For me personally, lots of the move to facebook really made things weird. They are starting to crack down on people using keywords and selling glass, posting an item in a group with 50k people sounds great until you realize how many of them are also glass blowers and your post gets shot to 30 mins of down scroll in an hour to where no one really see's it. I also feel like the sheer number of people blowing glass has gone through the roof, so lots more competition. I also don't get prices. I have seen some really rather janky stuff fly for prices I wouldn't imagine, but a solid simple piece (frit spoon with well done murrine marble) for a suitable price sits... So I can't find much in regards to consistency in prices and what people want or will pay other than maybe "big named artists" who have an obvious "cool" rep. And hey some of them do seem really cool and are obviously very talented. It is also hard to deny that some of the most amazing glass art ever is being made before our very eyes now. So that is kind if fun to witness.
Legal weed has brought a lot of money around too... so you would think more to spend or wash or whatever. But with that you get collectors vs smokers buying things which also makes stuff weird... like I don't think I could ever relate to someone who can spend 5k on a bong or glass piece, just a whole different type and class of person. So I am less into the customers than I used to be when making pipes post OP pipe dreams... it feels more like we're just part of the whole big capitalist industry machine than a community sticking up our middle fingers in the air to the powers that be, and helping people get high with cool looking shit. But hey people and their families gotta eat.
I also have little interest in dab culture and that seems to be a major focus and shift in what is being made and what people want... It makes me want to kind of stop making pipes altogether short of for me or friends or whatever and just make random ass shit that tickles me creatively... and get a stupid job that takes care of the bills/rent and work as few of those hours as possible. Its odd there isn't much glass on tour, considering I feel almost overloaded with the amount of it I see online from the million new and old blowers that are now out there. Maybe I am just jaded though, I kind of hate selling glass and would much prefer a shop just take some orders from me when I make a batch of stuff up than deal one on one with a person. Or put up an auction online only to have people back out after winning over and over (like many many others have experienced). I try to keep my hourly rate at $15 to $20 an hour.... some old glass heads wouldn't even consider turning on their torch for that and I respect that, but when I see someone at a shop with a case of (albeit nice clean looking pipes) that are just silver and gold fume, with some basic tek or something and ask like $75 wholesale it blows my mind. The buyer at the store was like sorry dude you kinda just priced yourself out of our shop/budget... and of course that shop isn't even around anymore (RIP 3rd Eye in PDX).
If anything the scene went from like hippy/punk rock to like "collectors" owning 3 sports cars and flexing on kids or artists on social media about how badass they are. It is a huge turn off. Like why would I ever want to have someone like that own one of my pieces of art.... then I think... why ever strive to practice and upgrade my skills to even make something worth a grand or more if THAT is who my customers would be! I am probably just an asshole though. Also I am a hermit so maybe this was still going on in like 2004 but I was just somehow shielded from it until legalization and social media came along.
As far as raising prices, we def should be! I have like 3 or 4 letters from 3 or 4 years of airgas raising oxy prices by 25% each year. We finally got a hvlp system going thankfully, but our liquid tanks doubled in price in a few years... and despite the ever expanding amount of new colors, it feels like color costs are going up all the time too, at least if you look at GA... I give molten aura a pass because they brought some colors we NEEDED in our lives, but when color is going for like 100 dollars a lbs and it isn't even like something super special and oxy prices go up every year... well we need to do something.
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