What item got you into glass

[themoch]

I have a feeling I know the answer to this question for most of you.

But what one item, or collection of items, got you interested in glass enough to say to yourself, "I want to learn how to make those"?

That being said, did you buy a video, class, or book to help you learn? if so, what was your deciding factor when in choosing one? (eg cost, material covered, location, accessibility, etc..)

I'm writing a piece on how people get interested in the arts, and how they approached their desire to learn.

[byron3]

Money

[mer]

love.

[gotglass?]

Actually i commissioned a couple of pieces and watched them be made... the whole while being fascinated and asking questions. Then after asking him to recycle a few broken pipe pieces for me a couple of times, he finally said "why don't you make these fucked up things yourself" he sold me his old torch and set me on my way. After a week of playing around on the torch he talked me through making a spoon and besides learning how to make donuts from him no other classes. As i met more blowers and observed them working , i started asking about things i did differently... and so on.

[chayes]

Fire

[The Lorax]

when i was extremely little around 8 - 10 years old i was at the topsfield fair and my mom gave me some money to buy what ever. I got this little glass dog sculpture for $15 and thought it was the coolest thing ever that any shape could be made with glass.

then i got into pipes, learned about glasspipes.org and have been hooked on all the possibilities pipes have since 03?... So i guess pipes were what made me want to learn to do it myself, but wasn't the original catalyst for my interest.

[sertaiz]

pipes to glass love very quickly, i knew the love was there, i just didnt have it until i started.

[Icarus]

An interest in pipes, but now it turns out all I want to do is make marbles.

[Mac Maestro]

+1 Fire

[filthy god brother]

Old ladies who had lots of money and liked pretty things made by grandsons.

perfume bottles.

[menty666]

I write software for a living and one day realized I was sick of not having anything tangible to show for my time. Consider, if I turn off the computer, one little glitch can destroy any evidence of effort.

So, I went to the Worcester Center for Crafts and found a class that sounded interesting. I like fire, glass is pretty tactile for me, and it's sort of in my blood by birth. So I started off with a boro class and loved it. I bought a hothead and some 104 to play with at home since it was doable outside without too much kit, but I soon moved into the harder stuff.

Now, glass is therapy for me. I'm having a god awful day, I go torch for a while after the kids are in bed and it's like meditation. There's something nice about having a 200 degree marble in your hand knowing you made it from rods and bits of crushed glass just a few hours ago.

[HiAltitude]

hand engraved Christmas ornaments --> stained glass --> fusing glass --> sandblasting --> lampwork beads --> marbles --> blown Christmas ornaments --> goblets

I still laugh when I remember looking at an engraved ornament and saying, "I bet I could make one of these!" I didn't know that working glass is addictive.

Took lessons for a while, but my instructor moved, plus she was mostly a furnace worker. So I bought a shelf-full of DVDs and books, and I practice practice practice to get better. I would definitely take more lessons if there were people around here doing lampworked goblets, graal, and such. Not at all interested in pipes.

[p.j.]

i saw my first pipe on dead tour in 1990 and i was hooked on glass as a medium to bring me closer to something that greatly affects my life. i feel it is an honor to make something that people will love and use, to me it is a way to be part of a culture that some people understand and some never will....

and i was also a pyro when i was a kid

fire heh heh

[PyroChixRock]

There should be sculptures on the list. That's where I and many old schoolers come from...carnival glass they call it now lol. :D

[themoch]

ah,

but it wont let me, or i would.

[ALIEN!]

watching my cousin making beads when I was 14 or 15, saw my first glass pipe, got really interested, watched the masters at Galway Crystal in Ireland, I knew what I wanted to do. Being a piper naturally appealed to me. Now that Im a piper, Id be happy to never make a piece of prodo again. I love making wine glasses, marbles, pendants, perfume bottles, but damned if I can sell anything thats not a pipe, and Im lucky to manage selling those!

:bangHead::tantrum::wes::flamethro

[HiAltitude]

possible that one of the old timers on this board made the engraved ornaments that inspired me to try glass. I lived in Eugene 76-85, where I bought my ornaments at The Glass Eye. My daughter, who is now grown, was hoping to poach said ornaments off my tree a few years ago, since they have her birth year engraved as part of the pattern. Well, they are definitely the nicest engraved ornaments I have ever found, and they have sentimental value for me too. So I offered to try making some myself.

I found that I like making ornaments so much, I never unpack my old ornaments anymore. The last two years my tree has gotten all new home blown ornaments. Though I have to admit, reversals aren't really very Christmas-y.

It really sucks that people don't appreciate hand crafted glass more. Pottery gets a lot more respect, it seems. (And not just Native American pottery.)

[Robert Mickelsen]

You forgot to list "stupid little monsters", which is what I called the little elephants I had to make when I first started back in 1974 by the time I had made 1000 of them!

- RAM

[jcherrellglass]

Depends on what you mean... First lampworker I saw work was a janky pipe maker. First things I made, and the things that allow me to keep burning today, were beads. Why? Burning desire to melt glass and have some life that didn't involve working my ass off for some corporation's profit. Now I work my ass off for myself... that's much better.

[Mecha]

Well, this is a hard question to answer simply. The first time I became interested in the medium, I was watching a prodo pipe maker. It was not so much what he was making as the process itself. It was something I knew I wanted to try. Pipes were just a gateway for me into the world of flame working.

[Meerkat]

Easily it was all the pussy I was supposed to get, girls go wet for creative guys, or so I am told.

But honestly, I was working a job that although it was extremely cool job, I was the top level guy who managed every aspect of 3 businesses all within one job, so even though I was the guy running the whole show, I was also working at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. So even though my extremely cool job made me a pimping guy in the safety break community, I wasn't able to enjoy it. I pretty much worked, went home, had supper and collapsed on the couch then slept and started it all over.

Long story short, I met many glass blowers through my job, I started hanging out at their studio, I looked at their lifestyle, which to me *SEEMED* at the time to be the cool and easy life, as they just hung out in their studio all day, shooting the shit, working on the torch, friends dropping by, having safety breaks, listening to good music, making art, etc.... and then I compared it to my lifestyle of work and sleep and not really anything to show for it and I had a background of an artist and wanted that to be my career (although in special effects, not in glass), but anything artistic had to be better than killing myself for a boss, who I forgot to mention treated me like shit and yelled and screamed at me even though I kept his whole scene running and then when he felt bad about doing that, he would toss me down safety break material and extra money.

