please be careful. glass can be very addictive. not as in drugs but as in car racing, horse showing and other endevors. set your limits before you dabble. thanks for your site
Lee

Hey Bonnie, i saw you said your Grandfather was James E. Hammesfahr. He is an amazingly intelligent man, and wrote a book with a tremendous amount of knowledge. Creative Glassblowing has probly been the most informative source I have ever come across. I've furthered my all around knowledge of lampworking very far forward because of that book.

And to the person setting up a shop, you should look into lampworking{boro-pyrex with a oxy/propane torch. Its a good amount less than a hot shop {furnaces and a glory hole} Hot shops are generally kept on 24 hours a day-365 days a year. Lampworking, however, only uses fuel when you work. You can get to break points and put it in the kiln and go back to it later, wheather its a week later, or 10 years later. The glass, if anealed after use and warmed before use, has no shelf life. Remember saefty is most important. Venlation, fire saefty percautions, and and goggles are all extremly important.

also check out this magazine, it holds alot of knowledge

www.theflowmagazine.com

This comment is for Brian. Creative Glass Blowing was the work of my Grandfather James E. Hammesfahr. Thank you for mentioning his work. My grandfather worked very hard on this book. I am proud to own an original copy with a personal note to me from him. He was a wonderfully creative man. Thus the name of the book "Creative Glass Blowing".

I know Corning was mentioned, but for me it's the rogue students who opened shops downtown that fascinate. Also Salem County (NJ) College -has classes in glass blowing thanks to Millville & Glassboro leaving a legacy

Try San Francisco State University, they have a great studio there.

Look around on the web for "Price Rupert's Drops". They're amazing, and really easy to make. A propane torch, a glass stirring rod, and a pan of water are all you need.

Be sure to look at them with polarized light before you break their tails!

-Brian

"Creative Glassblowing" by James Hammesfahr and C.L. Stong.

Out of print, but excellent. Hand-drawn illustrations are by the same person (Stong?) who did all the ones for The Amateur Scientist series of articles in Scientific American magazine.
As a teenager I lusted for this book. I finally got a copy a couple of years ago on E-Bay.

Dale Chihuly is the most unusual and wonderous of glass blowers. I watched him work at UW-Madison, WI in the mid 60's.
http://www.chihuly.com/

I just did my first blog at ... http://passions.typepad.com/passions/2004/08/passions.html

What's the best way to get it noticed? I did RSS it from "My Yahoo" and post on standard directories.

Glass blowing is hard work, but the results are stunnung.

Happy Trails, Kevin !

Thanks for the recommendations.

At the University of Wisconsin, chemistry majors (in the early 1980s) still had to develop some glass-blowing skills (incidentally, most departments employed glass-blowers to make custom equipment). The most enduring lesson: hot glass looks like cold glass.

Invest in some good gloves that allow for more movement than the typical oven mitts.

Up the coast from Santa Cruz is the town of Davenport where Lundberg studio is located, they have sales and demos twice a year, you don't have to go to Italy to see fine glass work.

A great glassblowing books are Ed Schmidt's beginnning and advanced glassblowing techniques. It's illustrated with how to's of italian, american, new, and old techniques. The book is funny and fun to read, and so very informative. I would dare say it contains over half the stuff I learned in college (Ed's an alum from my school).

If you are interested in annealing techniques or schedules harry Halem's Glass Notes gives a very technical and scientific explaination about color makeups, annealing, and glass recepies.

If you are interested in building a studio, the Glassmaker's(blower's?) Companion by Gibberson has diagrams of glory holes, furnaces, annealers, garages, pipe warmers, etc. Harry Halem's Glass Notes also has diagrams on how to build equipment too.

ok, good luck

I too have been to Venice and had 12 goblets made and sent home. There was a wonderful piece on PBS about a studio in the US that I think offered apprentice work here in the US (Boston). But I am including a link to their site and the various episodes on the subject.

