Whirled Glass

A great place to start if you are beginning your quest into glass blowing is to either apprentice for someone or to go to school. One place that we found for schooling is the Eugene Glass School located in non other than Eugene Oregon. This city has a lot to offer glass blowers and flame workers.

In our few visits to Eugene we found that glass blowing is alive and well there. With the downtown Saturday Market you can find all kinds of glass pieces created by the locals there. What a great place to find art in it’s truest form. When you find a gold mine of glass art like what is in Eugene Oregon, you want to bookmark that city and visit there often.

Going to school can be a great experience. When you find something you love to do take all the steps you need, and check out the right school for you interests. The Eugene Glass School is a great place to start if you are interested in glass blowing and molding in it’s real form. They will teach you all you need to know in order to make you a true artist. For more information about the Eugene Glass School check out their website at EugeneGlassSchool.org. And for more information about Saturday Market check out the local Craigs List or contact someone in that area.

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Wow .. even UNR the University of Nevada, Reno has a program for glass blowers. This is not very surprising seeing as they are so close to Oregon where we find most of the great glass blowers of our time.

It’s nice to see more Universities getting involved in the arts like glass blowing. There is so much there to be shown in the way of artistry. Glass blowers show a great talent in taking the flame working of the old days and creating fantastic pieces and sculptures from glass rods and a lot of heat.

We hope to see more and more schools get involved in the arts over the next few years. This is going to give us a chance to stop at the Universities and check out some of the programs.

If you are a glass blowing enthusiast and you want to tackle the education process of learning glass blowing on your own there are resources for you. This site claims to have written the book on glass blowing and flame working. Literally. The Glass Blowing Bible claims that for $29.95 you will learn everything you will ever need to know about glass blowing.

We think that there is no greater teacher than experience but this book seems to have it all.
The Ultimate Step-By-Step A-Z, glassblowing How-To Guide – Designed To Teach You The Craft Of Glassblowing FAST! This is what they are claiming. If anyone has anything to say about the Glass Blowing Bible we would love to hear your reactions. Have you purchased this 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back book? We want to know how well it worked for you.

Leave your comments and don’t forget to vote on this website. The website we saw was a little plain and not very inviting for the glass blowing enthusiast. I would recommend that they spice up the site a little bit just for the sake of art.

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Here is a little twist to the traditional glass blowing techniques. Geosoul Arts has a unique way of taking glass and colors and mixing them up into some serious art. They are local here in Las Vegas so this may be a day trip for us to go check them out when we are out and about one Saturday.

The growing number of glass blowing shops in Las Vegas is amazing. We are finding more and more glass blowers stopping here in Vegas and setting up shop. There are a few blowers that are still doing the creative work out of their houses in the Valley but we can’t get to them all so one day and one glass shop at a time please.

One of our good friends just started her own shop in her garage and we are excited to see what comes out of her creative head.

Geosoul Art is making some really neat art pieces and if you get the chance while here in lovely Las Vegas to check them out .. let them know you heard about them on Whirled Glass. If you can pull yourself away from the casinos for five minutes you will see that there is more to Vegas than lights and naked women. It’s true. Take a look around sometime.

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Since 1975 Art Glass has been doing the do when it comes to Glass Blowing. They boast the products that they sell and the low prices that they have for the little things that matter most. Like a auto clave or a furnace for curing your glass. Don’t melt them in the furnace and stop putting your glass blown pipes and sculptures in the oven .. it’s not the same. You need pressure as well as heat .. think man think.

You can check out Art Glass online and click on the Sundance Art Glass. I saw something very neat about that page. They show you where to stay when you are going to visit them. They are in Paradise California so another stop on the way will be the studio. I can’t wait to see this one and get a good nights sleep in the Comfort Inn that they recommend.

Check out their site and if you have been there before let us know what you thought of thier outfit.

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Old World Glass Blowing meet Lindsay. The art on display at Lindsay Art Glass is beautifully detailed. There is something unique about the images that we saw on their site though I can’t put my thumb on what exactly that is. The gallery is full of great images of their work and the shop is full of expert glass blowers that build some amazing pieces.

