Video Transcript
John:
This is John from CupboardGlasspipes.com and The Cupboard at the American Glass Expo in Las Vegas. What is your name?
Cowboy:
I'm Cowboy.
John:
Where are you from?
Cowboy:
I currently reside in Eugene, Oregon.
John:
How long have you been in Eugene?
Cowboy:
About two years now. About two years.
John:
How do you like it?
Cowboy:
There's no better place to live.
John:
How long have you been blowing glass?
Cowboy:
I'm on my 10th year right now.
John:
That's a long time. Where did you learn how to blow glass?
Cowboy:
Actually, I actually learned in a little bit of a scattered history. I started to watch my friends blowing glass in the late 90s in south Florida back when it was still kind of closed door policy with everybody. So I watched for I would say two years worth of time and was never able to get on the torch. I then relocated to the midwest. My wife took me to go meet a friend of hers that's a glass blower. To go buy a case to take to Bonnaroo, which is a big music festival. And by the end of the Bonnaroo trip that I went with this glass blower, he decided that he wanted to take me in and give me a step up into blowing glass instead of just selling it. So I got a foothold under a guy by the name of Ian Razer. And pretty much busted my ass to try to prove myself at that point.
John:
Was it a lot of work just breaking in?
Cowboy:
Yeah. There's definitely a hump you've got to cross where nothing you make is usable. And you reach this plateau where you finally break through and you actually have a pipe that you can breathe air through as usable. And after that man, it's awesome. You get a big rush of inspiration and to be honest with you it's not the hardest thing once you have a drive and a lot of inspiration to back ya.
John:
That leads into a good question what advice would you give to, a lot of new people are looking to get into the now thriving glass business?
Cowboy:
Man. I would say it's just like any other form of thing in life where you want to educate yourself. Take as many classes as you can and treat it like you're doing schooling. That's like my best advice for anyone starting off. Consider the first four years of your glass blowing career to be like college and make yourself work 80 hours a week. Make yourself break down to the fucking point of exhaustion. And in all reality what that will end up doing is causing your whole body to be on an autopilot system, which you basically break yourself down to the point of exhaustion. At that point triggers happen and things happen for you, you know? That's the key thing. Just bust your ass. Work harder than you ever thought. And that's the hardest part, being self motivated to bring yourself to the level where you're the only one in your studio that night and you still choose to stay there as opposed to going home and sitting on the couch. Self motivation. Work hard. Work hard. Put your blood, sweat and tears into it.
John:
That's really good advice. So tell me about some of the pieces that The Cupboard just bought from you?
Cowboy:
Well, what we have here is Sherlock made by myself and my friend Harold Cooney. It consists of wig-wag line work, which is here in the mouthpiece and here in the bowl, which is done by myself. In the bottom of the Sherlock the U is done by Harold. This is an old Italian technique probably going on six, seven hundred years old called Latticino Cane. And Harold is a master of Latticino Cane. There's no body in the bore silky glass scene that does what this guy does. Before the pipe is ever made there's probably six to seven hours for that individual section to be made. So it's what, in my world of glass is called, the form of the pipe, not the function. Which can sometimes consist of something as simple as a solid color. Or as intricate as this, which is two layers of cane work. An outer one which has white cane and an inner one which has rainbow cane. This piece is one of two pieces that this cane prep was used in. And the very first and only time so far that this cane has ever been made. As far as I know and Harold knows there's been no double layered cane work ever done. So this is a very special and unique piece in the history of he and I making pieces.
John:
That's really impressive. That's really great.
Cowboy:
The cool part about these Sherlocks is they have this marble right here on the side which works as a kickstand for it so it can be displayed like so, as well as all of my Sherlocks sit on the bowl and mouthpiece.
John:
That's sweet.
Cowboy:
So it just gives them multiple ways to be displayed.
John:
These 2 Sherlocks are going to be exclusively at the CupboardGlassPipes.com. Don't pass up the opportunity to see a piece of glass history all the way from Japan, to the Midwest, to the West Coast.
