What item got you into glass

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.

Money

love.

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.

Fire

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.

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

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

+1 Fire

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

perfume bottles.

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.

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.

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

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

ah,

but it wont let me, or i would.

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

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.)

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

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.

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.