GriffGlass Moved!

Heyyyo!!! GriffGlass has been making some big moves over the past year! Literally. We are excited to announce the GriffGlass headquarters has moved back to my beautiful home state of Rhode Island. For 5 years, 4 months, and 9 days, I called Austin, Texas my home and she will forever hold a big sweet spot in my heart! 💚💙

We’ve been silent on here but our life is anything but that haha For anyone who doesn’t know my family has grown significantly since we last spoke! I’m now the proud father of the most precious beautiful 13-month old baby girl and the sweetest most energetic 2 and a half year old baby boy : )))) Even just typing these words out makes me undescribable proud haha It’s been an absolute pleasure/privalge to have been able to spend every day of the past 3 yrs watching them grow and absorb the world around them.

So we may have taken a social media break to have a few kids and move our new family across the county but that doesn’t mean that the work at GriffGlass has halted.

This hiatus from physically blowing glass has allowed me to focus on aspects of my business I’ve been ignoring.

Working on the new GriffGlass.com online store has me submerged in my older work. Something I’m not particularly used to. I rarely spend more then afew minutes with the finished products before moving onto the next idea. Maybe that's because I'll find a flaw in the piece no one else would notice or maybe its because the finished product isnt the purpose of creating at all.

I’m revisting the mindset I was in when these objects were created. What was I using glass to escape from? What is this pieces particular story? What kind of energy went into the creation process?

All the feelings. The good and the bad.

Lets face it any parent will agree sometimes family life is all-consuming and that’s not always a bad thing. You may show up to "work" but your still emotionally/mentally at home, checked out, still caught up in whatever life scenario may be happening around you. And my family is no different. The past 3 years, there have been many times that living in this beautifully chaotic world of raising 2 kids under 3yrs old, I find myself giving my 110% to my family, which leaves me unable to fully embrace my artistic ideas at that exact moment. Maybe this isn't always a negative. Maybe time away from physical creation, allows some of these larger ideas to frument alittle longer. Get a little juicer : )

Regardless, it's important to note that negativity in these moments can bring on feelings of weakness and self doubt. I find myself in a conversations where someone asks me what I do for a living and ill think..."well I used to be a glassblower but now I'm a stay at home dad."

The last year has really challenged myself with the idea or “Title” of being an artist or not.

Am I an artist still?

Am I a glassblower still?

I know I'm a dad haha

I love the title of dad!

I never thought the titles were important and still don't. Well, I guess I did in the moment I originally wrote this idea. I'm human. I'm wishy-washy. Flippy-floppy. My ideas are always changing but I think the stacks of boxes containing thousands of handspun borosilicate objects and the two babies sleeping silently upstairs make me both. I'm a dad and a glassblower. I don’t have to literally be holding a baby and blowing glass to be both. I can take time off to spend with my new family and come back to glass with avengence. I can have periods of growth followed by periods of comfort.

Photographing and writing product descriptions for 7 years worth of work has reaffirmed these ideas.

I love glass! It amazes me : )

It's still so f***ing cool after all these years!

And I get to make stuff with it haha I feel very fortunate to have discovered such a medium.

This time away from the studio has strengthened my appreciation for all things glass.

I've treated these last 7 years in glass as a game of learning as much as I can, as fast as I can, with the hopes that in the future I'll be able to smash everything I'm currently mediocre at, into larger collective visions that would allow me to freely represent myself while I continue my pursuit to find my artistic style. This idea STILL excites and fuels me daily!

My family and I want to thank you all for the continued love and support we've received during this transitional period.

New store post coming soon!

💙💚- Griff