i am interested in a career in glass blowing and wonder how to get into it. if anyone is a glass blower here
Ive done it on my friends glass setup. Lampwork is pretty easy. Blowing is a true skill. you could pay for expensive classes, and pay for studio time to practice... or you could take $1500-$2000 and get a nice lampworking/blowing setup + kiln + glass and use youtube, books, dvds, and your imagination as your teacher. if Glass blowing is really something yo want to do then an initial $2000 investment is nothing compared to what you would pay to go to a trade school or college.
My roomate is a glass blower, they offer courses at a lot of colleges. He went to the Virgin Islands all summer doing an apprenticeship under a master, and I think he just had to pay for his flight and room and board were free in exchange for his help around the shop. I can ask him for more information if you're really interested!
glass blowing would be fun, although i cant say id want it to be my career for the rest of my life, i have bigger dreams
MY neighbors are world famous glass blower. Ever heard of Nourot glass? They make some nice pieces. Anyways, I would go into some glass studios and ask them how you would go about becoming a blower. I would assume you have to become apprenticed, because thats how you really learn.
i was talkin to a blower at 10klf.. he said it takes quite the toll on the body.. he says he cant work more than like 6hrs a day otherwise he goes temporarily blind from staring at the flames and glowing hot glass all day.. and he said he has back problems from it..
I've done it before, had a workshop with a great teacher it was a lot of fun and i got the hang of it pretty quick, if I ever have the chance to do it again i defiantly will it's fucking awesome.
Don't do that. You need a professional or at least someone who knows what to do, you can't just go for it. as for youtube and videos etc. idk you could look into it i guess... tbh you probably wont do it.
the resources to learn are indefinite these days with the internet.. sure an apprentice would save you a lot of time and a lot of frustration.. but.. you can self learn anything if you devote yourself to it
Some people are visual, hands on learners, some are just learners. I know that I could learn a lot of glass blowing techniques from books and videos. I know a friend who has a full glass setup and mostly learns by doing and is getting pretty good. he has taken a few basic classes. I know another person with a full glass setup and has never taken a class and blows my mind with his creations every time. His art is way out of the box. What your saying is like saying you cant play guitar with out guitar lessons. None of my guitar playing buddies have ever taken a lesson.
My husband and I had a glassblowing business 1983-1993. In the late 1980's, the big manufacturers were all getting busted by the Feds. Because of our setup with a distributor, we became the largest working manufacturer of "glass novelty pipes". We had 4 employees and our styles were nothing like the ones out today so we could turn out a couple gross a day. I never took classes but hubby did, including scientific glassblowing at the college. You will save yourself a LOT of time and glass by taking a class or two. There are some basic hot glass basics that are really important like understanding how to make gravity your friend while working in 2000 degree flame. You do have to take frequent breaks or you will burnout your back and arms. Funny that this thread popped up. I just decided to sell some of our equipment a couple of days ago. It would have to sell local tho cause some of it is really heavy.
