveled across the Pacific and eventually appeared on Oregon beaches. Lincoln City’s modern program grew out of that history, with local and regional artists creating new floats for visitors to discover.
For 2026, more than 3,000 artisan-made Finders Keepers floats are being placed along Lincoln City’s seven miles of shoreline throughout the year. They’re placed during daylight hours above the high tide line and below the beach embankment, at random times and locations. They are not placed in the beach grass.
If you find one, it really is finders keepers. The program asks visitors to limit themselves to one float per household per year. You can register your find with Explore Lincoln City to receive a certificate of authenticity and information about the artist who created it.
And there’s an especially nice connection between the treasure hunt and the Glass Center: Lincoln City Glass Center artists are among the artists creating floats for the Finders Keepers program.
So keep an eye out while you’re walking the beach. You might get lucky.
But if the Float Fairies don’t happen to cross your path, you don’t have to leave Lincoln City float-less. Make an appointment at the Lincoln City Glass Center and create one yourself. You may not get the surprise of spotting a hidden float in the sand, but you gain something else: the experience of watching your own piece take shape from molten glass.
Shop for finished glass art and floats
If hunting for a float or making your own isn’t quite your thing, you can still take some Lincoln City glass home with you. The Lincoln City Glass Center also sells finished hand-blown glass pieces, including glass floats in a variety of colors and designs.
You can find accessories for displaying them, too, including illuminated bases and holders that can turn a float into a glowing piece of décor. Beyond floats, the gallery features other handmade glass art, with pieces that change throughout the year and seasonal creations such as glass pumpkins around the holidays. It’s worth browsing the gallery even if you aren’t signed up for a glass-blowing experience—you may find a finished piece that’s ready to make the trip home with you.
Add glass blowing to your Lincoln City trip
The best souvenirs usually aren’t the ones you grab five minutes before heading home. They’re the ones with a story attached.
Making your own glass at the Lincoln City Glass Center gives you both. You get to experience one of the art forms most closely associated with Lincoln City, work alongside someone who knows the craft, choose the look of your piece and eventually take home something connected to the trip itself.
If you’re staying oceanfront at D Sands Rentals, you can even give yourself two chances at a glass float. Walk the beach and keep your eyes open for a Finders Keepers treasure, then head into town to make one of your own.
One comes down to luck. The other just takes a reservation.
Either way, you’ll have a pretty good reason to keep looking at the glass long after your Lincoln City vacation is over.
Book Your Next Vacation
Browse our entire selection of rentals today and find the perfect match for your vacation!