So I guess this isn't so short, but to skip a lot and to really try to sum up and answer the original question, I have been involved in safety break activism for a long time, so it was a real passion of mine, very important to me and I felt that making pipes was a way of paying homage and honour to the safety break material, to create a proper vessel of art for it to be consumed of, so I saw becoming a pipe maker as a way of becoming more involved in my activist passion for the stuff that does so much good and actually creating something to show for my work.

Mods, if you feel that the last paragraph violates TOC, feel free to delete it, I seriously tried my best to follow rules, I am under the assumption that the word safety break is fine, but maybe my allusions were too obvious, I dunno... anyway if its an issue, just delete it, let me know polietly, no need to flame me. Sorry in advance.

[David Sandidge]

Pianos and wishing wells, but not before I first learned piano stools and wishing well buckets. The one I always wanted to learn back then and to this day have never gotten the chance to make was the sewing machine.

[vetropod]

I bought a little dot-stack bead from someone on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, CA back in 1999 and wanted to learn how it was made. About a year later, my wife (then fiance!) talked my fam into buying me a glassblowing class for xmas.

Quit my day job shortly after the class to intern for a glassblower and worked at the furnace part- to full-time for two+ years in a number of different shops around MA. While working for Josh Simpson, got interested in flameworking by this Japanese girl who was hanging out at Josh's for a couple weeks. Met Sally Prasch (good friend of Josh), who showed me her studio, lent me Bandhu's book(s), and gave me some rods of boro.

I took a survey of beadmaking at Worcester Center for Crafts (:wink2: to Tom) and quit working at the furnace. Traded coldworking (picked up some good skills while working for Josh!) for torch time in Boston and TA'ed a lot at same studio.

The rest is scattered around this forum (and the old one too.) :o:

[The Glass Fish]

My wife. I found her at her family's glass shop and it was love ever after. I started with sculpture, btw. Little turtles and shrooms were first. Pipes only came years later.

[themoch]

Pianos and wishing wells, but not before I first learned piano stools and wishing well buckets. The one I always wanted to learn back then and to this day have never gotten the chance to make was the sewing machine.

I assume you're talking about spun/stitched glass. I have major respect for you and the other artists who started out making production items like that.

This weekend in Mexico I met a lampworker who was making these crazy spinning carousels and other objects all out of spun glass. extremely impressive.

[David Sandidge]

I assume you're talking about spun/stitched glass. I have major respect for you and the other artists who started out making production items like that.

A lot of people it seems are a bit curious about that type of work. Not many people doing it amymore. I wonder if there would be enough interest in it for me to do a workshop.

[Jimi The Don]

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/ever_gr8ful/fp62h.jpg

cleans up easy, just a couple of licks, prostate flavored...

seriously though, i saw lampworking at Epcot Center in Disney World before i even had my first erection, fell in love and always wanted to do it. now i do, and i love it, oh, and i function properly now, puberty was amazing..

[Jimi The Don]

My wife. I found her at her family's glass shop and it was love ever after. I started with sculpture, btw. Little turtles and shrooms were first. Pipes only came years later.

wow! me and my girl met over an apple pie, if she made me a glass fork to eat it with i'd already be married to her..

[PyroChixRock]

dondi, your post is fine. we all know that safety breaks are just the moments we take praying before we light our torch, and resting in between so we don't get hurt. it's all about the safety! ;)

:lol

[vetropod]

we all know that safety breaks are just the moments we take praying before we light our torch, and resting in between so we don't get hurt.

Oh crap, is this forum going religious now? :devilish:

[mark206nj]

I was fortunate enough to meet Paul Stankard in 1976. My father became very good friends with him and after many trips to his studio I developed a love for the medium and mostly for floral paperweights. I was amazed that the flowers and insects looked sooooo real.

[JLF]

I saw a three neck flask and was told it was made by hand... Boom, life changed, learning glassblowing.

[Ro's Glass World]

for me it was animal sculptures at disney when i was 8, then later making jewelry and thinking the beads were expensive and i could make them myself.
ro

[GlassFreak]

the first artistic pipe i ever bought or held for that matter was a FREEEK piece. the second i saw it i wanted it, then i really looked at it, it left me breathless.

ever since i have been obsessed with glass. learning everything i could about it, without actually ever messing with it. after 2 or so years i saved up enough to actually buy my torch and supplies. i have been on the torch for 3 weeks now and i just cant put it down. if only oxygen wasnt so expensive... i wouldnt put it down.

[gotglass?]

Once i thought about it the first glass pipe i made was in Chemistry class in 11th grade.... around 1983.... My lab partner ran the experiment and our lab station was by the cabinet with all the glass. I found a funnel blank bent the stem and fire polished the mouth piece.... a far cry from the stuff i make now but a pipe none the less

[xlconch]

Senior in high school saw an itinerant glass spinner make a large lace ship. Said to myself I can do that! Such is the arrogance of teens! Got hold of laboratory glass kit and made a lot of messes. Got a job at the local college fixing their broken equipment. Decided lab work not for me. Lots of craft shows with lace and solid small sculptures. STILL LEARNING!!!!

[yinzer]

my option isnt here. it was nothing in my posession but i got into it because i wanted to do lighting/lighted sculpture and plasma stuff. none of which i have come even close to attempting yet

[gypsea]

candlesticks, birdbaths & unicorns were my first items (LOTS of 'em...)
i learned "on the job" in a warehouse with no ventilation.

[BlueLilyStudio]

it was this thing that got me hooked...And I've been working toward hoping to be this good someday. When I drew the design I had never worked glass; when I got the piece in my hands I knew what I was meant to do. i gotta big up Shane for giving me the tricks of the trade, and getting me hooked for good.

http://www.glasspipes.org/Images/FullSize/000149000/Img149005_PICT0117.JPG

http://www.glasspipes.org/Images/FullSize/000149000/Img149018_PICT0128.JPG

[donaldo]

Boyd Art Glass animals; I still have some and might make them into marbles someday.

[Aussie]

I realised the other day that I've been doing glass for over 20 years now ... I stopped counting at 12 and for the last 8 years my standard answer to "how long?" was "12 years" ... meh, getting older is no fun ... but glass is!
For me it's not so much of a question of what got me into it, but who got me into it. Simple answer is that glass has been in my family for a long time and like a good traditional glass family my father taught me. He was a sick-ass scientific glass instrument maker and took me as his apprentice. In the end, sci wasn't for me, though, but the gift he gave me with his knowledge and teaching I wouldn't exchange for anything in the world. Now he's gone and I miss him a lot, but he's with me every day and in every piece I make.
Thanks, Dad!

