Any glass blowers here

The title says it all, not just bongs and bowls either, anything really. watched the glass blowing competition on netflix and it seemed so cool, also realized Ive seen amateurs make bongs that blew these people away.

I always wanted to blow scientific glass

I’m a novice lamp worker (jewelry/dab accessories) but I hope to get into glass blowing soon! Would love to make those beautiful larger pieces

Some glass blowing videos on youtube, make me hungry, as if they are stretch the sugar.

I came here to ask the same question. I've known a few lampworkers in my life, but never had a chance to give it a try. Every few years I go down a rabbithole of videos and then over to a supply site to look at torches and whatnot. Lately I've become completely obsessed. I've been staying up all night watching videos. Millie is something I've never seen before until recently. It's amazing to me how the whole field just keep improving.

I've been wanting to buy a big home pipe, like a hammer or something, but I'm not impressed by anything I see in any of my local headshops. So it's pushing my hard to start blowing my own. I couldn't care less about making money, I just want to craft heady pieces. It's one of those things that I feel like I could excel at.

Now I'm trying to figure out a setup without completely breaking the bank. It's all super expensive, and I'm wondering what could get me in the door without limiting me too quickly as I progress. What would be worth spending the money, and what would be better for upgrading later.

lusidghost said:

I came here to ask the same question. I've known a few lampworkers in my life, but never had a chance to give it a try. Every few years I go down a rabbithole of videos and then over to a supply site to look at torches and whatnot. Lately I've become completely obsessed. I've been staying up all night watching videos. Millie is something I've never seen before until recently. It's amazing to me how the whole field just keep improving.

I've been wanting to buy a big home pipe, like a hammer or something, but I'm not impressed by anything I see in any of my local headshops. So it's pushing my hard to start blowing my own. I couldn't care less about making money, I just want to craft heady pieces. It's one of those things that I feel like I could excel at.

Now I'm trying to figure out a setup without completely breaking the bank. It's all super expensive, and I'm wondering what could get me in the door without limiting me too quickly as I progress. What would be worth spending the money, and what would be better for upgrading later.

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Check out “revere glass” on YouTube, Really awesome to learn from! They also have a video on “getting started at home” basics that will help. I’ll link it below,

Green_Alchemist said:

Check out “revere glass” on YouTube, Really awesome to learn from! They also have a video on “getting started at home” basics that will help. I’ll link it below,

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I've watched that video! Plus a bunch of others from that channel. Last night I watched one showing the different flame setups. All glassblowers seem chill as hell. I want to be a chill as hell glassblower.

What kind of torch do you have?

I have the Nortel Red Rocket, I found a local glass studio that was upgrading their gear and made an offer, so it’s used, but discounted to get me going!
Had to try and save money for the kiln (that’s the one thing I didn’t want to cheap out on)

Do you have any local studios or places in or near your area?

Green_Alchemist said:

I have the Nortel Red Rocket, I found a local glass studio that was upgrading their gear and made an offer, so it’s used, but discounted to get me going!
Had to try and save money for the kiln (that’s the one thing I didn’t want to cheap out on)

Do you have any local studios or places in or near your area?

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Nice. The only studios I can find are a couple of hours away. I think I'm going to have to order everything.

I'm a Lampworker. Been doing it since 2014. Spent about 5 years working at it full time making pipes, pendants, rigs, dabbers etc... and about 4 years also teaching beginner classes. Its an awesome hobby if you don't mind spending tons of time and money on your hobbie . Its a tough job to feed a family with. So now I"m working full time on a farm and we have a glass studio set up on site to work in after-hours and on weekends.

There are LIVE now

Thundercat said:

I'm a Lampworker. Been doing it since 2014. Spent about 5 years working at it full time making pipes, pendants, rigs, dabbers etc... and about 4 years also teaching beginner classes. Its an awesome hobby if you don't mind spending tons of time and money on your hobbie . Its a tough job to feed a family with. So now I"m working full time on a farm and we have a glass studio set up on site to work in after-hours and on weekends.

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Any pictures of your pieces?

they are on instagram @blairartglass

Also, what about tools? I've looked at the package deals and there are a lot of different tools. Is it like the more the merrier or do you only use a few and the rest just sit around collecting dust? When I started buying grow / extraction equipment I went overboard and also dabbled in all sorts of setups, so I ended up with a ton of stuff that I never needed or only briefly used. I'd like to avoid that scenario again if possible.

Thundercat said:

they are on instagram @blairartglass

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Oh wow, you're really good. Beautiful stuff. How did you get started?

lusidghost said:

Also, what about tools? I've looked at the package deals and there are a lot of different tools. Is it like the more the merrier or do you only use a few and the rest just sit around collecting dust? When I started buying grow / extraction equipment I went overboard and also dabbled in all sorts of setups, so I ended up with a ton of stuff that I never needed or only briefly used. I'd like to avoid that scenario again if possible.

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There are some basic tools like proper glasses, tweezers, a graphite paddle, and a graphite reamer that are all pretty handy to get started with. Most of the starter kits have a good basic selection of things, just know sometimes they are the lower quality versions of things to reduce cost.

lusidghost said:

Oh wow, you're really good. Beautiful stuff. How did you get started?

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Well thanks! I've put many hours in try to build skills, and honestly only consider myself an OK intermediate level worker.

I started by watching the videos you guys were talking about, and dreaming . Several years went by and I could never find a shop to take lessons at or have a spot to try to do it myself. Then I ended up moving and being off work on disability from an accident. That afforded me some free time and I found a local shop where I started taking a few classes, and then renting time to practice what I was learning. I spent almost a year doing that before I bought my first torch. After I got my torch, I had to "pay" for it, in other words I needed to make it pay for itself. So I really focused at that point on making pipes because they seemed to have the most sellable market in my area. I spent the next 5 years working at that same shop. We did local demo events, and craft fairs and tried to hustle as much glass as we could. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so its always been hard for me to make things fast, but I always try to make them nice to reach whatever vision I have for a piece. I always sold lots of beautiful glass, but just couldn't make it fast enough to keep the bills paid and the family fed. When I first started glass blowing, my cannabis garden helped tremendously with everything, but the more time I spent on the torch the more my garden suffered. Especially the last year or so which made the struggle real.