Why do you make pipes?

Sick of people asking me why I make pipes instead of other things, like I should be ashamed of myself or something. My default response lately has been "cuz Fuck You, that's why". Their default reaction is big eyes, and often to kind of lean back in shock.

Seriously, the fuck kind of insult is it to ask that? Maybe I should ask them, well why don't you sell Amerikan made products instead of Chinese ones? Why don't you work for Nasa instead of McDonalds? Why don't you live in a nice house instead of that mold infested apartment you're in? Why don't you weigh 180 instead of 350? Why don't you have 3 drinks instead of 15 ya fuckin lush? Why don't you marry a stranger instead of your cousin? Fuckin asshats.

Anyone else feel me?

we live in the land of the wierd. people that try to be normal are doing it wrong. Your response is perfect.

Family members give me this all the time. I just tell them its what I love and Its what pays the bills, Its inventive and fun, and I could give a shit less what about anybody thinks. That shuts em up in a ( some what ) respectful way. But if anybody else besides my family asked me that, I would have that same first response as you. But I cant be that way to the fam.. Even if they are super close minded about it.

Why does a dog lick its balls?

Tell em you hate the taste of that salty corporate mushroom and you'd rather earn your own money doing something you love. That or something so dumb they know to leave you alone - "Judge told me it was this or prison maaaaaan"

Me? I make pipes to use em :D

edited cause you know... safety breaks make me forget stuff

I like to tell'em, it's because i hungout with the wrong crowd! usually gets a nice laugh. or not either way i don't give a shit.

beware of smug
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I get a lot of the opposite. Why don't you make pipes lol

I do, just not exclusively.

Why all the hate can't we all just get along and hate the Chinese?

When I first started, I made pipes because it gave me an avenue to explore my art in a way that can easily be sold. Nearly any tech that I want to try out can be explored through pipe work, and I don't have to worry about being out of pocket for materials and time.

Now I make pipes because I am proud to be a part of a community that is revolutionizing glass art. We had an art historian show up at the AAGI, and she asked me why we were doing this. It was the perfect moment. Her presence, an art historian who was writing a book on the glass pipe movement. She answered her own question for me. We want to bring light to the fact that there are amazing artists among us, and making pipes does not make that any less true.

Don't be ashamed or feel like you should be. Send anyone who asks why you do this to the AAGI website. Send them to our event. Even my friends and family who totally accept what I do were impressed by the scale of our event, and how professional and family friendly it was. People have an attitude about us, we are working to change that. Get involved with the Michigan Project…it's semi close and I certainly give that group my stamp of approval. I can say that for me, being a part of the AAGI makes a huge difference in how I feel about my job. I am not "just a piper", I am an artist who is using my voice and my power to make a difference in the world. And here soon, that's going to be the main stream perception of us all.

I do it because that's what I want to do. Ive worked for the man and it was so awful I decided I'd rather make less money and truly love and appreciate what I do everyday, than make a few more dollars and dread waking up to a non creative bleek existence that a good percentage of people have to endure. The freedom I have now has changed my life in the most magnificent way. I think a lot of people are afraid of this mindset now a days which is sad. I'd rather be the wolf than another sheep.

I do have a lot of people ask me why I don't make big chandeliers or vases like "that one famous guy ". My answer is always well first off its not the same kind of glass work I do, and second he must not be that famous if you don't know his name ( even though I do ).

I want to make everything out of glass!
Pipes are what pushed my way into glass and have help support me in my 2 years as a lamp worker
I learned form and technique...
I shall always make pipes but i shall always push myself into making the nicest sleekest functional piece of art there is.
I do want to make everything out of glass!
and when people ask me why do i make pipes... why dont i make pipes?

Because making pipes is a great way to be able to sell glass as a beginner. Also it is about all I know how to sell. I have no idea how or where I could sell something like marbles or goblets at anything close to a consistent rate, I'm also not near as good at them because I spend all my time making pipes! Most of my family is aware of what I make, they are also aware of why I make it so no drama for me there, but there are plenty of people who don't get the full story about what I do (like my ladybird's mother).

me n smoke, we're friends. nearly everything i do is related to that culture. always have and always will love hand pipes. don't need more of a reason than that!

Why not move to a more enlightened part of the country? You will always have that mentality in some parts of the country & it will never change unfortunately

I started making pipes at home wile I was working at a hotshop during the day. It was the only way I was going to have my own glassblowing studio. Over the years lampworking has provided me with an income and makes me more money than I made in the hotshop. It took me a year to make a nice pipe without very much instruction. So it was not easily done.
Plus there so much fun to make.

haha if someone asks me what i make in a condescending manner, trying to get me to say pipes, i just say "things out of glass", or "something functional". Some people wont ever understand, some people will. plus I feel like they sell a little better.

I always wanted to blow glass specifically because I wanted to make pipes. It just seemed so taboo and magical. When I finally got the chance I fell in love immediately. I love the culture, love the plant, and love the flame. Couldn't be happier doing what I'm doing.

Because I don't want to make bombs for the war machine...
E

lampworked glass that is:

making anything other than pipes i find boring. the shapes of vases and bowls and mibs are so simple. i guess there is sculpture, but id always add the element and difficulty of making it functional.

selling anything other than pipes is boring. home decor stores? gets old. art galleries? maybe. but still not on par with the reception and reaction from the pipe art world, nor as broadly appreciated.

plenty of other reasons. but these are the biggies that directly and repeatedly send me back to just piping.

So I can smoke weed in a flash...Otherwize I would have to roll a joint or blizzy.