[Aymie]

When I was tiny, my parents and grandparents collected a lot of what I considered to be dumb shit from around the world. A lot of this is worth blah blah blah because blah blah blah. But they had these paperweights, many of which were Orient and Flume, and they were so amazing. So many layers of flowers and butterflies and tiny little patterned circles...the fuckin' millis...intricate scenes built of these tiny little pictures. I would sneak away and pull them from the glass cabinets and just sit and roll them in my hands until I was caught. So heavy and solid, yet beautiful and fragile. I loved glass as soon as I knew what glass was. Then, when I was five or six, Fire Island did a demo at The Old Pecan Street Festival and I was sold. They made these transparent rainbow paperweights...and they made their own glass which amazed me. I've collected glass my whole life.

Then I grew up and met a hippie living in a bus in a friend's driveway and he taught me to make pipes in trade for me babysitting his kid and towing his bus.

[CripSkillz]

I have a buddy that was blowinm and Id watch sometimes but, buy more often and that shit was xpensive.. So I found a deal on a kiln and M8 for 150$, was suposta git it for my buddys brother, but decided to keep it after I found out what it was worth.. and It it was all over sense then.. lots of fun and lil disappointment and a lot of sweat..

never gets old..

[Shiny]

I bought a pipe while visiting relatives in cali. The dude at the shop told me a local guy made them. That got me thinking about the fact that I could really do that. I was 16 then. 22 now

The day I met a the first blower I ever met, I asked him way too many annoying questions. He let me watch him 3 times then said pay up or push off. So I pushed off. Saved up. saved up. saved up. Got shit, got hooked up with a spot in an off campus metal working shop and taught myself based on what I saw my friend do in those three times and what I could see online. Cosmo let me come to his place and watch and even let me try a pendant before I got my own stuff set up. He helped me alot. I met him here on the forum.

My friend eventually let me work at his shop once he saw that I could blow glass and we have been sharing shops off and on since then.

[shade]

the magic, the flame, the possibilities and the boys!!!

[Aymie]

The boys huh? That's just funny to me. I was five years in before I met any glass boys who didn't smell like cheese and live in a bus. No offense to any of you shop smell like cheese...I just don't find it appealing. Fumunda is about the only cheese I don't love. "Showers were an option. Those who checked yes were greatly appreciated."

[The Lorax]

i usally don't like millies/murinis but that piece is so beautitful butterfly. amazing how far someone can push a technique..

[Smoke]

Always had a love of glass pipes, had quite the collection back in the day. Then when my senior project came around, a year long project where you have to learn something on your own and write a paper on it, I decided to go with glassblowing because it was really interesting to me.

As far as learning goes I surfed the web, talked to some people in the field and was referred to Contemporary Lampworking by Bandhu Dunham. Using those books and this website I've been able to learn everything that I have.

[Uriel]

Meth dealer by trade, i thought I'd cut the margins those daymn shops are takin outta my hands & the janky extra pipe trade, so now I do both, onestopshop so to speak! LMFAO

I'd alway been obsessed by glass, my grandmother had this HUGE blown softglass Jaguar that was all reduced metallic greens & browns, was a truely awsome piece (musta cost a fortune during WW2) that led to marbles,discovering most of them were machine made led to heartbreak & pubertly, then I got into horticulture & joined Tc, here I am finally discovering about myself through glass art!

[berning]

screaming kids ,flip flops and a cold beer on the bench...........i used to spend my days fellin trees and loading 'em up to be hauled away. on the way home from work i would stop by a friends house and watch him work(melt glass). and then it dawned on me, this is what i want to do. work from home , be able to be at work and be there for wife and son all at the same time, beer'o'clock happens when i want and , oh ya, I F-N HATE STEEL TOE BOOTS!!!

[Boss]

glass on dead lot, and i started selling glass belt buckels on lot and it snow balled to now! oh yeah, couln't afford day care for my girls...

[full_kiln]

jlee/mike fro 2003 collab

http://www.glasspipes.org/Gal1076_GIANT_collaboration_w_Mike_Fro.asp

once i saw it i was completely obsessed with glass and melted random test tubes with a mapp gas torch

[3rdI]

thataintart.com

[RamblezMarblez]

I melted glass in chemistry class in 11th grade too. We use to make hookahs out of two hole rubber stoppers and a flask. My teacher even gave us stoppers??? Not sure why cause he knew we were just going to make pipes but anyhow I now use them in my glass studio. I'm going to mail him something cool one day.

Anyhow the day I walked into Ithaca commons, I was 16 and thought to myself after buying a $40 spoon, "Wouldn't it be cool if I made mj pipes all day and got paid for it?" It was only a few years later I met a glass blower and started buying books and supplies. (I had a torch and a kiln collecting dust for about a year b4 anything was built). People told me it wouldn't work as a career and to get a "real job"....Now I make 3 pipes in about 4 hours at $20 a piece. Who's laughing now! (Besides my mother that I live with...)......Slick

[vetropod]

People told me it wouldn't work as a career and to get a "real job"

Isn't it awesome to have one of those jobs that most people can't even imagine and certainly not what most kids think they want to be when they "grow up"? :D

[hippi]

well ive always like glass pipes and pendants, marbles and wondered how they were made...i found this site and another glass site and watching you guy come up with all your creations i said to my self i can do this shit lol..so i sold some things and bought a torch and a bunch of glass..now its my life, all my friends are trippin on some of the thing i make, want me to make them things and thats the most satisfying part..people actually wanting my art.. i see it as a never ending story in my life.. once i can create some really cool things i know it will just get better and better...

[Boxcutter]

at first i thought it was pipes.

now i remember being at a craft store w/ my mom and reading the tags on glass bottles/vases saying they were handmade and that's why there's bubbles in the work.

man, i loved the glass bottle aisle.

[slave]

I never got into any kind of production untill i needed to pay bills.. but I still started and still am immersed in the technical play, design, and build of pipes and probably always will be at some level.

Goblets you can get to.. but i've never seen anyone come in making/selling them.

I still think I've made more pendants than pipes.. and regarding art or form.. i in the sculptural camp.. which some can do.. some very well.. but just like so many musicians that can play awesome music.. only some can write awesome music.. I find the same with a lot of technically skilled craftsman.. .. ramble... ramble stop.

