What item got you into glass

[mattholimeau]

For me, fumed honeycombs always made me go "whoah".

[harpentuan]

This isn't it, but when I first saw mille' chips w/ Bart simpson in ...like 1997, I was like WTF? How do that do that?

[krispysglass]

Always loved glass, my folks had a soft glass paper weight egg that was an Easter decoration and I was never allowed to touch it. Then later my first pipe, I bought it and went to go use it, I just sat and stared at it for a while till everyone there was like dude pass it around. By the end of the session I was saying u wanted to make those for a living. Then seeing dudes on lot at concerts, idk seems all threw my life glass has always been a focus until it became my life

www.kaglass.com

[herperdude]

I have always loved fire! Any kind! Bigger, hotter, better! At 16 I really fell in love with the cosmic colors in the striking and fumed boro glass department. My first exposure to boro was through pipes, and as an artist/pyro I knew I had to utilize this amazing medium! At 16 though, no way would my parents sponsor such an endeavour. So beads it was! I got a hot head torch, fibre blankets, and all the bead basics with an assortment of soda lime. Sold my first set after a few days practice, and before I knew it I had purchased all the essentials for making boro beads! I developed my skills as a boro bead artist and worked up to getting 3-400$ for a set of 5-6 of my focal beads. At that rate even when switching to pipes was an option I held off for close to a decade. On a trip not to long ago, I met an artist in Eureka and decided then and there, no more beads! I have a lot to learn in the pipe making area, and using an alpha to start with wasn't ideal. But I am a couple hundred pipes deep and loving it! Tomorrow I hook up the redmax and am looking forward to all the doors a bigger flame opens! Happy lampworking everyone!

[Christian]

Definitely pipes for me. i can remember way back when i bought my first pipe from a local headshop, it was nothing fancy just some iso fuming. That was when i came to the realization that there are people out there who actually do that for a living.. i was so fascinated. probably like a year or two later i saw 'Degenerate art' and signed up for a furnace glass blowing course at a local college. there i met a guy who was actually doing some flameworking, just making little beads on a nortel minor. but i was so intrigued, i must have sat there watching him for the whole class. i probably asked him a thousand questions, and in the end i left that class with the goal of setting up my own garage studio and just start trying to learn.. i've been torching a bit under a year and a half now, and i'm completely obsessed with the medium. pipes are still what i make most. mainly because i love the subculture that comes with glass pipes. something about the fact that its a tool for someone to use and not just an object to be admired is really awesome to me.

[FifDeez]

I remember when I was like ten I seen a artist make a clear dragon and fume it heavy with gold. I was hooked I spent all my allowance on it and still have the dragon to this day( what's left of it. Mother broke it dusting when I was a kid.)

Go ahead. I'll be your Huckleberry.

[DBO33]

Ever since I got my first simple wrap and rake spoon I was always fascinated by glass. I spent my teenage years admiring giant pieces by Mike fro, cowboy etc. Old school gigantic line work pieces. This was back when I feel like as a consumer, you didn't really know who made the piece, all that really mattered was if you liked it. The first signed pipe I ever saw was a hammer my buddy bought by Darby. We cleaned out our local headshop buying up a ton of sick bubs dries etc. I got out of glass for a while but a few years ago a buddy of mine turned me on to what guys were doing this day in age. the first recent head piece I purchased was an ease Nate dizzle collab swiss off my buddy who re ignited my passion for the glass scene. Once I got the swiss it was on like King Kong. Went into full on collector mode for a few years, I still have an amazing shelf full of insane head pieces. It is so incredibly inspiring to look at some of that stuff. And then after seeing degenerate art I said " that looks easy enough, I can do that!". LOL. Melting boro has giving me an IMMENSE appreciation for what ALL artists do. I learned very quickly that making aesthetically pleasing glass was NOT easy and was a skill that takes years to refine. Once the glass scene became rediculous (in my opinion) (I watched a buddy of mine sell a piece for over 5 times profit) I decided I could no longer afford to try and keep up with the heady boys and my energy switched to wanting to try and make the stuff. Now I get as excited for new tools and raw glass as I used to get when buying a new head piece. Glass is amazing and I love it and it really is something I feel like you could spend your lifetime learning about and still not know everything.

[Euphorean]

Sculptures, but it's not in the list. Fleming is amazing and the artist I would most like to emulate.