So, aside from being an avid Pinhead I am also a glassblower or more specifically a lamp worker. I made a casual post on the space shuttle members Club thread of a blown glass space shuttle I made just for funsies. To my surprise another shuttle owner chimed in almost immediately who is also a glass blower. So what occurs to me is why not a thread for people who enjoy glass blowing and pinball. Maybe a thread to talk shop, exchange ideas ,Inspire each other or maybe just a place to show off something weird and unusual you've created or seen in blown glass. I've been a lamp worker for 25 years now and it's still my third favorite thing in the world. Next to pinball, and naked ladies. I'd be really interested in seeing any pinball themed or inspired blown Glassworks. I once saw a marble made by a lamp worker that had an incredible image of back glass guy from Fireball. A real impressive piece, wish I had a picture. So, all that said let's see what you got. I'll start

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They're always asking for a friend. I'm always worried about the liability with those. Being glass and all.

That's an elaborate piece. Really appreciate the pipe scene. Although most of my colored glass work is pendants and marbles. Double green Amber purple baby.

that is just over the top man!

I work mostly with clear, and then add stains and Golds and colors after. I do a lot of custom stuff for folks and try to give the locals what they want. I do a little lathe work, mostly simple oil lamps.

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Thanks, 25 years into it and this never gets old for me.

Bingo!

A quick Studio shot. Favorite of mine as it features both my lathe, and my space shuttle.

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I can see it stained glass back glass for a pinball machine. Thinking like a haunted house or any of those games from the 50s 60s with the angled retro artwork. Might not look too out of place on one of the old wood rails either.

So I knocked this out today, not big or fancy,more novelty but I had to at least try it.

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those are both just so cool, for so many reasons.

That's what I'm talkin about, thanks so much for posting these images. If you ever recapture that name that escaped you, please post it. I would love to see more of this person's work. The quality of the craftsmanship, the mix of materials and techniques is simply over the top. The degree of technical ability that's required to pull off a piece like this successfully reflects how passionate the artist must have been about the subject matter.

Well put sir, simply wow! only I can't keep it simple. I checked out her Facebook page, and she's an incredibly talented lamp worker. Found a couple other pictures of that WOZ and based on the rearview I'm thinking this may have been a commissioned piece by Jersey Jacks.

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You're absolutely right it can be a great Hobby. A wonderful creative Outlet. But just so we're clear, my hobby is pinball... what I waste my time, and money on when I'm not doing my real job , which is glass blowing.

Thanks for sharing that, the Eugene and Portland area in general certainly has become the mecca of glass blowing over the last few years. Can't throw a stick without hitting a glass blower or Sasquatch. Plus there's the huge pinball scene, what more do you need really. Here's one of my personal favorite of Hamm's. The ray-gun.

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Here's one for LTG, (Loyd) with no Renaissance Festival this summer we never made it up your way, hope to see you in 21, and Prada.

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' oh come on, it's hard to believe you don't have at least one picture of the ex girlfriend.

Whoops, almost went a day without posting a picture of something shiny. Here's a couple quick fan favorites.

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Today's daily shiny. This was a commissioned piece for a volunteer firefighter from about 10 years ago.

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Baby Yoda after a nice soak in the kiln.

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So I noticed that most of the previous posts are things that are either pretty, or unusual. So today I'd like to offer up something that's pretty unusual. But this literally links blown glass and pinball. A few months back I came up with a mod for the space shuttle pinball machine.A 3D rendered truss system that mimicked the artwork over the pop bumpers. Working with other pinsiders the simple Truss evolved into a truss with attached caps for mounting over the existing pop bumper caps. A really nice look Imo. I was fortunate enough to get one of the early print runs of just the truss for my machine with no way to properly attach it. Using some plastic water jug lids and three simple posts of Pyrex, I came up with something that not only secures it but also adds to the light show and draws attention to the piece. By mushrooming out one end of the Pyrex rods they act as a large fiber optic and draw the light from the pops to the polished lens. I honestly couldn't be happier with the results.

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Another space shuttle pinball inspired piece. I would again like to encourage fellow lamp workers to post images of their work. Love to see the weird and unusual. I once did a custom piece of a clown having sex with a chicken, probably just as well I don't have a photo of that one.

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Today's offering, aan Ice Phoenix. Customer request, they have a number of my traditional fire style Phoenix, and wanted to mix it up a little. This one rose out of the flames last Sunday afternoon.

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That's brilliant, if only there was a holder for a Visine bottle.

One of my favorite things to make, especially for public demo. And the finished version absolutely pops on a light box.

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A couple of copyright infringements for today's offering.