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Originally Posted by douglasbloer

lampworked glass that is:

making anything other than pipes i find boring. the shapes of vases and bowls and mibs are so simple. i guess there is sculpture, but id always add the element and difficulty of making it functional.

selling anything other than pipes is boring. home decor stores? gets old. art galleries? maybe. but still not on par with the reception and reaction from the pipe art world, nor as broadly appreciated.

plenty of other reasons. but these are the biggies that directly and repeatedly send me back to just piping.

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Head shops must be different in your area. I can't stand going into head shops and getting asked to make cheaper things. Then I look around the shop and it's filled with $100 Chinese bongs. I find that very defeating. I guess it's all about your mindset though.

I hate breaking pieces I don't make. If I made it and break it all is good.

So other than making money and pursuing a challenge , its so I can break stuff and not feel as bad about it.

Mike you need to go into shops that don't carry any of that shit or atleast very little of it. Then you won't get asked to do it.

Well, that's the problem right there. Everybody in this area does carry it now. The place I was going didn't, but then they expanded and once they did that they exploded the old store with Chinese. So the new store since went out of business and now everything is back at the old shop with tons of Chinese.

Did you talk to your buddy down there to see if he wants any of that stuff?

A gang of pipers hypnotized me with their shiny color spirals and mind-altering ninja smoke.

Also, I would like to forward the motion that China should be destroyed.

because pipes

If I was in your position and frustrated by this question, I would probably just flip it.

Annoying Person: "Why do you make pipes?"

You: "Why wouldn't I?"


Like you said, they are trying to make you feel ashamed... just throw that right back at them. Deliver your line with a tone that demonstrates you are mystified by their ignorance.

i'm pretty sure the only real true answer is, because its what pays best. one can make more per hour making pipes than goblets or pendants i think. most people anyway, and the market is bigger. especially for heady pieces. i cant make good money selling drinkingware and other things, but with smoking ware its much easier i think, for most people. I mean, even Robert Mickelson started making them too, and anyone who read what he has to say about it, will see that what i say seems to be true.

what else are you going to smoke out of?

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Originally Posted by hashmasta-kut

i'm pretty sure the only real true answer is, because its what pays best. one can make more per hour making pipes than goblets or pendants i think. most people anyway, and the market is bigger. especially for heady pieces. i cant make good money selling drinkingware and other things, but with smoking ware its much easier i think, for most people. I mean, even Robert Mickelson started making them too, and anyone who read what he has to say about it, will see that what i say seems to be true.

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i have to disagree. making pendants and jewelry pays alot better than you imagine, making a dollar or 2 per minute doing simple implosion pendants. just sayin;)

Without a doubt, pipes pay better than my other work, but I don't do this for the money. It's more about supporting my art habit. I do auctions to keep money in my paypal account, which I use to buy gems and paints and other fun things to create with.

alright then we'll have to agree to disagree :wes:

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Originally Posted by hashmasta-kut

I mean, even Robert Mickelson started making them too, and anyone who read what he has to say about it, will see that what i say seems to be true.

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I was actually pretty dead set against making pipes for a while because I couldn't find a direction with them, but then I discussed this with him, I believe on here, or maybe at Zen in person... either way. When you look at an artist as talented as RAM breaking into the pipe industry it makes you come to a quick realization, it's pretty essential to get your name out there or else you're literally nobody.

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Originally Posted by Barry-Allen

i have to disagree. making pendants and jewelry pays alot better than you imagine, making a dollar or 2 per minute doing simple implosion pendants. just sayin;)

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ok let me say it like this, i have not much market for jewelery and pendants. i have gotten exactly 1 pendant order in 4 years(and its on hold). and when i sell pipes, the dollar value for the item is higher than drinking vessels, even when a similar amount of time is input. more competition in glasses, less in pipe makers.

Even when I was a wee Mclarty in Jr. High school I was obsessed with Pipes. Pipes were some of my most valued possessions and I have gone without weed more than once for a nice piece.

Some people like the laughing fat guy and some people pray to the emaciated white guy nailed to a board but I find the Pipe to be the sacred symbol that helps me find peace.

I had been a Pipe carver for years before my friend asked me if I wanted to learn flame working and I used to never sell my work. I would only gift Pipes.

Nowadays I use lampwork to help support my family and I am thank full for it. Besides, what would happen if I didn't sell a lot of the Pipes that I made? My friends and family would all have been buried alive by the pieces I made just learning how to work glass in the first place.

I am proud to be a Piper and this is my dream job.

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Originally Posted by ROGUE

Head shops must be different in your area. I can't stand going into head shops and getting asked to make cheaper things. Then I look around the shop and it's filled with $100 Chinese bongs. I find that very defeating. I guess it's all about your mindset though.

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mmmm alot of the stores here are terrible little china slingers that should go out of business. but most of them are appreciative of quality work and aware of actual prices, and sad they cant buy or sell any of it.

when a shop tries to get me to sell at crack head prices i show outwardly insulted for even thinking they could pull that shit. i also ask them if they know anything about glass and would they like to learn, and would they like to have help making there shop proper. So yeah there is definitely some bs owners and shops.

i was reffering to the consumer too, many a pipe collector appreciate the art form to the degree of knowing the names of techniques like encalmo or retti. encalmo or retti a vase and the general vase collector wont understand why it cost 10 times more than the plain one that matches their couch.

until one goes really high end but i havent broken into that realm yet.

tangenty: in high art it seems that the buyer understands that they dont and cant "get it" and that elevates the art even higher.

I make glass because I wanted a fun hobby that I can keep growing into for the rest of my life, I will never stop being amazing by those more skilled than I am... but it will never be a full-time job for me.

I make functional glass because heady glass artwork is a part of the counter-culture that I love surrounding myself with.

I make pipes because I'm a newb and have learned more in 3 weeks of pipe making than 6 months of bead/sculpture work. I've never even smoked out of one of my pipes!... but only because I'm an oil-head so I have used a fair share of my own domes, dabbers and dishes :-)