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Thread: My growth journey.

  1. #1
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    Default My growth journey.

    Haven't posted here in a long long time.

    After the legalization of pot for recreational uses here in Colorado, rent started to skyrocket. Every year rent was going up. 5 years ago I was paying 1150 for a good sized 3 bedroom with an office house, with a 2 car garage, large back yard, large front yard, and vaulted ceilings and a deck and a fire place and an all around really nice place. Now I'm paying 1485 a month for a 2 bedroom town home with a garage I have to share with someone, no yards, no deck, no vaulted ceiling, nothing nice or fancy about it, we're crammed in here. My son takes one room, my 2 daughters share the other, and my girlfriend and I have walled off the living room with furniture and sleep in it. To say the least it's been a rough road since the last time I posted here.

    However, I'm making the best of it. Since I can not work out of this garage, HOA and all, I am no longer working from home and have moved into two glassblowing studios. I rent time in Glasscraft's studio, and I rent a space at a place called Mean Skreenz. Glasscraft is nice. It stays nice and cool in there where as Mean Skreenz doesn't have AC and gets hot hot hot during the day. Mean Skreenz has 24 hour access though where as Glasscraft you have to rent by the hour and sometimes they're all filled up so it can be hard to get in at times.

    I have met some amazing blowers and great people at both places, who have given me some great pointers, and I've been learning some great new techniques and stuff. I've only been out of my own garage for a couple of months but already have really enjoyed my time at both studios. There are so many things to tell and pictures to show that I've decided to dedicate this thread to this growth journey I'm going on. One thing I learned right away, after having worked alone for about 15 years and not really being exposed to a lot of other blowers while they work, I'm apparently really really fast. I didn't know, I thought everybody worked like I did, but apparently people who watch me and my girlfriend blow glass, compliment us on how fast we are. Pictures and stories to come.
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  2. #2
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    For starters, here is some stuff my girlfriend has been working on. I taught her a little bit and got her started a couple of years ago but after her father died she took a couple of years off largely, still did some stuff but not much, but she's been back at it with a fury lately trying to relearn and get back in that groove, and she's doing great. I can't wait to teach her more stuff.

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  3. #3
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    In this one I was trying to mimic the way wood grain looks. I was very pleased with the way it came out. Well the shaft anyways. The bowl I didn't like as much.

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    And here's a hammer I made at Glasscraft. One of the blowers who also works there wanted to take a picture of me while I made it. It was excessively large, I could barely hold it and get it in my mouth to blow the weld out with it's punty on.

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  4. #4
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    And here's a fish and a Towelie I got as a special request from a friend.

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  5. #5
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    Messing around with silver and clear.

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    And I don't normally play with this stuff, but I bought some of that pre-lined tubing to see what it was like. I kind of like putting the lines in myself, but it's definitely got it's applications. First time working with the pre-lined tubing.

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  6. #6
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    So in the first month of renting time from Glasscraft to work in their studio, there was a class being run by the guys at Mazet Studios. I think I spelled that right. There were two brothers there and a third guy. Before their class, they were doing a book signing and a demo, and I just happened to have rented that night, so I got to meet these guys, and watch them work for a while. Right off the bat, when I walked in someone identified me to them, and they told me they owed me money for a piece of mine they'd grabbed and already used for smoking. I had just made it the night before and hadn't picked it up yet, and these guys already bought it.

    Whole place got packed with people. There was a full house of people renting space, and these three guys, so there were 9 blowers all crammed around a set up meant for six, and there were other people there taking pictures and just there to watch the demo and ask for autographs. It was an all around great night, those guys were fun to hang out with and watch work. Really inspiring.

    These guys were demoing shot glasses and eyeballs, and then at the end of it the two brothers made a coffee mug. One made the mug, the other made the handle, and then the one who made the mug connected them. I was in there the next morning and they were there too and the one who made the handle was drinking his coffee out of it. I got a good look at it and it had eyeballs all over it, and different slyme growth looking marbles, and carved lines in it and stuff. Really funky coffee mug. Loved it.

