Blowing glass for a living?

[e-jipt]

I just wanted to know how many of the blow glass for your main source of income, do you still need part time jobs? Any tips on selling peices? What's the best way and how is it usally done. I'm mainly a pipemaker right now I just started blowing but will move on to other things. Do you guys just make one thing to sell or do you sell pipes, marbles, goblets, etc? Sorry not trying to pry into anybody bussiness just curious cause I really love blowing and would like to make a living from it. Thanks alot.

[eternalfrost]

almost every one on here sells thier stuff at least some times id say. either as a full time business, or just to get rid of the piles of work from thier hobby haha. i sell some stuff part time. mostly pendants, marbles, christmas ornaments, a few pipes. i sell most my stuff just walking into shops with a case of all sorts of things i do as a sampler pack type thing. either sell a few pieces right then and there or else will take an order for X number of a certain style. if you make good stuff, you will get called back for more.

if you want to get rich though, you looking down the wrong alley for the most part. unless you have a partner to do it for you, you will spend as much or more of your time showing off your stuff, driving around to stores, making phone calls and all that business stuff then you do actual blowing. and unless your reallllyyyy good and sell to like art gallery type things (which is not the case for most of us) be prepared to crank out lots of the same things over and over again.

someone who melts full time should chime in here any time now.

[e-jipt]

I don't want to get rich, I'd just like to pay my bills of $250 a month and have something to put in all these pipes I make.

[skip]

haha Man I remeber when that was considered "making a living" to me..... Then I got married.... haha

[The Bigles]

yeah, skip's husband has a bad "sears" problem.


I heard they buy two sets of tires a week.

[Batou]

"full time..." that's an interesting notion.

[fumalicious]

yeah haha... I had a friend ask me a couple years ago- "do you blow glass full time?"... I never thought about it before that. Yeah I blow all the time and do all the other associated work ALL THE TIME... so I guess yeah, that means "full" time LOL

Well I've been making a living off of glass for 9 yrs... and the one main thing I can tell you is this: learn about selling. It's made a tremendous difference in the positive things that I'm able to achieve.... I don't care how nice your glass is, your ability to spell out benefits, opportunities, and lack of risk is what makes it possible to make a living off of glass. Not to say quality doesn't help- but in most cases, glass doesn't sell itself.... especially when you're dealing with mass competition with the same level of quality. I've considered getting a job a couple times when things were tough.. even went and applied to one and forgot my second ID they asked for as well as I straight up came 2 days late to the interview cause I'm a retard and wrote the wrong date down...:lol Figured I should just stay with glass hahaha

Oh and yeah... come up with some prodo item- something that you can reproduce over and over. It's not fun but it REALLY helps with the "paying the bills" scene.

[Stagger Lee]

I remember the days when I could say this...........

I don't want to get rich, I'd just like to pay my bills of $250 a month

I still say the same thing but it's $6000 a month now......... Damn! I love being a grown-up.



be prepared to crank out lots of the same things over and over again.

over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over anademdnsdsmdsnbadmdsovemansam.................... .................................................. .................................................. .

[somberbear]

every one does prodo.(taken from every body poops)

if i could make sedy money and work steady insteand of being lazy thats another question ... tip two get the hell outta VA unless you plan to always have bail money handy. atleast making pipes.

you have to learn to market yourself and adapt to markets.

keep your cost and over head down so you can pay for your life style and your job.

dont explect to make any cash for a year or two while you learn the ropes and find your niche and work habits. and your market

i carry two cases my pipes and my grandma stuff random things non grey area glass etc.

it allows me to quickly sell to what the market is like. and be safe.

[nickglassdood]

i lurk outside shops and steal there customers "hey kid wanna buy a spoon"

[β]

i lurk outside shops and steal there customers "hey kid wanna buy a spoon"

Really? I Was scounting a store the other day and there was some young prey outside. Should I hit it up @ the risk of the shop seeing me?

[WORLD FAMOUS]

Only if you think that one kid will bring you more business than that store ever will. If the store see's you doing that, they'll probably never work with you again. As a matter of fact, I got my first pipe account from a similar situation; a pipemaker that was pissed off at a particular shop took his case across the street from the shop, sat on the curb, and proceeded to try to catch people before they entered the headshop to sell them cheaper pipes. Cops came and took his drunk ass to jail. I never saw the blower again, but I got a thousand dollar a month worth of orders from that store for almost 3 solid years after that for being in the right place at the right time.