Anne L. Michaels
CEO/President
www.digination.net
digital entertainment recruitment

http://www.pbs.org/search/search_results.html?q=glassblowing&neighborhood=none&btnG.x=4&btnG.y=3

I see you are in San Francisco area, but in Seattle, Pratt Fine Arts Center offers great classes, including weekend workshops and some teen classes. www.pratt.org. I started with fusing, (you need a kiln), and Bullseye in Portland offered the best classes for that. Getting a torch and an annealing kiln is definitely the basement way to go, although you should also have ventilation.

I forgot: here's a thread he wrote titled:"offhand glassblowing for $250!!!"

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84263

Kevin,
If you are set on Venitian blowing and "trying it at home", I suggest you take a look at:

http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/

He has built a studio in his basement out of mostly common materiels, and on the cheap. He's also built a backyard mini-studio. I can't find the specific pages right now. It might be easiest to email him from there.

Sorry to be so late to the ball but I just found your site. Instead of glassblowing consider flameworking or beadwork to get started. Maria mentions her science class and many beginners start with rods or tubes and advance from there. You can get a simple hand torch at Bethlehem Apparatus Company in Hellertown, PA . (http://www.bethlehemburners.com.)
They also carry supplies. You should get an annealing oven but for starters you can use vermiculite in a can for a slow cool down. Your library can get an old book once listed in Whole Earth by Frederic Schuler called Flameworking. They may also be able to get you some of the Corning Museum of Glass videos or you can buy them at the on line store. http://glassmarket.cmog.org.
The Studio at Corning Museum of Glass www.cmog.org has classes year round from an hour to two weeks. Enjoy

hi from the virgin islands
if you want a great get away
Maho Bay Camps has glass blowing
its on St John
some pic on my site
http://huckphotovi.tripod.com/glassblowing.html
i am a photographer also
huck

I dont know where you are located but if in the NYC area there is a great studio in downtown brooklyn called Urban Glass Workshop I studied there for a while and they offer great programs in all phases and techniques of glass blowing....also look into Corning glass works They have a studio there as well and i Know that they would have information about others.

Public Glass got a glowing (pun intended) write-up in the SF Chronicle (no, I don't normally read it). If I remember correctly, the writer went from zero to obsessed in one class.

I know you said basement stuff, but when you're ready to leave the hose for this, Public Glass (http://publicglass.org/) here in San Francisco is great. I took a wonderful glass blowing class there! I believe The Crucible (http://thecrucible.org/) in Oakland also has classes.

Thanks for the suggestions, Maria and Dave.

PS. as to above...Please wear goggles and gloves! - Maria

Kevin, I remember doing some simple glass blowing in my highschool science class. We started off with a small glass tube and heated the far end over a bunson burner to seal the tube. Then, we continued to heat the far end and slowly blow into the open end (make sure the tube is long enough that you aren't sticking your face in the fire!). As the glass heated and air was introduced into the open end, it would form a ball on the far end of the tube. We made little round ornaments with this. This might be a fun/simple place to start. - Maria

Check out www.kleinbottle.com for Cliff Stoll's interesting application of glassblowing. May not help you learn but might inspire you.

Dave

Those are good suggestions for when we get a little further along. Right now I'm at the pure "mess around a little in the basement myself" mode.

Hi Kevin,

Next summer you or someone in your family may be interested in the workshops at Penland School of Crafts, deep in the mountains of North Carolina. http://www.penland.org/

Artists I know recommend Penland as one of the great places to really learn your craft. Penland offers programs at all levels of instruction in an amazing variety of techniques in Glass, Books & Paper, Clay, Drawing & Painting, Iron, Metals, Photography, Printmaking, Textiles, Wood ...

Here's the list and description of glass classes offered this summer:
http://www.penland.org/classes/summer/glass.html

Best-

Mike

I can't recommend a tutorial... but I bet one of these three folks can (especially Pilchuk) :

http://www.pilchuck.com/

http://joeblowglassworks.com/

http://www.chihuly.com/