Glass blowing....help??

go to your local headshop and ask for lessons/apprenticeship

 

yeah or google search for glass blowing lessons in your area. seattle has them, but it is like $50/lesson @ $650 or something for a 6 week, 2 day a week thing

 

But if you wanted to take that class for the 6 week program, imagine the return on that $650. Think of it like an investment, you invest that money and in the long run by making your own pieces, but like an investment you get in what you put out, youd have to make sure you really wanted to get into that. I would really like to take some of those classes, that would be a very fun thing to do as a hobby, maybe a little expensive though?(not really glass, but like materials you need?)

 

I wonder though, after the cost of materials, how much you actually make... I mean, most decent but not spectacular spoons are like $25. Now consider that the headshop has to make money on it, so they paid even less than that. So maybe the artist got like $10-$15, maybe more, I dunno (I do know that in generic retail, stores charge three times as much as they pay... but that doesn't apply to specialty or skilled-trade items, usually). So anyway, out of this $15 the artist gets, lets say $5 goes towards the materials, AND the cost of the tools that you need to buy to make glass. That leaves $10, at most. And how long does it take to make a double blown / inside out pipe? 20 minutes? half hour? I don't know, I'm asking. But even if you could make 3 per hour, that's only $30/hr. Seems like a lot, but that would also mean you'd have to crank out 3 per hour and find a headshop to buy them all day to make $30/hr. And if you made three per hour and wanted a full time job, you'd have to find places that would buy... (3 x 40 = ) 120 pipes per week.

Just some thoughts. I think you should do it for the love of glass than for the money, because I don't think many glass blowers make much money.

 

Most headshops here blow in store. So they sell em right there. I've asked them a couple times in average how much it costs to make a simple spoon, they said around $3 they sell them for about $20

 

That's pretty cool, but wouldn't that mean you'd have to be an employee from the store to sell glass there? None of the headshops I've ever been in blow their own glass, it's all bought from artists AFAIK. So anyway, change what I said from $5 to $3 in parts (although you still have to have access to the tools, and that isn't free).

 

In most cases the blowers are the employees. Most of the ones here that sell CCG and shit (basically anything but imported, roor, phx, etc) blow in store.

 

Instead of trying to sell in bulk to headshops, it would be easier just to go to parties and sell em to drunk people.

 

i'll second that

 

i googled and found this not sure if it will help but it doesnt hurt to try

http://www.artglass1.com/bookWEB/video-glass-pipe.htm

here is some more the only problem is these are a little pricey but just thought it might help

http://www.humboldtfilms.com/glass/

 

I want to have my own glass studio one day, make pipes and sell them out from there... it would be easier than trying to make a living selling to other shops.