Why not...

[The Madhatter]

Hello everyone!

My name's Mike, I'm a Portland glass blower, been blowing off and on (merely for fun) since '03 when my buddy from Alaska taught me how. Never thought to check the internet till this year when he moved back and I found myself lacking anyone to talk to about my "other woman".

Right now I'm 8 months in on working full time as a glass blower. After my bro moved I found myself jonesing and had to set up my own shop, which took all my savings (never been rich). I've given 100% of myself to making it, it's been rough, but I make enough to keep my tanks filled and glass on my table. Never thought I'd be a "starving artist" but that's where I'm at, and wouldn't change it for all the fries in McDonalds.

I love this place, and I thought I'd share what I make with ya'll. Right now I'm trying to get down outside work... it seems to be under rated, every where I look it's inside, inside, inside.

I'm always open to creative criticism, because I know I'm faaaaar from being as good as I can be. I don't have a digital camera, these were taken with a friends, and I'll try to post as often as I can. Any feedback, good or bad is much appreciated!

[The Madhatter]

oh yeah, this is a medicinal piece I designed. Say a person has arthritis, or can't work their hands very well.... this piece has no carb, and an easy to grab handle... I'm a big supporter of the medicinal crowd!

The other pic is just one I found while browsing thru my files, took it a while ago...

[The Madhatter]

Here's my first down stem... made it for my Alaskan bro (he got out of the business). Little dirty from "tobacco" use, but I forgot to take a pic of it before I sent it to him. It was a challenge, I didn't get to see the piece it was to be used on, just had to go by his measurements. It works great in his opinion tho...

[mouseclone]

I dig the colors in the second post bottom one. Reminds me of Aquafresh tooth paste.

[Fiorino Glass Art]

^ haha toothpaste for sure!!! Good start man!! You're twisting one way, maybe try twisting again the other way for a loose wig wag effect! Also, i'm not sure, but I would advise not to post up dirty pieces. Good work though!

[Slimy-E]

dead on old school aquafresh i like it

[Slimy-E]

the handle thing is cool idea for athritis. my step moms hands kill her, horse riding accedent then bad athritis. u could do a blow out handle it would look cooler as u could decorate it and some peoples hands struggle even a thin straight handle could be hard to hold. kinda footballish but less pointy. like a healing ray gun:cowboy:

[The Madhatter]

^ i'm not sure, but I would advise not to post up dirty pieces. !

If it's a no-no, I'm sure a mod will tell me but I was so proud of how it turned out I wanted to show it off. Not too worried about anyone seeing it, considering it's up in Alaska now...


Thank's everyone for your awesome comments! I'm off to torch some more...

:flamethro

[kage]

good stuff. keep it up man.

[dorkeedude]

Looks good to me! cleen lines, and good shape!:wonka:, and nice colors!

[ALIEN!]

1st pic, about 4:20 position, is that latticino Im seeing? Looks cool, dig the colors.

[The Madhatter]

1st pic, about 4:20 position, is that latticino Im seeing? Looks cool, dig the colors.

Good eye snake, yes it is. I covered it in different latt's about 1/3 of the way down, then did some long squiggily lines with dots in between, that pic doen't do it justice, I'll see if I have another.

[The Madhatter]

here's it at another angle, and a diff latti I did, neither of these pics do the piece justice, I'm obviously not a photo major... Wish I could've captured the fuming better with that piece of crap camera

[pstvn]

cool dude im glad to see you work! youve come a long way from the first pieces i saw when i was in town. flame on brother!

[The Madhatter]

Thank's -Garth- means a lot coming from someone with your skills! I can only imagine what you've picked up along your journey. Hope our paths cross again someday brotha!

[naughty pirate wench]

MadHatter - your work looks terrific - and I love the way you play with colors!

[The Madhatter]

Thank's Christine! I love to experiment with color combo's. Believe it or not I think it's trickier to get colors to come out right when you do outside work, so many like to boil, and any little air bubble is much more apparent when it's near the surface. Not to mention the care that has to be taken with fume... There are days when I long to go back to inside out, but I refuse till I've taken outside work as far as I can...

[The Madhatter]

Well, it's been a while. Here's what I've been up to lately. Yes, those are the prices I charge. Someone issued a challenge to show prodo once, if you stumble across this thread read it and weep (and toss me that Rep you offered). Those of you who have done outside work can take a good guess as to how long those pieces took to make. Simple design, true enough, but time consuming as hell - I was working on a red max. Now with my elite it's a little quicker ;-) Still, lookin forward to December when I'm movin home to Minnesota....

Still don't have a camera, these were taken a few months ago and I finally got 'em sent to me from my ex. Gotta get a camera one of these days... This isn't all my best work, just what I happened to have in my case one night when I thought to take some pics. It's my prodo.

Well in downward order there's -

1] Butterfly Marble bub. Some of these bub's were before I started using bridges habitually, I know they look crappy.
2] Prodo. Yes, those clear tentacles are on there good, just a crappy picture, and the shirlock's I make now are much better. Using a bridge I fix that bend with my hand torch.
3] My first Snorkel Carb! Time consuming as fuck! I hope in one of these pics you can see how I took some Forest Green coated in clear and spiraled it up, manipulating it with tweezers. Takes an insanely long time but looks pretty cool.
4] Snorkel Carb at another angle.
5] Bub with Marble
6] Prodo - All surface work.
7] A friend wanted a hanging bub, think it turned out pretty cool, he was happy :chilling: