Video Transcript

Cupboard:
Hey this is Cupboard from the Cupboard in Cincinnati, Ohio and today on Cupboard Artist Insights we're in Las Vegas to talk to one of the true great artists in pipe making, Bob Snodgrass Snodgrass. In the next five minutes, you'll take a wild romp with unicorns, skulls and the Grateful Dead with the glassblowing legend. Bob Snodgrass, how many years have you been blowing glass?

Bob Snodgrass:
I started blowing glass in 1971. I was living in Akron, Ohio and one of my neighbors was a glassblower. I became enthralled and he asked me to sell his wares for him and I used to go around different places in Ohio like over to Columbus and Cincinnati and out to Youngstown and we even go over to Ann Arbor. One time I came back with more orders than he expected and he says oh it's not that easy, you're going to sit here and I made little carburetors that you put a doobie in and the basically that was our number one thing. We made a lot of different kind of doobie holders. Here we are today with sophisticated craziness like this.

Cupboard:
Now this is a stunning skull pipe. Tell us more about this amazing piece.

Bob Snodgrass:
This is a recent evolution. This is blowing boro into a mold and we're working out of a hot crucible. I kind of became famous over skulls because of little guys with top hats, something like that. A lot of difference there; this was a little more animated and something that was what I became known for. I used to travel around in a school bus and we went all over North America and we were doing that and then we ran into Grateful Dead and that changed the book. I used to have table vending like this that was that big, but there'd be unicorns and ballerinas and all the other things that you saw glassblowers making. They'd be a little slice of table that would have a couple pipes on it.

And went to a Grateful Dead show and all of a sudden, it's like all pipes and marbles and little jars. So the materials are the same, but we're using even different equipment now. This is something that's an evolution in boro glass that's only been going on for the last decade. This one I make a decorated blank and then I fit it up to a steel blowpipe. Then we dip it in the crucible. All these skulls that were on here were actually only about that big and now they're over an inch tall. The more it stretches, the bigger they get. This one's a functional piece. Mouth piece here, bowl here and there's the carburetor.

Cupboard:
Where can your current and new fans find out more information about you?

Bob Snodgrass:
You can find me on Facebook and I'm also at www.Snodgrass.net.

Cupboard:
On behalf of all of your fans, we'd like to thank you for your cool stories and playing such a big role in the evolution of bringing us from a time of simple pipes to great pieces of art to be enjoyed for a lifetime. We hope you enjoy this episode of the Cupboard presents Artist Insights with some of the coolest creative artists and innovators. You can watch the whole series on CupboardGlassPipes.com.