Vendors at the Saturday Puyallup Farmers Market got into the Halloween spirit dressed as scarecrows or dogs, while kids strolled the downtown market disguised as cats, witches or princesses.

But one costume that stood out from all the rest belonged to Mark Sigafoos. With his black fright wig and eye patch – not to mention his collection of some 700 blown-glass pumpkins – there was no mistaking his assumed identity as Tacoma native son and global glass art superstar Dale Chihuly.

The pumpkins were the creation of Sigafoos and his team from Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio.

The studio displayed the pumpkins for sale on bales of straw under a white awning. Prices ranged from $40 for a small orb you could hold in one hand to $250 for larger pieces suitable for a Halloween or Thanksgiving dining table centerpiece.

Business was brisk, as customers lined up to purchase the glass creations.

“I think we chose the perfect town,” said Sigafoos, who graduated from Puyallup High School. “It’s such a pumpkin patch kind of town. There’s real pumpkin patches here.”

Sigafoos was living in Seattle in 1997 when he rode his bike past a glass blowing shop and got interested in the art form.

“I signed up for a class and fell deeply in love with it,” he said.

He worked for Chihuly for about a year in the 1990s before opening the studio he runs with his wife, Jeannine, four years ago.

His studio’s decorative vegetables come in a rainbow of colors – traditional orange with green stems, but also purple, green, apricot and blue with stems of silver or gold. Most were translucent, but a few were opaque.

Koleen Vrooman of Puyallup bought a purple pumpkin with a gold stem to display in her home.

“It’s handmade,” she said. “I was drawn to it.”

Corey Bevis of Puyallup is a big admirer of both Chihuly and glass art.

“I like the art, the freedom of it, that every piece is different,” he said. “I love the heat, the flames, the way you can add colors.” He said he’s taken art classes, but never studied glass blowing. He was pleased to learn that Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio offers beginning classes.

Bevis chose an orange pumpkin with silver spots and a yellow stem. He planned to give it a new home on his crystal shelf, next to his wine glasses.

Darlene Wisness of Puyallup is a glass art fan, with an established collection that includes a group of glass roosters made in the 1940s. She was happy to add one of Sigafoos’ medium-sized pumpkins to her collection.

She said she looked at several colors, but decided to go with traditional orange, with added gold highlights and a green stem.

“I love the embellishment on it,” she said, stroking the gold dusting on the pumpkin’s surface. “It’s a classic round pumpkin – the kind you’d look for if you were going to carve one.”

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635

debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com

To learn more

www.tacomaglassblowing.com