[Lub]

Always been a pyro. Loved watching the guy making little clear dragons at the renaissance fairs and shit. Grew up some and discovered my first glass pipe. A tangible, functional, often times (And in this case) beautiful piece of art with such an aura to it, such a ritual, such respect. At this point the juices were flowing in my brain. the signals were there.
shortly later went to Trails and saw the sexiest Darby toob I'd ever seen. Until that point i was still buying cheap glass. I didn't know a toob could be made so well, then found out it was all one guy and I was blown away. talked to an employee, learned some stuff about darby and GTTs, got a hot head sophomore year of highschool, redmax junior year, shortly followed by a kiln, then shortly followed by a delicious darby class. I sold my first case of class before I was legally allowed in the shop, I'm now 19, rocking a Mirage and pedal loving the possibilities, trying to find my niche while still gettin enough money to keep experimenting. Sorry. Rant. First safety break after an extremely long day. Ah the drought is over.
one love

[madpup]

Watching a old man making glass animals in a seaside store,
45 years ago, (only now thinking " i could do that") lol

[Ben 'Spice' Crowley]

I wanted to sell pipes, found out about import v. homeblown and it all went down hill from there lol, couple grands later and some years lost to absolute pondering on glass here I lay to stay and play

[jerjerii]

Marble Collecting........

Got ahold of a large collection of old marbles about 9 years ago and started selling them on Ebay. After selling about 2000 marbles I found one that was soo kool that I couldn't sell it. Shortly thereafter I started collecting older marbles and not selling them anymore. Then I found out that there were also contemporary marbles being made today, and I really really liked them but I was too cheap to buy alot of them. Happened across a vid on youtube in jan this year and I was sold that I could make my own Marbles. Watched youtube vids for a month straight and decided to get my own torch. Now I make my own contemporary marbles because I am still too cheap to buy alot of contemporary marbles.

[CripSkillz]

bout ten years ago I met this chick ,, and she had this glass wand.. she made me do crazy things to her with that wand.. and now I love glass .. hweeheh

[hippi]

hahahahaha

[amanofmusic]

my brother bought me an i/o fumed chillum when i was a freshman in highschool..lol it blew my mind..8 years later i got setup

[phatsol]

:bangHead:My ex-girl breaking all my bad ass pieces. So finally did a little research and here i am. Tired of buying, rather invest and start making my own:D I have always been fascinated and always ask "How do they do that" And know thanks mainly to this forum(everyone) it has shed a lot of light on the subject. But foremost this is a wonderful art form!!! My thinkn has changed and it has gone from wantin to make pipes to jus workin with glass.

PEACE:chilling:

[lil'roller]

I have been into crafts most my life , poems , painting , dried flowers, bead loom working ,etc. so just following my love of crafting . Now doing pendents ,animals , flowers and recently marbles . I am still growing into what God wants me to be so who knows from here . :)

[hashmasta-kut]

my oil vape doohicky thingamajigger.

[blueflame glass worxs]

what about the spunglass that is still made today by some glassartis,it is called not so much carnival glass but what {bando} salsaglass he devoted {1} page to the {novelty} glass in his books,and the people i have spoke to say ..... i don't know how to do it . anyway it for me was watching someone do it .back in the day they didn't even have kilns for it we flame anealed the glass and hoped it wouldn't crack. some times i would put the hot peice under a cardboard box.

[JohnnyHigh]

Well for me, even though I haven't touched a torch yet, it's definately pipes but after looking through a few issues of Flow and Glassline, I have an extreme fasination with marbles, pendants and sculpture...in that order.

[bombheadster]

Well, one day I was in Burlington Vermont with a traveling camp of fellow circus performers (no joke). After our show, I stumbled into the Bern Gallery and was looking at some pretty ridiculous pieces (20,000 dollar millenium falcoln bubbler). There were two guys standing behind this booth with raging fires in front of them and big ass pieces of tubing in hand. I was completely mesmerized. Didn't even know what they were making (could've guessed but...) but I knew I wanted to do whatever it is that they were doing. I think it was a pre-existing love for fire and interest in blown glass that made me all of the sudden realize what it was I wanted to do.

I signed up for a class in Boston once I got home, and was absolutely hooked. Think we made beads and marbles. Then I managed to substitute my final semester in high school for an internship at the studio. Everyday, I steamed the labels off of wine bottles for slumping, swept the whole building, cleaned tables, painted kiln shelves with release...general slave labor, and got to practice flameworking in the downtime.

As far as objects go, I really hit it big with pendants, cane striped and implosions. Very quickly, my interest turned to goblets and cupware, and that's where I'm at today.

So, there's my story!

[innervision]

pipes was my first goal,
now it is paying off the mortgage with glass ornaments .

[Salado Flameworks]

My grandfather had a marble I loved (I have it now.) It has definitely been through several generations of kids (probably from the late 1800's.) I thought it would be really fun to learn how to make marbles, so I signed up for a lampworking class. I probably made beads for a couple of years before I ever made a marble but now I am doing more marbles than anything.

Peg

[dinerdisco]

I was sitting at my campsite on the last day of a music festival. My friend who I met that weekend ( and who ultimately changed my life) was counting the money he had made from selling his wares. He ended up making more in that weekend than I was making in a month. That's all it took for me to get interested. I was unemployed a couple years later and that's when I bought all my equipment and never looked back.

[kebira]

It was a hellish combo of low sat scores and an aversion to picks and shovels. Plus it allows for a high accessment of skills without any pesky peer review by those damn high achievers.

[rockstar glassworks]

wow...old thread bump.

Accident. yes, by accident.

After 7 years in the graphics/printing industry, switching like the hotness I was and climbing the money ladder between employers.....I got laid off.

So my hippy friends who travelled around the country in their big hot mess of an RV came back around the Philly way again. This was the third year they were stopping in PHilly to stay at my house.

First year they were doing hemp, got me to spend a week in OC MD doing hair wraps on the beach with them. Second year they were sewing stash pouches by hand.

So this time they were so excited because they "learned how to blow glass with some guy up on a mountain in Oregon".......

Well, I was getting unemployment, working under the table for my friends industrial pressure washing company (I am the man with a 5000psi 5gpm hot machine....I can clean anything, bulldozers, restaurants, trucks etc.), and here was a chance to learn something cool.

I was hooked right away. I thought that glass was the closest physical manifestation of an acid trip without the drugs. So I had an intensive 4 month pipe making class, and then I was on my own. 4 years later I quit Hydroman Powerwashing (he was Hydroman and I was The Soap) and went full time in the glass business.

I always loved working with my hands. In the graphics field I had learned to operate and maintain every piece of equipment we had. I also took on freelace design jobs for clients that the computer guys didn't want to touch and was allowed to print and finish these jobs and maintain my own quality control. The sales reps loved me for that.

