Trying My Hand At Glass Pipe Making

Those dishes look great.

What has been your experience with diving head on into DIY glass blowing just using books and folks advice? I'm pretty interested in it now and have come across a 1 year course which would a. give me a recognised qualification in glass working, but maybe more importantly, the course would be paid off in full for me whih is a bit of an incentive. Bit overwhelmed by this option though as it would require applicaiton within the next couple of weeks and well, i'm useless and that kind of jump always scares me but i don't quite see how i would otherwise afford a place that i could setup a workshop in. I notice you do yours in a loft conversion, and have been offered a top floor of a house so was also wondering on how reasonable glass work inside a hsoue as opposed to in a safe fireproof workshop is. Sorry for silly questions but they're doing my head in.

MikeSativa said:

Im likin' that Turtle shell looking dish. Is that up for grabs ?

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Yup, $25 + $5 for priority mail.

Sr. Verde said:

WOW that's sweet! Damn! !!!

does that green one glow??? or is that just the color?

this might be my favorite, I almost dibbed on it.... but I really can't right now I need to get some more money flowing before I spend again. I already plan to buy more steel tubes and more volcano bags as it is.

I really like that green tinge/turquoise touching the blue... on the inside of the dish... really, really awesome coloring man!

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The green one isnt glow, it looks that way all the time in natural light. That's TAG's Slyme, the $100/# color I love so much.

The other dish you liked is from Green Exotic, a striking color that looks that way after honeycombing it.

tip top toker said:

Those dishes look great.

What has been your experience with diving head on into DIY glass blowing just using books and folks advice? I'm pretty interested in it now and have come across a 1 year course which would a. give me a recognised qualification in glass working, but maybe more importantly, the course would be paid off in full for me whih is a bit of an incentive. Bit overwhelmed by this option though as it would require applicaiton within the next couple of weeks and well, i'm useless and that kind of jump always scares me but i don't quite see how i would otherwise afford a place that i could setup a workshop in. I notice you do yours in a loft conversion, and have been offered a top floor of a house so was also wondering on how reasonable glass work inside a hsoue as opposed to in a safe fireproof workshop is. Sorry for silly questions but they're doing my head in.

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My experience by the DIY route has been the previous 780 posts worth of content in this thread. IF you wanna know how it worked, read from page #1! I've been pretty good at putting all of the ups and downs in this thread along the way in pretty good detail..... The biggest most important thing is ventilation. Get that solved and you can work anywhere you like. Attics are good in cool areas, terrible in hot. Most people just work in their garage or an external shed with the doors open.

I dont think a glass certification will help you anywhere with anything ever. I dont know anyone with a certificate in any portion of glass at all! Should be good for the learning part of it, but the paper is uselsee

researchkitty said:

The green one isnt glow, it looks that way all the time in natural light. That's TAG's Slyme, the $100/# color I love so much.

The other dish you liked is from Green Exotic, a striking color that looks that way after honeycombing it.

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you paid WAY too much, ... http://www.frantzartglass.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=154_264&products_id=5334

4 x 15.75 = $63

researchkitty said:

My experience by the DIY route has been the previous 780 posts worth of content in this thread. IF you wanna know how it worked, read from page #1! I've been pretty good at putting all of the ups and downs in this thread along the way in pretty good detail..... The biggest most important thing is ventilation. Get that solved and you can work anywhere you like. Attics are good in cool areas, terrible in hot. Most people just work in their garage or an external shed with the doors open.

I dont think a glass certification will help you anywhere with anything ever. I dont know anyone with a certificate in any portion of glass at all! Should be good for the learning part of it, but the paper is uselsee

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Thanks for the info, i'll see if i can't not be a useless sod and read it all, well as much as i can before i revert to useless sod I wasn't quite sure myself on what the certificate might be good for but figured it might possibly come into play for insurance reasons or whatnot. I just wanna make jugs and pipes and bowls and such, so yeah, doesn't really have much use in that aspect heh. I just figured that a year long course that i didn't have to pay for any materials training and the works, would be fairly useful, but well, as i say, i'm not one to do things spur of the moment as this course would require. Think i'll get to reading once i finish up my woodwork If ventilation is one of the more important things, then it could be i could work from ym kitchen table, it's a wall of windows so shouldn't have a problem there thanks kitty

If I had a chance to learn to work glass for free I would do it.