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That's a flattering compliment, however I'm nowhere near being in the same league as him. I do have an eye patch like his though that I wear on pirate Fridays. Seriously though his works are amazing, I've had the opportunity to see a few of them at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota , great stuff.

Daily shiny.

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A couple other pieces from the Star Wars line. And yes the eyes glow in the dark. I'll be putting the finish work on a couple more Star Wars pieces today and hope to post some images tomorrow.

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It's tomorrow somewhere right? Star Wars

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Here's one my locals always seem to appreciate. And yes you can put green oil in there if you chose.

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Here's a piece (sold yesterday) that I'm going to truly hate to see go. I picked this up from Milon Townsend about 20 years ago. It's a Wonderful example of his Mastery of color and cane work. This is one of the very few pieces that have always been unpacked after a show, for placement in the work studio, serving as a source of inspiration for me for many years.

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Following up on the Star Wars theme, made this one today. Baby Yoda with the egg incubator. If I still have this at the end of the weekend I will be adding color early next week.

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A little color and now sitting on a light box to light up the egg incubator.

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Yeah that particular Jack sold a while back , I've made a number of them sense. The typical pose has him holding a colored glass pumpkin rather than his head. He's on my short list of things to make before the holidays. Suspiciously, I'm not finding any photos of my marbles. I'll go ahead and say it , I've lost my marbles. I'll be making more when I'm back in the studio in the spring working colored glass and be sure to document them.

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Here is one, nothing fancy but I just saw a post by LTG and it reminded me of this piece.

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Thanks, it's sold two years ago to a family to use as their Christmas pickle– Rick.

Finally found someone to play a little pinball on that piece I made a couple weeks ago. Gnomes rule!

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Nope, home for the night now, pulling 9 hour shifts at my holiday location. I keep busy during the week with finishing work, coloring, mounting ect..l work the torch out of there on the weekends when I have helpers.

I'll probably add this one to my secret Santa package I'm getting ready to mail out. I just have to make sure I have enough bouncy balls to surround it before I ship it. I read somewhere that might work good for fragile items

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Today's daily offering of shininess, comes with a disclaimer. This Thread was never intended to be about me and my shiny where's but I'll keep posting in hopes to gain some traction for this thread and again encourage others to post images of any special shiny baubles that have crossed their path.

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Thanks for posting PD, I do feel better. Those are really impressive, are you just eyeballing the tips or do you use something special to reem out the ends so they they fit snug?

Not that I'm profiling.... but here is one that HFK might appreciate.

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I wouldn't have guessed those were cold worked. The inserts I make for my oil candles that hold the wicks need to be all uniform size also. I'm fortunate in that I found the perfect leather punch tool the reems them out to the exact size I need .

That makes more sense, I couldn't imagine doing that cold without it sending glass shards and chaos in every direction.

Not new, I did that a couple years ago prepping for a Sci-Fi convention. I left it clear. Is only about 3 in Long. I absolutely loved that series and the movie ,so it was kind of a no-brainer.

It's not all spaceships and pop cultural icons. I do a little of the local Wildlife on occasion. These are always popular here in Minnesota around hunting season.

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No moose poop, but I used to make little bunnies with a trail of three or four little bunny poops behind them. People really seem to enjoy that extra little detail.

I'll tell you why... Because if it wasn't encased in acrylic it would get all over the stuff in your carry-on bag.

My salute to the year that was 2020.

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Here's a few custom orders that were knocked out over the weekend. I always enjoy this time of year when I'm set up at the malls,it really gives me some FaceTime with the customers. The challenge of doing custom pieces of subject matter I've never attempted before never gets old.

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Thanks, I found over the years that a lot of those big exaggerated eye type of animated characters translate well to the glass.

With that said, you're absolutely going to hate this one. Made it yesterday and really screwed the pooch on the face. To me it looks like if Chris from Family Guy and Yoda had a baby. The lightsaber does glow-in-the-dark however.

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Glad you like the Jawas, you obviously have the sickness....my people.

It just goes to show you that what we do is not an exact science. He may not sell to someone who collects Yodas but there's a good chance he'll sell to someone who's buying for someone who collects Yodas.

Funny how things work out, when I was 7 years old we moved to Orlando Florida from Minnesota. At Gatorland in the 70s I watched a lamp worker and must have asked him a hundred questions in half an hour and he answered every one of them. When we left I remember telling my mom that when I grow up I'm going to be a glassblower , she said sure , and an astronaut and a ballplayer and a fireman... Later in life we networked with a glass blower from Ocala Florida for a couple of years and then bought him out when he retired. At dinner with him one night we put together that he was the glass blower that I spoke to when I was a kid back in the 70s at Gatorland. Small world.

Some idiot will buy it sums it right up. However I've always said the right person for that piece is out there somewhere. Which Loosely translated is some idiot will buy it.