So glass became my graphic design/photography/printing/finishing career all in one tight little basket. I'm surviving, slowly building my name up, slowly improving, and really enjoying my job. Plus I still do band flyers, cd covers, take photo's all the time with my D70, play in a band, and make art for a living.

[brettodie]

early 90's dead tour these neat pipes kept showing up more and more often they changed color and were made of glass and holy shit they didnt always break every time you dropped them.

early 94' my sisters bf charlie had started blowing glass and i was selling his wares back here in michigan. i decided i was going to learn so i moved to yellowstone. saved up several thousand while working there.went to CO. for a visit with my sis and charlie to learn the basics. came back to michigan bought my first setup and 15yrs later im still here. :)

i love the versatility of the medium more then anything. i also love that it always keeps you on your toes. its been pretty amazing to watch this industry appear from no where and become what it has. cant wait to see where we go with the next 15 :)

[jacky geurts 67]

my 70 years old mom wanted to do something with glass, so in 2006 my sister and I gave her a beginner workshop beadmaking. A bit scared she didn´t want to go alone so I went with her and this workshop got me hooked on working with torch, and hot glass! love the color of hot glass. at first I made beads but mostly sculptural work now and soon I will be moving up to working with tubing as well.

[Titus Glass]

I saw some dudes making simple spoons in eugene back in '97 i think it was and had love for it from then on. i didnt start until breaking my ankle and kneecap in '02 though. Amazing the paths life leads you down.....

[LunacyMountain]

I've always had a love for glass work, and I just really enjoy making hand crafted items and glass is a wonderfully frustrating medium that I just happened to be lucky enough to work with...about a year ago, I met someone with a lot of talent and skill, that saw how fascinated I was with this line of work and was willing to teach me the basics...started out just watching for hours and asking questions every so often...then learned safety and gas line and ventilation and finally after a month or so was lucky enough to get behind a torch....life seemed to take a drastic change of direction after that day...and I've never even thought about glancing back

[Homegrown Handblown]

It all started watching furnace work at seve in spain. I found my footsteps in the door with pipes, as well as my day to day living. I love ornament season and goblet work the most though

[Action Glass]

A wine bottle and good friend got me into glass. Apprenticed for two years and went off to do my own thing.

[Headdi Retti's Glass Art Studio]

In Colorado circa 96', May have been 95 anyway, I picked up this bubbler that I still have to this day. I have always had a fascination with Pipes and PipeArt since. And now Iam enjoying the whole Glassblowing experience and all that it has to offer, I have met so many Awesome people. To all my friends here @ TMP, Thx , what a great community..=)

[funksizzle]

test tubes, and sweat. Have you ever ate mapp gas cooked hot dogs? Uhh, youth these days. My buddy got my ass good, I was starvin and the first to eat. I asked if they were safe and organic prairie raised first though. Liars.

[Dog Squeez]

Neon, In 1986 I read an ad in Creative Loafing in Atlanta for an apprentice
glassblower. It was for making neon (signs). Worked 6 months for free. Then quit
my other job to work full time at the sign shop (Atlanta Neon Co.). Started my
own company in '88. Bought a bead making kit in '97 and started making fugly
beads. then I took a class on glass bead making at the Spruill Center for the Arts,
from Deanna Griffin (before the Dove). Went on from there.

[Untamed rose]

I just really wanted an excuse to play with fire :)

[Gathering]

Disneyland, New Orleans Square, age 10. Came out of Pirates and sat and watched the guy make figurines for two hours.

[Julian]

My actual answer to this would be my ex-girlfriend. We were 'an item', so that kind of counts? It went like "You're not doing anything, you should go take a glass lesson!". Okay, whatever. Sounds like fun.

[po-boy]

I didn't see fire so I voted pipes.

[ShttrdSpctrm]

So where's the button to push that says dildo? I had heard that people really enjoy them. I know I do! That's what interests me. :D

[Newt]

I saw this guy makin pinchies out on the porch at this place that I was taken to acquire some safety materials and a few weeks later saw him around town while on a hunt for more safety materials and after we accomplished that, he told me where he lived and that I could swing by whenever if I was in need of being safe, soon I was hanging out over there every moment I could spare that he was working. Eventually he said "Gimme $$ and I'll let ya on the torch" and the rest is history...never woulda gotten into it if circumstance hadnt cross my path and the path of that glass artist...

[Boozeclues]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/marlbromn30/image.jpg

I bought that pipe and couldn't figure out how the design was made so I did some research and kept researching until I bought all my equipment.

My biggest regret is taking this long to find lampworking, I love it. I love thinking about how many people out there are enjoying something I created and not to get all philosophical but I feel every pipe I make is one breath of my life preserved in a bubble.

[Aaron Ellis]

A 5' or so tall giraffe at a gallery back home.

[Still]

Trying to figure out how they put those flowers inside that little glass bead. :lol:

[eyeseeglass]

Your missing the option of FIRE!!!!!!!!!!

[kc-216]

honeycomb technique. I wanted to make a nice one so badly. lol i mean I want to make a nice one so badly.

[SpitfireMurphy]

Pipes...and Pull Bowls...Around 1995 a friend was lampworking...I became utterly fascinated, so I scraped up $500 and spent it frugally on the minimum I would need to start melting glass...I even started with a used set of regulators and a really used Harris cutting torch with a propane tip...LOL

[STROKER]

my ego bitches.

i cant believe i am the first person to say that.

i have to be a baller and there are no other professions that fit that one.

now i just gotta learn how to melt...

[Nomad]

I started in a hotshop making paperweights. I got into pipes a few years later and it was the first thing that interested me wile working with the torch. I was blown away by an article about Bob Snodgrass in High Times magazine and I have been a pipe maker since.

[Bo Diddles]

At this point it's 71% pipes with the next largest category (marbles) at 11%. I think it's safe to say this is a pipecentric forum.

[evol]

My father taught me stained glass back in 1987 in St. Paul, MN. We were both impressed by Louis Comfort Tiffany's style of creating or pouring and rolling glass to fit a particular design. I can trace that back to a waterfall in a Tiffany window that was on a poster in my fathers shop. That single piece of glass still inspires me.

Funny enough, he also told be about hookahs at a early age and pointed the Alice in Wonderland hookah out. In 1992 I created a ceramic hookah with stained glass inlays for windows, it had a light underneath too. I have a picture somewhere of that first smoking piece. With four tubes and a giant bowl, it was a traveling show in itself. I sculpted and worked on the wheel much more in ceramic over the next few years using stained glass accents...

