Get to know Firekist Glass!
This week, we are sharing a little about one of our awesome vendors, Firekist Glass. Known for his incredible snakeskin tubing designs along with his precision and dedication to quality, we are thrilled to carry his work in the Tako Glass shop. So read on and learn a little about this heady artist and all the love that goes into everything he creates.
Introducing Firekist Glass
Firekist Glass is a glass-blowing artist from Rochester, MN. His journey to the torch came from a love of both artistic creativity and a love of science.
Though he always sought a creative outlet, he never felt quite "artistic." He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and with a range of interesting experiences, like bending test tubes in chemistry in high school and taking a scientific glass-blowing class in college, glass was definitely in his foundation but glass-blowing didn’t quite land yet. The scientific classes were fun but they were slow, using clear glass, and little torches only. It was when he saw Dan Kamden and Jes Durfee blowing glass using color and big torches, he was immediately hooked.
Dedicated Evolution Through the Years
Firekist Glass has been on the torch for over two decades; for the past 20 years, he has been dedicated to refining and producing his cleanest work. In that time, he has perfected his craft and introduced as many of the new bold colors as possible, adding multiple layers of colors to create works like no one else.
His snakeskin tech was first developed in 2004 and it has been refined quite well over the last 15 or so years, and recently he has started to incorporate more base colors into the designs, creating the most incredible effects. With additions like gold and silver fume, he’s been able to create colors that previously were rare to come by.
Firekist snakeskin pipes are the result of an incredible process that involves texturing the colored hot glass core tubes, then fuming with gold, silver, or a combination of both. He then infuses clear tubing as a sleeve, melting it around the core tube to trap the texture and fume colors that come as a result! It’s seriously wild!
His marble-style pipes continue to be a unique contribution as well, and Firekist continues to explore the never-ending possibilities. Additionally, he’s aiming to broaden his horizons further with more collabs with other great artists in the future.
Finding Inspiration Staying Inspired
Firekist Glass finds inspiration in the process of creating. Oh his process of creation he states, “I love seeing the colors fuming produces. I love creating objects I find to be beautiful. Every couple years of refinement of established items, I tend to pop out a new idea of something to try.”
Looking to the Future
As an artist, Firekist's goals extend to achieving greater recognition for his work and reaching more collectors; he would love to see his snakeskin pipes and marble pipe work become even more sought after! He hopes to leave a mark on the art form of glass and would like to see his work recognized for his contributions after he’s gone.
Overall, his aim is to live a good life, with time for his family, as he finds the greatest challenge to life as an artist is the ever-elusive achievement of balance.
On thoughts of how incredibly massive the glass-blown pipe/ bong market has become, Firekist Glass says “Its growth and size is proof of how large a part of our society this really is.”
And we couldn’t agree more!