I was just digging through some old stuff on my FB page and stumbled upon this.

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Here's a fun one but it comes with a story. A lady came into the shop with a busted blown glass ship in a bottle. It was a sailing vessel with 9 sails and riggings and masts and there was truly nothing salvageable or so I thought. She asked me to do anything I could with the parts that I had. The only thing that I could reuse was the hull , and I built a Viking ship around it. The sail is a broken piece of the bottle. Wish I had a before picture but as I said it was just a pile of shards.

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Here is one that was made this weekend , I just finished up the paint work today. The beauty of this one is, it's a trade with another shop owner . For payment I'm receiving a full size pan of homemade lasagna. I'm going to change the tagline on my sign from Renaissance Glass – gifts and more, to...Renaissance Glass – will work for food. What a sweet deal!

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Funny you say that, I almost made that a Duff beer that Bender was holding.

I'd like to do a quick share of this piece. I received this from my secret Santa yesterday. I'm actually a little busy at work but I'll try to take some better photographs today in the shop with better lighting. This is an absolute stunner. Thank you ss for making this a truly out-of-this-world Christmas season.

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The public demos are my favorite part of this job. being able to work on something in front of wieyed eyed children and adults alike has always been a thrill. To the Casual Observer we seem like Wizards but the truth of the the matter is ,were more like monkeys who get to play with fire.

I've never heard the poop thing before, but I'm training one of the kids that has worked for me for years on the torch now and I'll definitely make sure he knows that. I've never worked with Malcolm, honestly living in southern Minnesota I don't get up to the cities as often as I'd like. Shakopee for the Renaissance Festival when we do that, and SS Billiards is about as far north from there as I ever seem to get.

It's a shame about the bad demo experience, we are kind of like ambassadors 4r medium. At the malls it's always just casual demo and encouraging questions. When I do my demo at the Renaissance Festival it's more structured and has certain requirements, history and comedy are a must to make it entertaining.

It's a no-brainer I love it. The first thing I teach them is wear your leather, protect your jewels

wow , it seems like every time you post an image of a something, if I want to respond I should start with the wide-eyed guy icon. What a truly beautiful Memorial. Seeing this just proves my point once again. That if an artist is passionate about the subject matter more of themselves is channeled into the piece. When doing a piece for the love of the Piece versus the love of the payoff, you tend to push yourself more ,artistically. Like Spider-Man.
Beautiful work!
Oh yeah, and where can I get a shirt that says safety third? Absolutely love that.

I wanted to take a few moments this morning and post a couple more pictures of the marble I received from my secret Santa. One of these days when I have a little more time I'd like to go into a full-blown marble rant as to why marbles are so cool. In the 25 years I've been blowing glass I've only made 100 marbles, Maybe. And although they've all sold over the years, when I look at them after they're finished even though I may be happy with the work ,all I ever see are the flaws. To receive a marble as a gift ,I can appreciate it so much more than my own work. What an artist may see as a flaw, the Casual Observer sees as a beautiful inclusion. A testament to the handcrafted nature of the work. I really love this piece, thanks again SS.
See more of this artist exceptional work here
https://ericmort.com/

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Pretty nice looking, you could be making unicorn horn pendants for me for the Renaissance Fair you know.

... and you're right about the frit, that is the crushed up glass.

Maybe this will jog some memories of our Minnesota residents. Some pics of my booth out at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Same location for 25 years, and it's still beats having a real job.

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It's certainly possible Lloyd, we used to carry a line of goblets in the early days out there,although it probably would have been my ex-wife's work. Back then I was just a finish monkey ,doing the golding and painting and heavy lifting mostly. She was a person riddled with flaws (but then aren't we all) but an incredibly talented lamp worker. I wish I had known about SS Billiards back then ,you would have gotten a lot of my quarters over the years while we were living on the site. Give Prada a kiss for me.

Here's a quick video of that marble.

A quick couple of pics of some of the new pieces from last week. Did I mention that I can't make Baby Yodas fast enough.

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Here's something a little different. If there any glass curious folks out there that would like to see some truly amazing imagery, Google the glass flowers of Harvard. These are incredible works of art that we're done over a hundred years ago, commissioned by Harvard University for their botany Department so that students could study flowers when they were blooming but needed realistic references as that's not always practical in real life. When looking at these you don't see any of the tells they're made from blown glass, they simply look like their subject matter. Even the insects they put on the flowers will often have little bits of pollen on the back of their legs, the detail is incredible. If you check them out post some pics of your favorite images, always inspiring.

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That is a nice milli,any idea who did the original cane?

I've literally made poop pendants and hang them on my rack and they sell, the trick is you have to add corn.