Seems like most glasswork is freelance.

Kitty do u go around to smoke shops sellin pipes n swhatnot?

glass melts in the flame. what the blower turns it into is up to the blower himself.

it would be like trying to teach someone to paint. you can show them the techniques, but what the final canvas looks like is up to the individual artist.

TheLastWood said:

If I had a chance to learn to work glass for free I would do it.

Seems like most glasswork is freelance.

Kitty do u go around to smoke shops sellin pipes n swhatnot?

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I always hated pipe stores. Despite that they only pay you half (or less) of what your work is worth in a retail market, that's not why I dislike them. Its more of a preferential thing. I like to make fun cool shit (or am trying, anyway). If I do that pipe stores get confused. Stores want someone to crank out a few dozen of this or that, and do it consistently. They dont want heady pieces (and if they do, get ready to have them tell you consignment till it sells, IF they can sell it!). Since I dont make the mass production work, or super heady pieces quite yet, I just sell what I make online.

Now in contrast.....if I was getting started and wanted to do glass blowing for a *full time job* then I would probably be mass producing wigwag reversal spoons and stuff of that nature as quick as I could. Thats just not fun for me though.

Here's something I invented, worlds first! Oil dish with lid, that has a built in dabber on the lid, that way it automatically re-dabs itself every time you put the lid on.







It glows so brightly green it stands out in a room just by itself. I'm gonna go make more.

thats a really cool idea

I love the color and design! I need another dish but I'm so broke right now.

Haaa just finished all 80 pages .
Good read . Amazing work.

Yes it was !

I still go back and re read a lot of it.

This section was the main reason i finally Registered here.

researchkitty said:

Here's something I invented, worlds first! Oil dish with lid, that has a built in dabber on the lid, that way it automatically re-dabs itself every time you put the lid on.

It glows so brightly green it stands out in a room just by itself. I'm gonna go make more.

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These are teh kind of colors I want on my next bong.

Amazing dishes.

I wish I had some.use for them

researchkitty said:

Here's something I invented, worlds first! Oil dish with lid, that has a built in dabber on the lid, that way it automatically re-dabs itself every time you put the lid on.

It glows so brightly green it stands out in a room just by itself. I'm gonna go make more.

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Nice work

have you played with ground glass jars yet? makes oil dishes for your pocket, just use the plastic clip. blastshield makes tools for it, making life easier.

TheLastWood said:

If I had a chance to learn to work glass for free I would do it.

Seems like most glasswork is freelance.

Kitty do u go around to smoke shops sellin pipes n swhatnot?

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I teach to pull points, then to make wrap n rakes, then you do my prep, i teach you is/o, hammer, bubbler, inline and whatever else. i dont charge for lessons, pay bench rent, includes torch, oxy, pro and kiln, pt 250 ft 400. as long as you buy your own glass, and pull my points ill teach you whatever you want. even color tubes for heady wig wag after 6 mo.. not everyone can work glass, takes a delicate touch, catlike reflexes, and a tolorance for extreme heat.

what isnt freelance is for the most part children working in sweatshops. very few shops are willing to pay for american quality, most want cheap shit so they can keep thier 300% mark up. no exaggeration, even american made from people like myself, researchkitty, and fdd are having to drop prices and focus on wholesale production just to sell enough to cover the airweld bill. the shops dont care about quality because thier selling to an uneducated populis. people dont know that theyre buyng crap with actual physical hazzards to smke from. the color is rarely worked completely in, so smke a little cadmium, the bowl hole is drilled out rather than popped, pushed an polished, so as it heats and expands you inhale glass fragments, and they are not annealed, so it will break sooner rather than later. not to mention the import head shop in FL that got busted buying pipes from pakistan selling in fl, then spending the profits to buy guns for palestine. child abuse, sweatshops, and terrorism are the values you support if you dont buy american glass.