Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Glass Blowing

I have a real passion for art, and I am so ready to get back to blowing glass. I am jones'n to get behind the torch and dance with the elements of fire, solids, liquid, and gravity. I started blowing glass in 1999, In the mountains of North Carolina just west of Asheville. I was 24. Working in the medium of glass was very addicting to me. I spent 12 hours nearly every night for the first few months of my learning curve. I was fortunate to work with, and be taught by 4 of my friends who were all at different levels of experience. They were willing to teach me the ropes while lending me the supplies I needed to experiment and create with. I am very thankful for those who provided me with the opportunities to blow glass with them.

Being able to spend that much time blowing glass, day in and day out, I soon started to develop the skills that provided for me to run a small yet lucrative glass blowing business. I spent the next five years learning about, and creating with hot glass. I spent a lot of time making production pieces ,that would take between 10-25 minutes; these I would sell at wholesale prices. This was one avenue of bringing in income. I would also make glass pieces that I would spend 6-12 hours on. These pieces would be very intricate, consisting of lots of color patterns and very unique shaping. These were my favorite pieces to make because they would stretch the limits of my knowledge of glass. I always enjoyed pushing my limits to see where I could go with it.

I have only blown glass a few times over the past few years, mainly because I don't have a studio set up currently. I do like to spend time blowing with my friends though from time to time. But the urges to get behind a torch and being creative are really boiling up inside. I am making plans to build a shop and equip it with all new ventilation and glass blowing equipment. I am very much looking forward to making new glass art.

Check out these videos about creating glass art

Milon Townsend



Acroduster

3 comments:

Taylor said...

I can't wait to see what you create!
Good luck with the studio.

PinkBunny said...

I absolutely loved the videos !
I was recently checking out this website called www.sunflowerpipes.com and they have this awesome new section called as "Pipe School" which has a lot of information to offer the avid smoker who wants to step up their knowledge of the smoking art. At Pipe School they discuss at length the history of the smoking pipe, from its ritualistic use in ancient Greece by "Hippokrates of Kos" to the "golden age of glass pipes" in the 70s and 80s. The reason I am mentioning this is because they discuss glass blowing its history and common techniques used by glass blowers. Check it out !

C. L. DeMedeiros said...

man,
what you do is awesome

carlos