As you may have gleaned from my recent posts, I’ve been trying to get more “real” and “authentic” images into my stock image portfolio at Stocksy United. One theme I’ve been trying to hit hard is the idea of “local businesses” or “craftspeople”. Recently, I had the opportunity to team up with a local glass art creation facility, and I think this is some of my best work yet.
Normally, I don’t point out the specific location where I’ve done my shoots, but since they interviewed me for their blog, and they also have a cool technology connection, I’ll do it today. This new series was shot here in St. Louis at the Third Degree Glass Factory. They do classes, events, and have artists that work on commissioned projects. Now, you may know that name in the back of your mind somewhere. It’s because one of the owners of the facility is also known as being the co-founder of the Square credit card reader that so many people use these days. He came up with the idea when he missed out on a glass sale because of not being able to take a certain credit card at the business. So, that’s pretty neat.
So, on a cold day in January, I headed to the factory and met up with one of the in house artists, who was working on a commissioned assignment. The pieces for this installment ended up being these huge, water jug shaped creations that, to me, seemed very fragile. In fact, out of the five I saw him work on, only two made it into the kiln. Amazing to watch him gather and shape the hot glass, eventually putting it into a water soaked mold and blowing through the pipe to inflate it. This isn’t a “stop and pose” kind of event, but at least I had five tries to get the shot! Glass blowing is definitely a delicate process that takes strong arms and a steady hand.
These images can be licensed through Stocksy United, and you can see the whole series at this link. They would be great for illustrating an article about traditional crafts and techniques.
It’s also part of my Artisan series of images , which includes home framers, cabinet makers and chefs. Have a great weekend!
