For the veterans out there - how did you get your first apprenticeship / job?

[AdamTaranGlass]

If I can pick your brains out there I am wondering how to located your first apprenticeship and/or job in glass? Did you get set up with a friend or just a local shop or something else?

I'm 31 and have been on the torch part time for almost 5 months now, have an engineering job full time also. Ive been trying to locate an artist to work for/with and get more experience in a real production type shop.

Thanks for any stories anyone can share!!

I am having more trouble than I had anticipated...money is not an issue here I am certainly willing to pay to help out in a shop somewhere. In Minneapolis, MN but looking to relocate somewhere warmer :rollin:rollin

[Aymie]

I found a guy living in a bus in my sister's friend's front yard.

If money isn't an issue, look around and start taking lots of classes.

[Jimi The Don]

I spent a weekend at Morgan's house (mystic glass) and tried it out , then met a girl seven years younger than me with awesome tits and a hothead torch. We bought a Bethlehem piranha and a kiln and cluster fucked around for a couple years, started pass the glass studios with Ed hauser and Charlie Reynolds, met bobby zysk through felony cansler and started blowing glass fifteen hours a day a couple weekends a month and learned basic piping from him and also from watching pj over the years when I got the chance. Found a job on Craigslist a few years ago looking for a scientific glass blower and I've been tongue punching the man's fart box ever since. Also Ive been making beer bottle art in Bon fires since high school in order to get pussy and wide brimmed hats.

[AdamTaranGlass]

awesome I am an expert at tongue punching things

[Mac Maestro]

I'm not sure my story of what happened in '96 is even slightly relevant to the glass game today.

However, my students currently find me at a local weekly demo, and shake me down for lessons.

I'd put up a post in the 'people connection' on this forum and see if there are any teachers in your area.

[James Sowell]

an apprenticeship could start before you ever touched glass for the first time . but for a paying job id want at least 18 months exp
i started a prep job when i had 2.5 yrs and felt that i could do most of what was asked of me but the level of stress on me to hit it perfect every time would be less if i had 5 yrs .

[gypsea]

I answered an ad in the classifieds section of the newspaper that read: "Glassblower wanted, will train."

[brads]

Skill and luck.

I won a bet on a pinball game in a bar. That was how I learned to make glass snails, which then led to my first job in glass, a demonstrator in a kiosk in a mall during the month before Christmas. Fortunately, the guys who hired me didn't care that at the time I truly sucked at making glass animals. They just wanted someone to fire up the torch, melt glass, and attract attention to the kiosk. [The skill? I was a VERY good pinball player.]

My first full-time, permanent job in glass was an apprenticeship in a research lab a year later - including a signed 4 year agreement that laid out the whole program. That came about the same way as Gypsea's first job. I happened to see an ad on the front page of the classified section of the Sunday Boston Globe that said "Glassblower trainee wanted. No experience necessary." Although I wasn't looking for a job, I made an appointment to check it out purely out of curiosity, hit it off with both the head of the glass shop and the personnel manager, and was offered the job a week later. So basically, luck...

Since none of that is likely relevant to your situation, my advice to you would be two-fold. Look around for classes. And DON'T give up your day job. Being that you're in Minneapolis, if you can't find any classes, check with Steve Anderson at the Mayo Clinic. He's their glassblower, a very nice guy, and might be willing to help.

[AdamTaranGlass]

yeah...its going to be a long road ahead, and i cant stay in my current job much longer so its time to find a new full time job and keep plugging away at glass on the side. wish i could go back 10 years and take a mulligan on my life!!!

I know the most annoying thing ever is when noobs think they can be awesome after almost no torch time...so just trying to realistic here

[oG Glocc Coma]

Heady Glass Studios posts jobs all the time, but im not sure of the skill they want to start. Check them out in Glassifieds I believe

[Firekist]

stone arch studios/the hideaway, AAA glass, brandon martin, 4.0 glass, cha glass, homegrown glass, and their crews are all in the cities.
go to a nice headshop, and ask if they can get you in touch with a local blower that would be willing to teach.. i'd recommend clown glass, as dan knows the blowers he deals with pretty well.

lake superior art glass in duluth (dan neff) does classes as well.
i'm in rochester, but i don't think we fit the bill of what you're thinking.

as for finding a place to start, a co-worker blew glass after work, and invited me to check it out.

[AdamTaranGlass]

right on, i took a class @ stone arch last fall and I have been talking to Neff about lessons early next year...so it is a good place to start.

Id be down to roll down to Roch to hang out and drink some beers and see your setup if you are ever interested

[christopherobin]

About 15 years ago, when I realized I wanted to get in to flameworking....I was living in Orange County CA, so I went to the Sawdust Festival (popular art fest in Laguna Beach) and just schmoozed. I found a guy walking around with a ceramic surfing monkey piggy bank who was wearing boro plugs in his ears. Turns out his buddy made them. Met the buddy and invited him to dinner at my house with the fam. Traded a yard sculpture he saw in my yard (he said his wife would like it...about 200 bucks value) for some torch time. Then agreed to make him five mushroom marbles (for his pipes) every time I used his shop.

After six months I bought my own gear. Learned all I could from him at that point since I was going in a non-pipe direction.

Not long after that the internet was big enough to glean plenty of info and connections.

And then there's TMP.

[snoopdog6502]

I found a guy living in a bus in my sister's friend's front yard.

If money isn't an issue, look around and start taking lots of classes.

Did he live with your bothers dad's mom?

LMAO yea! the gene pools not too deep here too.

Are you for real?