My best advice is to find 1-3 good and stable production pipe accounts that will also buy some fancy pieces occasionally. This way you can develop a solid production line, learn about material costs and "cost per piece", how to work efficiently, how to work with deadlines and pressure, and will also bring in enough money to cover the matierials and labor. The first year for me was the worst financially, and after about 2 years, I was making more than my $9/hour day job, HOWEVER, I was re-investing almost everything I made into better equipment, and putting in almost twice as many hours to keep all of my accounts happy. After three years I was really starting to get drained from the pressures of selling, competing and making tight deadlines. I wouldn't trade the struggles of the learning experience for anything though.

All in all, blowing glass for a living is always pretty much "Feast and Famine" - there isn't much job security in general, however if you are crafty, you can make it work for you. Good luck, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!

[wahoo]

Don't forget to have fun. I find most people who can hack it do so because through good times and bad, rich and poor and all that shit, do so because ultimately the fun/ passion is there. Every thing you need is pretty much allready on this thread but remember Motivation is key, you will get nowhere in this biz if your lazy. oh wait, you can swing 250 and be lazy as shit. I believe alot of us full timers average that a day.
And don't be scared to be proud of being a pipe maker. pipe makers rule!

[steven p selchow]

If I seriously had a choice, I wouldn't do it again, knowing what I know now. I was never one to want to work for anyone, I appreciate the freedom of being self-employed, I'm spoiled to say the least. Going on 32 years as a full time flameworker has shown I have stamina.

As Nate pointed out, I struggled the first 7 or so years, but hey, I was doing what I loved, had no major bills, (like now) family, house, 3 cars etc.

It wasn't even until a few years ago, that I met a lot of people from here at AGI, my first get together with other glass artists, 10 or so started with me and only 2 are still at it from my beginning back in 1975, its definatly not for the weak at heart...

As Robert pointed out, most lampworkers started on hollow, pipes mostly, and taught themselves marbles and other avenues of income to stay in the game, thats if you want to make a living at it, its the reverse for me, as I started doing figure work, and saw no need to make pipes as its a crowded market as it is, so learn it all, no limitations, and with a little help from the bank...you could go places.

[Julian]

I just wanted to know how many of the blow glass for your main source of income

It might seem obvious, but blowing glass is only half of it and won't do much for you by itself. You have to sell the glass to make a living, and I think most of us find it a lot easier to make a bunch of glass items than to figure out how to get money for them. So no, I don't blow glass as my main source of income, I sell glass as my main source of income.

[BigTeasel]

i need 2 grand a month. anyone want to give up a wrap and rake account? hahahah

[dr chainsaw jones]

wait a minute...you cats get PAYED for this shit? by sellin it?.......ive been sittin here smokin out of 46,423 peices of prodo, playing with a kid pool full of marbles, jammin didlos in every orifice, and wishin i could eat the stuff while your all gettin paid?
man i am on the wrong bus


guess thats what i get for eatin paste as a kid

[nickglassdood]

chainsaw go back in yout cave

dood nate that was me outside that shop you owe me 350 finders fee for getting you that acct ..... i like postal money orders

[Cosmo]

I have given a lot of thought to blowing glass for a living. As it is right now, glass is my "second full time job". I make decent money doing it, but I never want to be in a situation where I wake up and say "I have to blow glass today" even if I don't want to. There are plenty of days I don't want to go to my main job. But, that's because it's a job. Glass is something I enjoy. I do it because I love doing it, not because I have to do it. The day I see it as work is the day I stop doing it.

[3 rip min]

I don't want to get rich, I'd just like to pay my bills of $250 a month and have something to put in all these pipes I make.

well, with any sort of time and skills, you could make 250 no problem..


i miss the days when all i needed was a few hundred a month... HAHAHAH!!! life was so much easier...

[Pilgrim]

i work near full time in my studio, on slow days i gross about $120.00
when i am working hard ,a near full days work i can gross upto $220/250
and thats with two 99lsd running. i would also go threw 1 full k/tank aday.
my wife is a school teacher and she brings in a fair amount of moneys too.
so when i'm slow her money fills in the blanks

[solfire]

IM trying it out, Doing this for a living. I go back and forth between jobs at times. Then I start to think about how much I can make working in my studio. The key to really making this work for you is getting the business side of this shit down. A good business person can sell a truck load of dog shit at a good price if they try. Personally I dont like to involve myself in the shit business. Im hungry but IM having fun. I stopped making pipes and am trying to penetrate other markets. Its a tough go but fuck, theirs to many pipe makers. I mean not enough. I encoourage all of you to keep it up. And fuck all these diet cures come live with me you wont have to worry about eating too much.