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I didn't mean to abandon the thread, just been really busy at the mall shop this holiday season. And for what it's worth I sold the s*** pendant the day after I posted that picture. Here's a couple of pieces that came out over the last week or so. Happy holidays everybody.

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Thanks for sharing Mike ,that's an exceptional collection. I love the faces, and that piece of ravens is over the top. He's an incredibly talented lamp worker and I've watched his work get better every year in the last 10 years since I've met him.

That is awesome, curious, how much time do you have in a piece like that?

Nice piece! Really love the depth and colors.

Sounds awesome, careful with those glass bases, Glass on glass can scratch the lenses of your marbles pretty easy.

Good morning! I had a little bit of a hiccup in life about a week ago, That has pulled me away from pinside, but I'm back baby! Here's a couple shots of a piece I did for a customer this week.

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More Star Wars you say, I'm all about it. Here's a piece a customer has been asking me for for a few years now, just finished this morning so the first official piece off the line for 2021. I tried doing a free-standing larger-scale Boba Fett and honestly it didn't transfer well to the glass. So I designed a piece with a column of flame and boba much smaller so it's more a silhouette, then an actual detailed sculpt of him. The first image is of the work-in-progress, I wanted to make sure the flame column worked for the piece( it did not the angle was a bit severe but was able to reheat and adjust). The clear Boba is just a stick figure, temporary 4 proportion reference. The other pictures are of the finished piece After paint. Looks amazing on a light box as the light illuminates the column of Fire coming off the jetpack. I was going to have him holding a sign that said, "no fett chicks", but decided against it.

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Thanks, I do enjoy the custom stuff a lot, but I have learned finally which ones to simply say no to. Hey when you get a chance, could you chime in with me, I'd like to pick your brain about classes. I've had a lot of people ask recently and I'm looking to supplement my income a little.

Will do, thanks

Audrey eleven.. what happened to the first 10 of them?
Seriously though that is awesome Mike. I love the range of motion in the head makes me want to see what the mechanics are underneath. Nice job on the paint to, looks like a studio prop.

I'm familiar with the show, that was just my feeble attempt at humor. My grandkids once asked me if I wanted to watch Apollo 13 and I said no because I didn't see the first 12. Next time I'll follow up with a, waka,waka ,waka. I would like to see the inner workings of it though.

That's awesome, I love the bouncyness it has and that chicken wire framework is perfect for a paper mache overlay. Well done.

@ Puffdanny , here's a design that might work well for you if you're not already doing them. A blown glass quill pen . Customer brought this in today for a repair. 1 simple straight stripe of Amber down the backside of the teardrop with a little fume swirl and a bubble at the bottom. The tip is just a twisted spiral, to hold the ink. Easy peasy.

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It just occurred to me that I've never posted any images of my holiday location this year. The holidays are over, and it was a successful year I know all the shelves are a little picked over, but this gives a general idea of what I do seasonally.

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Wait just a minute, is that a 3/4 scale pinball machine in that last photo?

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Why yes, yes it is. This arrived today, my treat to myself. Happy New Year. Don't be fooled, it's a toy but with 12 Gottlieb titles on it I'll play with it for a while and have fun with it. I'm currently setting it up in my hotel room, not a permanent fixture for the store unfortunately.

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That was on Halloween, I have an inflatable Godzilla suit ...I could have taken her.

The jury is still out on that toy. It's a little cheesy but I'm already finding where it may be addictive as well. Has some fun tables but enough flipper lag to keep it in the toy not game category.
As for stock, it is an all-year thing. But you do different things throughout the year for different seasons. It's always interesting.

Was talking with undrdog earlier today and this came up, the greatest little money maker I've ever had in my shop. $3 to play ,prize every time ,customer hooked for life.

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This is why I don't dress up in the inflatable Godzilla costume anymore

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My apologies for not posting anything in a while, real life sort of caught up with me but the dust is starting to settle. Came across an image of this from probably about 5 years ago. Tough to make out all the details in the photo but if you zoom in my favorite aspect is the chain link securing the Dragon. The whole piece started as an excuse to do something with some flexible chain link that I made and just kind of escalated. Tough to make out in the picture but this was actually an oil lamp as well. Was supposed to be a showpiece for the Renaissance Festival and sold it before noon on Saturday the first day so had to do a quick Rush picture.

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Those are really cool, I need to get on the ball with these. I've had countless people ask about Ash incorporation into a memorial piece over the last few years.nice work.

Thanks man,I'll give it a try this fall, had a customer leave me with some bonus ashes from her dog to practice with.

These can look cool for your glass marbles, however you want to make sure that it doesn't have a sharp edge where the candle would insert as it will scratch your marbles easily.