In 1998(?) a close friend from jr and sr high school that moved to Oregon told me about the what he was doing in glass and that I could make one of my hookahs in blown glass. That man was Popa, he was at that time the head foreman of JBD. I drove out and visited him there and was taken back by the scope of the operation and the seemingly good times a group could have. He also brought me to a Prankster party and well, was really moved by the whole trip...

[brian falls]

For me I`d say more the economic downturn and pipes. I`m a metalworker and the two industries that I spent my career in have been manufacturing and construction. The two hardest hit by a slow economy. A couple good friends worked on the retail side for a gut that owned a studio as well and they got me in for a quick crash course so I could possibly help as grunt labor, which never happened. But needless to say I was hooked and have spent all my time since trying to figure out how to do this all the time.

[DroSmoke]

HMK and Dosa rigs got me interested in glass pipe art I love the way they look like creatures

[Wishit Glass]

I am trying to post my equpitment for sale on this site. I have completely rebuilt my torch and kiln so I know someone is getting quality- I have a Carlisle cc and f240 kiln. I have over 2000$ in stock glass(northstar and Momka) 38x4mm tubes as well as an assortment of clear. There is another umpteen amount of graphite tools( reamers, pads and paddles. Anyone that can help me sell this stuff as a package would be compensated. I also have regulators and hoses. I will make a more detailed list upon request and with the posting of the ad. Thanx for your interest 713-301-0020

[Monkythrowpoop]

Got a bubbler in a shop by Chris Rice (aka Pan at the time), then a few months later I saw Josh Simpson marbles in a gallery. That's when I decided I wanted to blow glass. I saw some more of Chris's marbles, and some Josh Sable marbles and was officially hooked and dove straight into marbles

[Dan Kooper]

I think sex toys should be added to the poll. ....

[Coal]

Butt plugs, smooth glass butt plugs. Thats what started my erotic love for glass. The first time i felt one I was in love, and had to blow.... some..... glass.....

[glassaxis]

bubblers.......I had a guy who would buy as many as I could make.

[Dan Kooper]

Butt plugs, smooth glass butt plugs. Thats what started my erotic love for glass. The first time i felt one I was in love, and had to blow.... some..... glass.....

Thank god I found someone that shares the same passion. We should collab on a heady plugg.

[HoneyCombOver]

Probably pipes. Shortly after becoming the young safety enthusiast that I was, I decided to google glass pipes one day. Gp.org was one of the first link and i saw pieces that absolutely blew my mind. I had seen a only a few spoons at this point so needless to say the things on that website shocked and excited me. Been interested in lamping ever since and finally got the chance to start recently.

[daveabr]

1995, GD at Deer Creek parking lot. Got a nice little gold fume piece, but had no idea then. The magic of watching it change color. Which, for all you noobs, was actually still a mystery to 99% of people at the time. I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, and why it was changing color. HAHAHA....


After that moment, I was on a mission to figure it out. It turned into me seeking people out who did it, and then finally my oppurtunity to learn. 17 years later, here I am.

[Dan Kooper]

/\/\/\/\/\ jerrys last show.
I was there at Deer Creek back in 1995
I think it was June maybe July
But Jerry was still alive

All the kids in that parking lot
They tore that fence down
And I blamed them
For the second show getting cancelled.

I really wanted to go
I saved up all of my dough
I didn't go to any other shows
And I got my tickets M.O.ed
And I never missed a Deer Creek show
From '89 to '95
I was happy just to be alive
On my yearly Indiana vacation

But that was cut short by a bunch of jealous,
party bashin', buzz thrashin', gate crashin', stinky bastards

And if you're one of them
And you hear this song.
Fuck you, you cocksucking mother fuckers

[daveabr]

shared sentiment

[mad alchemist]

none of the above

[old school drue]

Antique & cut glass got me interested. Pipes on Deadu tour had me want to learn and motivated me to seek out Snodgrass in Eugene in early 90's. While i was mining minerals in Ak. met a friend of Cameron Towers. Got in contact. 1 year later met Snodgrass, Bob Badtrom and Cameron. Apprenticed under Cam. Started making slides as 1st paid gig w otheru blower. Didn't work out.

So went back to Cam's shop to educate then went solo... still lamping since 1994 love glass! Just don't blow as frequently as i want. Started working for Corp america 5 years back to pay bills. Glass became a hobby... I feel the torch and scene pulling me back. Getn ready to lamp full time again. Flame on brothers and sisters.

[Icarus]

none of the above

Care to elaborate, or are you just trying to appear mysterious?

[d3rk]

I've always been into functional art, and Mary Jane. A few years ago, I started looking into selling pipes. A little while after my research started I saw an ad somewhere about learning to make pipes and jumped on it. Pipes are where it started and frit sherlocks are still my favorite, but I find myself captivated by marbles now.

[Trevor]

marbles all the way!!!

[AdamCotter]

i saw my first pipe on dead tour in 1990 and i was hooked on glass as a medium to bring me closer to something that greatly affects my life. i feel it is an honor to make something that people will love and use, to me it is a way to be part of a culture that some people understand and some never will....

and i was also a pyro when i was a kid

fire heh heh

Ditto.

[pacosaki]

I started collecting marbles and then had an idea for a marble mold after talking to some marble artists about the tools they use. I made a prototype and had a friend of mine ( RAZ ) test it. He said it worked good and I should try it. So I sat down behind his torch and melted some clear and couple dabs of color and twisted and folded it and used my marble mold to round it. It came out pretty round for the first time ever. Together we refined the mold a bit and he let me play at his place till I got my own torch and stuff. But from the first moment of working with glass, I was hooked.
Below is a link to the mold I designed.....if you wanna see it. Some of you have one, I'm sure.

http://www.glassartists.org/Images/FullSize/000091000/Img91765_IMG_0482-a.JPG

[JBob]

I went to see a Chihuly exhibit at Phipp's conservatory in Pittsburgh with my art class in 10th grade as a field trip, never gave glass blowing a thought really. Then i started seeing some sweet pipes..

