ROCHESTER, Wash. — They may not be magic flutes, but for 50 years the glass instruments Jim Hall first started making as a college student have led to a charmed life.
"I think most people are surprised that they sound so good," his wife Jenny said. "Usually when he starts playing the heads just turn and anyone who has an interest in music usually steps closer.
Every Hall Crystal flute is born in fire on a homemade machine Jim calls the "Flute Tractor."
"I start with a tube of glass," he explained. "It's about 4 feet long. The end is sealed off by pinching it off and then it's tapered with a carbon paddle."
Once the tubes have cooled Jim places them on another homemade machine to form the finger holes.
"So the machine is heating the hole, air is blown into it which makes bubbles. The bubbles are sanded off and I heat it up and smooth out these holes," Jim said.
"Then it goes from me to Jenny," he laughed.
An artist in her own right, one day Jenny was selling decorated eggs at a street fair in Port Orchard.
"I had a booth set up next to this nice flute player and he serenaded me for the entire day, and we had dinner and about a year later we were married," she said. "That was 30 years ago."
Jenny handles the business side of things and adds the ceramic decals to each flute.
"It's a water mount so they're applied, and they're kiln fired again and then boxed," she said.
This isn't about getting rich the couple says. It's a business that has allowed them to work from home, raising two children.
"It was a good choice," Jim said. "I got to see my kids grow up. I got to be here."
At renaissance fairs and street festivals the couple says once Jim starts playing, the flutes pretty much sell themselves.
"Eventually they're going to end up in the hands of somebody who's going to be playing them and enjoying them," Jenny said.
It has been a life filled with music.
"Music is a healing thing so to be able to create something that affects other people in such a positive way I think is also a big thing for us," Jenny said.
"It's been a good life," Jim said.
"Yeah it's not over!" Jenny said.
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