    The other one, Eli, approached me and told me he'd been watching me work all night, and that I was fast, and that I had skills but needed to up my game. He told me I really shouldn't be making the production I'm making, that I could be doing better things. His speech to me inspired me a lot, and while everybody else in Glasscraft was making eyeballs and shot glasses for like the next two weeks, I kind of waited and just continued on my orders, but I finally decided just about a month ago to try my first shot glass.

    It came out sloppy of course, and too big, but I think I could do a lot better if I kept at it.

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  7. #7
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    And then there is Terry Sharp of Terry Sharp Glass. I work right next to this guy at Mean Skreenz, and holy crap is he insanely good. Words fail to describe the kinds of things this guy makes. I......I just don't know how to describe it. I'm honored to be working right next to him. He's an all around super cool dude, not at all egotistic or annoyed at a lesser blower like me's questions. I also like to tease him from time to time which he handles gracefully. Like he was making a sherlock the other day, and I'm like "what is this, a sherlock? you're making a sherlock, I forbid this, it is beneath you", but then he shined a black light on it and it came alive with glowing color so I was all like "OK, carry on, you may continue".

    Well I always knew there was a way to literally turn the glass inside out, and in my head had many ideas on how to do this, and I tried it recently on this piece here. The middle part of the can is the piece I tried it on, and as you can see, while I managed to make it go from being a surface work to being an inside out it came out very sloppy (which I think looks really cool actually), and it took me forever to pull it off.

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    So I told Terry about my ordeal, and the troubles I was having, and with one simple tip he improved my understanding of this technique greatly and I have been pulling it off wonderfully every since. Thank you Terry.

    I auto sign out quick so I can't post a bunch of pics at the same time, but the rest of the pics I post here today will have been utilizing this technique. More to come.
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  8. #8
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

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    Last edited by the-thought-police; 06-22-2016 at 02:13 PM.
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  9. #9
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    This is one of my favorites.

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    Last edited by the-thought-police; 06-22-2016 at 06:49 PM.
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  10. #10
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

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    Last edited by the-thought-police; 06-22-2016 at 06:52 PM.
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  11. #11
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    and last for now and for a while.

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    Last edited by the-thought-police; 06-22-2016 at 06:54 PM.
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  12. #12
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    Uploads don't seem to be working

  13. #13
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    What the heck? I looked at all these pictures earlier. Like they all appeared to me, but now only some appear.
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  14. #14
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    OK, I can see them all again. I hadn't uploaded these here. I pulled them from my twitter account.
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    Beautiful
    Thanks for sharing the art and the stories!

  16. #16
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    Thanks!

    Do please let me know if you guys can't see them all. For some reason the last three posts keep wanting to disappear on me, and I keep having to repost them via edit, but I can see the rest.
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  17. #17
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    Working now

  18. #18
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    So I haven't taken any pictures of this yet, but I'd like to, but it's a dirty piece so I wanted to run it by you guys before posting any pics. Still though, I can tell the story.

    Mean Skreenz had a party within the first week or two of me working there. All of the blowers showed up, some shop owners, there was a live band, they were serving crawfish and a ton of other food, it was a good time. I was nervous at first even though they said it would be a kid friendly event. One never knows how many kids will actually be at such an event, but there were a good bit of kids there so my kids had a bunch of other kids to play with, and I gave away a free trumpet pipe to the trumpet player in the band, and people were just hanging out and having an all around fun time.

    Well my daughter, ended up getting sick and throwing up, she's 10, so we had to pack it all up and go home early, sadly before getting to try the crawfish, still have never had crawfish, one day. No big deal though, we had our fun for a couple of hours.

    When I went back the next morning though, Terry showed me something I had missed out on. I guess a well known blower had shown up. I'm terrible with remembering names but his last name was Bates, this much I remember. I've heard many a blower talk about this guy, and I know they're talking about this guy when they mention to me that he's the one who makes functional glass flame throwers. Never seen one of them but someone at Glasscraft has a glass torch this Bates guy made entirely out of glass by making a milli with tubes for the tiny holes for the tip. Said it had been hooked up and turned on and it worked and all, but they didn't want to leave it on too long with risk of melting. Still though, super cool and I love the novelty of this guys stuff.