Located in Benicia California, this may be one of the first stops on our glass blowing tour. This will be another great place to podcast from as well. We love California so we will be spending some time going from south to north. Lindsay Art will definitely be a stop along the way.

This mission of finding creative Glass Blowers has been a real adventure so far. We are thinking about making a few short jaunts to some of the places that are within a thousand miles or so. A short six or seven hour drive there and back sounds like a ton of fun and we want to start seeing these places in person instead of just on the web.

If you have ever seen or been to Lindsay Art Glass let us know what you think .. you can comment on this post.

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Take some advice from the experts. Audrey and Steve Kennedy have been blowing glass since about 1995 and they started out just like everyone else .. one step at a time. Buying your own equipment can be very expensive but this is an investment you will make for a lifetime of glass blowing.

There are tons of sites that offer glass blowing equipment at pretty good prices. No matter where you go you are going to have to spend some money on the equipment it takes to blow your own glass. You might try looking for someone who is going out of business or has lost interest in their glass blowing. I don’t know if that ever happens but it could.

Another bit of advice is to try it before you buy into it. Find someone who will teach you the art of blowing glass. With all the galleries around the United States alone you are sure to find someone who will take you on as an apprentice for a while to see if you are truly interested in making this a life long career or just a weekend hobby.

Remember this stuff doesn’t sell cheap so make sure you are sure before you invest a ton of money that you will regret later on down the road.

In case you are ready to get right into the business and purchase your own equipment, Roach Industries is one of the industry manufacturers of glass blowing and glass handling equipment. You might check them out and shop around some to see if you can get what you are looking for. Contact them and see if they can cut you a deal on a package. You never know unless you ask.

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Wholesale glass pipe blowers and manufacturers. Where the student becomes the employee. This site Chingari Wholesale boasts years of experience and the fact that they retain their students as in house glass blowers. Thats a nice thing to do.

I didn’t see a hole lot to the site but once you get inside the site there is a ton of stuff. From glass blown pipes to hookahs they have a pretty large selection. I also tried to contact them via email and waited about 3 weeks with no response. Maybe my email went into a spam box but I made sure to make the email a non spammy looking email to the spam filter would accept it and throw it in the inbox.

There is some pretty cool glass blown pieces on the home page and in the catalog we saw to much of everthing spectacular. There is ceramics and glass blowing for days in the site. Check out any category in the catalog and you will see pages of great pieces all hand made and some really nice blown glass.

None the less .. check them out and if you know anything about them .. let us know.

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A stop on the way through Atlanta Georgia will take you to Janke Studios where glass blowing is alive and well. There creations are amazing. We took a look around the website and WOW. Their setup is very clean and the displays for their work are even cleaner.

Since 1986 since Matt arrived in Atlanta, he notices that there where no glass blowing studios or shops out there anywhere. Now Matt didn’t actually start the glass blowing until around 1992 for the Atlanta area. Not only is Matt an expert glass blower, he also is a great instructor. Teaching students the art and history of glass blowing.

This will have to be one of our stops on the tour of the United States Glass Blowing showrooms. We have seen enough on his website to make us push a pin for Janke Studios in Atlanta Georgia. Then it’s on to Florida .. but thats a subject for another post.

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If you are ever in Seattle Washington and you want a great experience in glass blowing .. there is a place you can go. Seattle Glass Blowing is another great place to learn the art of old world glass blowing. Offering glass blowing classes as well as some of the nicest blown glass I personally have seen in my search for the greatest glass blowers in America and around the world.

These beautiful and hand crafted glass pieces are amazing. The creativity and patience that goes into every piece is very visible. Each glass piece that is displayed in their photo gallery must have taken a great deal of time and care to create. I bet to watch them make these art pieces it would seem like minutes.

If you have visited Seattle Glass Blowing … let us know by leaving your comments and if you have any pictures from within we would love to see them.

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