GriffGlass Introduction!

Last year, I saw glass art for the first time.  Since then, my life and goals have changed. I've decided I truly want to make pieces of art that do precisely what they did to me when I first saw them. I want to create the same emotions I felt. I want to introduce you to lampworking. 

The glass fixation began in the latter months of 2014 when my amazing girlfriend at the time surprised me with a groupon to a local glass blowing studio (Luke Adams Glass).

                                                                Luke Adam's Glass- 3 Hour Class

I was immediately obsessed!

The free flowing liquid state of the molten glass had me fascinated and left me wondering about the infinite possibilities of what I could create myself.

                                                            First Glass Creations- December 2014

Fast forward to May 2015

It wasn't until I visited a local lampworkers' booth (Katie from Glass Sails) at the Gaspee Days Arts and Craft Fair in Warwick, RI that I realized I could create these beautiful pieces on a hand torch. 

Boom! 

And there goes my mind...

I was consumed. 

Blogs, Forums,Facebook groups

Research Research Research! 

Torchtalk, r/lampwork, and The Melting Pot, littered the tabs of my iPhone safari browser. It was all I could think of: I can create literally anything I dream of with that torch. This is something I can actually do! I can actually create a studio and do this. Myself! No limiting instructors at studios. No confinements. Anything I want. 

I got lost in glass. It was all I could focus on. It didn't matter if it was a friend's piece I was smoking out of or a insanely detailed pendant/marble at a craft fair. I became fixated on the vision of the artist. Every piece seemed to hold infinity within itself. As if in a trance, I could so easily get lost in the colors and details of each piece. And now with the knowledge that I could create this on my own, the race was on to start piecing together my very own studio. 

Which brings us to the present moment... 

Over the years I've realized I'm not happy working a 9-5. I require a creativity dump - an outlet to pour my thoughts and expressions into; without that I'm truly lost. I need lampworking and I need you, too. Thank you for allowing me to share my story. Please check back regularly to follow my day to day progress. 

-Griff