c/glassblowers

Changed how I handle my color bar prep and it's saving me time

I used to cut all my color bars by hand with a tile saw, which took forever and wasted a lot of material. After a workshop in Seattle last year, I switched to using a wet tile saw with a diamond blade from a local hardware store. Now I can prep a full day's worth of color in about 20 minutes with way less waste. Has anyone else found a better tool for this job?

Vent: My bowl shapes kept collapsing at the rim, but I tweaked the support and it worked.

Seeing more glassblowers skip the apprentice stage lately

It seems like folks are jumping straight into selling pieces without proper mentoring. This makes me worry about safety and skill quality.

My studio's stuck because of color backorders again.

This wait for basic glass is killing my vibe.

My glassblowing workshop vacation turned out pretty awful

Scraped together cash for a week-long glass class by the coast. I hoped to pick up some cool shaping tricks and maybe make a nice vase. The place looked nice online but in person it was run down and dirty. We had to share basic tools like jacks and paddles, and they were all worn out. The instructor seemed bored and rushed through demos without letting us ask questions. On the last day, the annealer had a issue and several pieces, including mine, got thermal stress cracks. Felt like a waste of time and travel. Now I'm back at my own bench wondering why I even went.

PSA: When new blowers sell pieces from common tutorials

I keep seeing the same swirl pattern on bowls at every local market now. It matches a free video guide that went viral last month. Beginners using guides is fine, but passing off tutorial projects as original art for cash seems wrong. Hard to call it out without sounding like a gatekeeper.

My first teacher insisted on feeling the gather's weight without scales.

Now I rely on numbers, but that hands-on sense never really leaves you.

Letting my latest creation anneal overnight felt right

My buddies think I waste time. But the piece holds up better this way.

Demonstrating glass techniques abroad got me mistaken for a street performer

I was working at a cultural exchange in Barcelona. A crowd gathered, thinking I was doing live sculpture. My piece ended up shaped like a flamenco dancer's skirt by accident.

PSA: My vase survived a direct fan blast and now I question everything

Everyone warns about thermal shock, but I accidentally hit my piece with a shop fan and it held together perfectly. It was so absurd I laughed for a solid minute. Maybe we baby our glass too much sometimes?

Finding my old glass jacks during a shop cleanup brought back memories

I used to make do with just those and a punty iron. Now I have a whole rack of tools, but those old ones still feel special, you know?

Impatience with the kiln schedule turned my sculpture into scrap glass.

Warning: Skipping the preheat on my marble mold cost me a good piece

I thought I could save time by not warming the mold first, and the glass shocked instantly. Lost a whole afternoon's work, so take it from me, don't skip that step.

Marvers aren't always needed for shaping, here's why

I know everyone says you gotta use a marver for smooth shapes, but for my abstract stuff, I just roll the glass on wet newspaper with my hands. It lets me feel the heat change directly, which helps with weird curves. It's a bit messy, but I like the control. Never had a piece fail from it, lol.

My blown vase started to tilt and I saved it with a cold spoon

I was finishing a tall vase, and the neck began to lean to one side as it cooled. It looked like a drunk flower, and I almost laughed at how silly it was. I knew if I reheated the whole thing, it might collapse. Then I remembered a trick from a studio visit years ago. I grabbed a metal spoon from my bench and cooled it in water. I held the cold spoon against the hot glass on the opposite side of the lean. The quick chill made that spot contract and pull the neck straight. It worked perfectly, and the vase ended up standing tall. Sometimes the simplest tools can fix the trickiest problems in the shop.

Vent: That old annealing oven cost me a week's work

Ngl, I miss the simplicity of manual kilns, but those things could be so unreliable. One batch cooled too fast and everything cracked. Honestly, it pushed me to invest in a better setup.

At a gallery opening, someone called my bowl a 'fancy ashtray', should I correct them or let it slide?

On one hand it's rude to assume, on the other maybe they just don't know glass art, what do you think?

I stuck with marble molds for years, but 3D printed ones changed everything

The detail and speed they allow made me leave my old ways behind.