[jesse dog]

i happen to be living in Eugene when Bob Snodgrass and the boys kicked it off. Pure luck of the draw i guess

[istandalone24/7]

i've always been captivated by glass...ever since i was a kid and i had one of the biggest marble collections in the neighborhood. fast forward to winter 2012, i saw some of Travis Weber's marbles, Josh Simpsons and then those internal fumed marbles from Juba glass. then came me watching beads and marbles being made on youtube, and told myself it would be a worthwhile hobby to try out, as i've always been artistically inclined. hobby, yea right. it's become all consuming, even more so considering how much of a newb i am.
if i'm not melting glass, i'm thinking of what i'm going to melt/blow next. pipes weren't even on my mind when i got my first torch and oxycons. i was gifted a couple small sections of 1" heavywall so i gave them a go. my first pipe is probably one of the most pathetic pieces anyone's ever seen, but i still use it regularly and i'll always keep it, much like my first marbles.
Bashi Ale's quote says it best:
“I've always been fascinated with the optic qualities that glass presents. Glass is like a suspension of time forever showcasing the artisans will. ”
- Bashi Ale

[CheeseNip]

Both of my parents worked in a glass factory in Illinois until it shut down when I was 3 years old. We then moved to Indiana, where they both worked at a glass factory in Marion, In. That factory then shut down, and my mother got a different job, and my father transferred to a glass factory in Dunkirk, Indiana about 45 minutes away where he is a supervisor. My grandfather was Vice President of International Affairs at Anchor-Hocking Glass, and my great grandparents also worked in the Glasshouse. So I have been around glass all of my life, and had an interest in it ever since I was a little kid. Always loved touring the glasshouses and watching those machines crank out bottles. The factory my father works in puts out over 4 million glass bottles on a daily basis, so it is really amazing to watch.

When I was in the 7th grade my science teacher taught us about glass and working it in the flame. We cut down some small diameter tubing via score and snap. We then used a bunsen burner to polish our cut ends, and then heated the center of the tubing and bent it to 90* while making sure to not close the tubing off. Not too brag or anything, but mine was definitely the cleanest bend. LOL. I was absolutely hooked on the idea of working glass in the flame once I learned about that aspect of the industry. Later on, in my sophomore year, I had a girlfriend who was trying to help me figure out what to do with my life. The only occupation I had any interest in was flame working, so she really pushed my to get it done. About 3 years later I found someone about an hour away from me, via this website, to take a few classes from. Took five 8 hour classes with him in his garage, and been at it ever since!

[Nomad]

When I was an apprentice back in 1996 I saw the owners son make a bong out of the furnace. I worked in glass for years but it was the first time I saw glass pipes being made. I thought it was really cool at the time. But I did not start making them until 1998 on the torch.

[Simian]

I saw Degenerate Art on Netflix in October of 2012. By March of 2013 I had a built a shop and knew it was what I had to do. I had not expectations about what i would make I just knew glass was the perfect medium for me.

[Yeef]

i got into glass having no idea about the medium. it's been the most frustrating i've ever experienced.

i watched a guy make a glass elephant for me in germany when i was like 9, and it's always been in my head. he made it look so easy.

to me, glass is like playing an instrument. if you don't have the memory, you're fucked until you develop it. thinking happens before the fact. i'm a noob, so this happens a lot.

i love having a gigantic flame in front of me, and i'm used to bad burns from 12 years in kitchens. my real issue with glass addiction is the optical properties. the colors, the depth, the sparkle, too fucking seductive for an addictive personality like myself to ignore.

i want to make other people lust after the same things i lust after. need to pass around the addiction.

it's the best i've got.

[Dan Kooper]

I was tripping at a friend of a friends, I've always been an artist, he showed me the ropes.
His name was troy and lived in Ann Arbor. If anyone sees him tell him I said Thanks. He probably didn't realize he showed me my career. That was in 2002.

[paulsafo]

Chess Pieces - Hitman Glass.

I am a chess enthusiast and heavy smoker so this was a perfect birthday present i received in march of 2014. set up shop in june. been having the time of my life. still a hobbyist. i have a tendency to turn my art into a job and then just stop working on it. i dont want this to become my job. i want it to stay my sanctuary. it is relief from the extreme stress i've been under lately (we've all been under lately)

thank you for sharing everyone i really like this thread.

[monte]

Always been drawn to glass and checking out galleries in the area. Back about 8 years ago I would occasionally go to a friend of a friends studio (Joe Peters) in a mill in Indian Orchards MA. It was very inspirational and I knew one day I would start up. I spent the next few years traveling then working construction to save for a house. I bought a home in western mass two years ago and just built my studio last fall. I try and get out there just about everyday and as frustrating as it can get I love working with glass.

[DEmptyGlass]

The first time I went to a head shop after I started smoking was the first time I had seen glass pipes. I could tell right away a huge difference from the $20 jank and the $120 badass spoons. I bought a badass one and just staring at it and wondering "how'd they do that" made me put lanpworking on my list. That was almost 10 years ago and I JUST now got to a point with time, money, and space to give it a shot. I started september 24 2014 and I fuuuuucking love it. Just made my first sell yesterday, a matching bubbler and spoon combo.

[Rimpz]

I was walking downtown one day and saw a sign that said, "live glass blowing" outside of a local head shop. Popped in to see what it was all about and ended up taking my first class from the dude behind the torch; who would later turn out to be one of my best friends/ roommate. He gave me a demo on marbles and pokers and I was hooked. Love at first melt. Ended up having to quit blowing due to some personal issues. A year later my parents gifted me a glass class at Saw Tooth School of Visual Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. That helped keep the flame inside me alive until I was able to move back to the beach and move in with my glass teacher. Slowly but steadily learning.

[Jed]

I was always a fan of glass pipes as early as I can remember seeing them.I would buy a spoon at any festival I would goto. I ended up at a show where the only glass available was above my price range. I decided that I wanted to be able to make my own, and having access to my mom's minor and small kiln, I gave it a try,only to find out that I was gonna need someone to show me whats up.I put it on the back burner for a while till one day a buddy of mine told me he knew some people who were blowing glass. I arranged to meet them. at the same time the pizza place I was delivering for got a new employee who was a self taught glass blower. I learned a few things from both of them and then introduced them to each other.they moved down to ashland together and I stayed here in portland making mostly spoons till operation pipedreams hit. at that point I could not get by on glass and had to get a job.been working in the liquor industry for the last 10 years,and one day im thumbing through netflix and stumbled upon "Degenerate Art".it was inspirational. I thought to myself " I have everything I need in the garage,why am I not doing this". so I climbed back on the horse so to speak, fought through being extremly rusty,and am back at it again.

[CripSkillz]

Dildos fosho

[piedpiper608]

Wig-wags and tryin to unwind them and figure out how the fuck they were made.

