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Donovan Brooke group: registered: GMT - 05/09/2007	Subject: Store Bought vs. Small Shop Bought
	Some visitors of this board may be interested in the perspective of a hot-glass shop owner when talking about the idea behind buying hand blown glass versus glass-ware in a store. Here is my thoughts.I first took "glass blowing" in college. At that time, I didn't really care too much about it and was mostly looking for a good class to fill some credit requirements for my major of Art... not to mention there was a good looking girl that I knew took the class. What I started to learn in my Art education is that artists are much responsible for culture and many of the good qualities of the world we live in. It has something to do with acceptance of differences and new ideas, and thinking for yourself and acting on those ideas. People in the artistic community bring ideas about ways of life to a world that would be rigid and bleak without it. Material things such as money, houses, nice cars, and jobs begin to turn from an over-riding focus to a more secondary, yet still needed, effort. It's both a sacrifice and a blessing in this way of living.To get more on topic, this is what I feel people are "buying into" when purchasing from a smaller glass shop as apposed to a store that purchases from overseas or from a large glass factory. I'll go into quality differences in a bit, but excluding quality, this is what I feel people are supporting when buying from a small shop... a finer quality to the community we live in.Production versus off-hand, and different facets of off-hand work:There are some distinct and subtle differences one can see in the two. Now I'm talking about strictly functional and affordable pieces as apposed to higher dollar art here. Even in this (functional) arena there are some striking differences in hand blown work versus production work.. especially large factory production work.In store-bought production work, you may find a consistency between the pieces that you will not find in purchases from your local glass shop. However, if you think about it, is consistency something that is really important? Small shop owners probably *could* be as consistent as mold-blown or large factory production, but I don't think that sort of focus is necessary or adds in the value of the work or product. In fact, subtle differences between pieces that have the same theme are much more interesting to me. You might find a quality in one glass that you like and another quality in another glass that you like... yet there is no debate that they are part of a set. In the (literal) heat of the moment, interesting things can happen. In a small glass shop, every piece is made with the eye of the creator... and not some machine or, in many cases, mold (I will talk about mold-blown pieces versus non-mold-blown pieces next). Another difference is usually price. Is anything hand-made cheaper than something coming from a large factory? :-) I suppose there is a reason that the answer is almost always "no".I've gone over (and will go over more) some of the reasons why someone might (and should) pay more for an off-hand piece than a store bought one. However, here is another consideration. Because of the time it takes to make a hand made piece, and the equipment needed for a small shop to operate, artists simple have to charge a certain amount to keep things moving. This is the over-riding reason for how I come up with the pricing for my works. Simply put, if a shop owner, or a shop renter doesn't charge enough to cover his/her costs, then he/she will not be able to offer their product or art to public.I said earlier that I would talk a little about "Mold-Blown" versus "Non-Mold-Blown" work. The ideas that follow are my opinion and will be controversial in different shops that people visit. Molds are probably the biggest time-saver in any HotGlass shop. They almost always cut the time to a fraction. This is very significant in a field that has such high energy consumption costs. However, are their differences in quality? Mold-blowing done right will yield hardly any visual difference to that of non-mold-blown works. The problem is that most mold-blown pieces out there are not "done right" and there are obvious differences. In this situation one may see a texture that doesn't exist in a more finer non-mold-blown piece. This is significant to me as an artist and a quality difference that should be appreciated. Do you want texture in your new car's paint job? In fact, a good custom paint job should be more smooth than a brand new factory paint job. That level of difference is sometimes the same kind of difference one will find in a mold-blown piece versus a non-mold-blown piece. I'm getting a little metaphorical here, but I'm trying to make a point that, in my opinion, quality glass that is made without molds should be regarded at a higher level than pieces made with molds, thus one should expect to pay more. Now that I've stated these opinions, I will say that texture is sometimes wanted and deliberate. Also, there are quite a few artists out there who have perfected the use of molds and their work should be regarded highly, not only without loss from consideration of the piece being mold-blown, but instead, perhaps with added notoriety of their rare mold working skills.I know this is lengthy and perhaps preachy, but they are thoughts that are brewing in every glass shop owner at some point, and I hope they spark some thought for other, even non-glass artist, people.Donovan
	DATE: GMT - 05/18/2007 | 11:05 AM         |     QUOTE
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