    Well Mr. Bates, I'll call him, showed up that night and started off with a huge piece of 51mm glass, heated it up to melting temp, gave half of it to Terry to hold and walked in the other direction, letting it slump naturally, then lifting it up to create a giant S like shape. They then punched a bowl and made a mouth piece and it became the party piece of the night. Holding this thing in my hand, I can hold the bowl, extend my arm out all the way as far as I can, and the mouth piece is still a good 6 inches to a foot too far away from my mouth for me to be able to hit it on my own. Freaking giant ass sherlock. I think only one person managed to hit from it without help that night, otherwise it takes two to smoke through this giant ass sherlock.
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  19. #19
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    OK, one more quick story and then I've got to go stick my nose back to that grindstone for seven of the next nine days. I owe people who have donated to my campaign to get my son the services he needs pieces, and I've gotta try again to make this pipe for someone with Multiple Sclerosis because it has to fit in their hand just right, and I've got orders to be filled, and I've gotta finish the order I'm about to describe. Work work work, always so much work to be done.

    The Zonk Game Piece

    Are you ready to feast your eyes upon the most heady piece you've ever seen? Then you might want to check someone else's thread for that. This is the most basic piece of crap piece I've ever made, and I need 500 of them. This piece marks a different kind of growth though, not my own growth, the countries. It's obviously not a stepping stone for any learning curve or talent/skill development, that's for sure.

    I got a random call one day from someone in Florida, describing a game that is made for smokers in the vein of drinking games, but for smokers instead. They'd apparently gotten my name and number from a local head shop chain that is one of my best customers when asking who the best blower for the job might be. I listened intently trying to understand what this person wanted from me. Apparently though, this game has already been released in Washington and Oregon, and I think maybe California and a few others I don't remember, but this game comes with a simple pipe, and each time they release it in another state they employ a local blower from that state to make the piece for them, and the only important factor is that it has to snap into the tray. Color or style didn't even matter to them, just so long as it snapped into the tray.

    Well I was curious, and I of course always need money, world stops going around if you don't have money, so I took that order. Making it snap in the tray was easy enough, just had to be made on 22mm glass and not altered by pulling it into an hourglass shape. I trail color on, blow a bowl, punch it, make a carb, flatten the bowl, and make the mouthpiece. It's super fast, mind numbingly so.

    Thing about this order is though, is that it kind of marks a moment of growth for the US itself, in that this is becoming more and more widely accepted across the nation. Many more states legalizing it has made such a project possible, and many more continuing to try to legalize provides growth opportunity. Previously to this, I have made my pieces and sold them to smoke shops, or directly to an individual customer, but this company is neither of those, it's a marketing company, being a head shop is not their thing. It's a marketing company that wants 500 glass pieces from me to be used as a piece in their game. They've apparently already held tournaments and stuff to promote this game.

    Overall I find the order intriguing not because of the piece itself, but because it marks a paradigm shift from taboo to a widely accepted thing. The beginning of a shift from mom and pop shops and small chains, to a larger and more corporate world, and possibly a glimpse at the form the next great glass explosion will take. Only time will tell, but it seems as though this highlights a future trend in America where glass blowing and smoking takes on a far less illegal feel to it, and is becoming more and more normalized and even corporatized.

    Whatever you make of it, agree or disagree with my take on it, it's certainly out of the ordinary compared to the orders I'm used to getting.

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  20. #20
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    Default Re: My growth journey.

    OK, I totally didn't make this one, but Terry, the guy who works right next to me at Mean Skreenz did, and I got to watch a lot of it being done. Particularly his making of the green/dichro color work that most of it is made out of. That was quite the process, it was like watching a work out. Took him about a week to do it all from start to finish.

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