[solarflare glass]

A cane clipping i got when i was 6 in a little studio in missouri. Still have it to this day

[mikecgara]

Marcel brauns retticellos, i always bought nice glass when i was in high school like roors or toros but when they started breaking or being stolen i decided i would learn to make my own and wouldn't buy any more glass pieces until then.

[MrSmeeth]

Add murrini to the list. Set up my pottery booth next to Jodie McDougal's glass booth. Done deal. My pottery wheel hasnt been used for three years :)

[ArmyOfDorkness]

I've always loved glass. I stare at it. I covet it. I love the way the light refracts on/in/around it. I'm the only person I know with a collection of photos of random, unexceptional glass made exceptional by the sunlight. I guess I'm like a magpie...obsessed with shiny objects.
I lived in the Northwest until I was 14 and I have dual US/NZ citizenship, so I had a great amount of exposure to art glass early on. Fast forward to living in Austin while the art glass movement there was really taking off. Unfortunately my life was utter shit, and I was too broke or busy to partake, but I did get into fusing. I like it a lot, but it's not enough.
I want...flames. I found myself opening my kiln to stare at the glowing glass, but unable to touch it. Sigh.
Over the holidays this winter, the hubs and I went back to Seattle. He took me to a 4 hour glassblowing class as my gift. The thrum of the furnace and the torches brought something out of me that was almost primal. To get to work with the glass in it's molten state was what I'd been waiting for all this time. THIS is what was missing. I'm pretty sure my husband has rarely, if ever seen me in such a contented state outside of the bedroom.
Offhand glassblowing is awesome. I'd love to explore it more, but the majority of what I want to do is actually made with a torch. And so here I am.

[little_pixie16]

When I was maybe twelve, I went to a local festival. There were a few artists there with booths, but the one that struck me the most was this glassblower's booth. I looked at all his art in awe, blown away by the immense beauty, grace, and delicate appearance of everything. I bought a little pendant with a fish milli chip inside (at the time, I had no idea how that fish had gotten in there) and I just fell in love with glass. I asked if he would be willing to do lessons, but he told me to wait until I was older:/. I mean, he probably didn't trust a 12 y.o. girl around a flame haha.
Flash forward a few years, and I found a teacher near me. The very first time I went on a torch, I fell in love all over again. The amazing colors, everything. Knew I wanted to do it forever. Since then, I've had an amazing passion for glass. Saving up for my own torch :).

[mattholimeau]

For me, fumed honeycombs always made me go "whoah".

[harpentuan]

This isn't it, but when I first saw mille' chips w/ Bart simpson in ...like 1997, I was like WTF? How do that do that?

[krispysglass]

Always loved glass, my folks had a soft glass paper weight egg that was an Easter decoration and I was never allowed to touch it. Then later my first pipe, I bought it and went to go use it, I just sat and stared at it for a while till everyone there was like dude pass it around. By the end of the session I was saying u wanted to make those for a living. Then seeing dudes on lot at concerts, idk seems all threw my life glass has always been a focus until it became my life

www.kaglass.com

[herperdude]

I have always loved fire! Any kind! Bigger, hotter, better! At 16 I really fell in love with the cosmic colors in the striking and fumed boro glass department. My first exposure to boro was through pipes, and as an artist/pyro I knew I had to utilize this amazing medium! At 16 though, no way would my parents sponsor such an endeavour. So beads it was! I got a hot head torch, fibre blankets, and all the bead basics with an assortment of soda lime. Sold my first set after a few days practice, and before I knew it I had purchased all the essentials for making boro beads! I developed my skills as a boro bead artist and worked up to getting 3-400$ for a set of 5-6 of my focal beads. At that rate even when switching to pipes was an option I held off for close to a decade. On a trip not to long ago, I met an artist in Eureka and decided then and there, no more beads! I have a lot to learn in the pipe making area, and using an alpha to start with wasn't ideal. But I am a couple hundred pipes deep and loving it! Tomorrow I hook up the redmax and am looking forward to all the doors a bigger flame opens! Happy lampworking everyone!

[Christian]

Definitely pipes for me. i can remember way back when i bought my first pipe from a local headshop, it was nothing fancy just some iso fuming. That was when i came to the realization that there are people out there who actually do that for a living.. i was so fascinated. probably like a year or two later i saw 'Degenerate art' and signed up for a furnace glass blowing course at a local college. there i met a guy who was actually doing some flameworking, just making little beads on a nortel minor. but i was so intrigued, i must have sat there watching him for the whole class. i probably asked him a thousand questions, and in the end i left that class with the goal of setting up my own garage studio and just start trying to learn.. i've been torching a bit under a year and a half now, and i'm completely obsessed with the medium. pipes are still what i make most. mainly because i love the subculture that comes with glass pipes. something about the fact that its a tool for someone to use and not just an object to be admired is really awesome to me.

[FifDeez]

I remember when I was like ten I seen a artist make a clear dragon and fume it heavy with gold. I was hooked I spent all my allowance on it and still have the dragon to this day( what's left of it. Mother broke it dusting when I was a kid.) :(

Go ahead. I'll be your Huckleberry.

[DBO33]

Ever since I got my first simple wrap and rake spoon I was always fascinated by glass. I spent my teenage years admiring giant pieces by Mike fro, cowboy etc. Old school gigantic line work pieces. This was back when I feel like as a consumer, you didn't really know who made the piece, all that really mattered was if you liked it. The first signed pipe I ever saw was a hammer my buddy bought by Darby. We cleaned out our local headshop buying up a ton of sick bubs dries etc. I got out of glass for a while but a few years ago a buddy of mine turned me on to what guys were doing this day in age. the first recent head piece I purchased was an ease Nate dizzle collab swiss off my buddy who re ignited my passion for the glass scene. Once I got the swiss it was on like King Kong. Went into full on collector mode for a few years, I still have an amazing shelf full of insane head pieces. It is so incredibly inspiring to look at some of that stuff. And then after seeing degenerate art I said " that looks easy enough, I can do that!". LOL. Melting boro has giving me an IMMENSE appreciation for what ALL artists do. I learned very quickly that making aesthetically pleasing glass was NOT easy and was a skill that takes years to refine. Once the glass scene became rediculous (in my opinion) (I watched a buddy of mine sell a piece for over 5 times profit) I decided I could no longer afford to try and keep up with the heady boys and my energy switched to wanting to try and make the stuff. Now I get as excited for new tools and raw glass as I used to get when buying a new head piece. Glass is amazing and I love it and it really is something I feel like you could spend your lifetime learning about and still not know everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Euphorean]

Sculptures, but it's not in the list. Fleming is amazing and the artist I would most like to emulate.