Hi, My name is Kip....just Kip.... not short for anything, not
a nickname, This is the name my mother gave me. If it's not
obvious, I have a thing about glass. I have always had a thing
about glass. It amazes me that you can take what is basically
sand, baking soda, some ashes, and a little rust, melt it all
together and .... Wow!.....
glass!
I started collecting glass when I was 9 years old.
My first piece was a Stuben water glass that I got at a
garage sale. I still have it. Now it is full of some of the first
and worst beads I ever made.
Sort of Beauty and the beasts.
Since then I have collected all sorts of glass and I always
wanted to learn how to blow glass, sooo,
one night in 1998, as I lie swinging in my hammock, ( really my
Dad's hammock) book in one hand, coffee in the other, I said
to myself....
Kip, no time like the present to learn that glass blowing
thing..... and that is exactly what I did.
I took offhand glass blowing classes from Jim Bowman at
Hickory Street Hot Glass in Dallas TX. (PLUG)
The guy was great, Had a BLAST, and was totally hooked
on a whole new facet of the glass thing the first second I took
that sad little blob of a paperweight ( that we will call art
Thank you very much.) out of the annealer. It reminded me of
this clay ashtray I made for my chainsmokin" mama when I was  
in the first grade........ahhhhh! Good Times.
All in all an awesome time. I finished up that set of classes and
started looking for other classes when I wandered into
Grapevine Art Glass (PLUG) one day and Betty was
selling lampwork supplies. I grabbed up a crapload of that stuff
and ran my fanny to Home Depot(PLUG, like they need it)
and got myself a mapp gas torch. Took all my new goodies
home, set them up and proceded to burn a lot of holes in the
kitchen floor. As they say (who's they anyway?) the rest is
history.
I would love to say  "I'm so inspired by nature" or "my love for
the people around me" or some sappy line that most artist have,
but the fact is I just love to melt glass!
       Kip
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Stone & Glass
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