Bob Snodgrass is an American lampworker known for his contributions to the art of glass pipe-making and glass art. He began lampworking in 1971 while learning from and working with Chuck Murphy for a few years. [1] [2]
Bob purchased his first torch in 1974 while living in Independence, Missouri where he began to hone his craft over the next several years. He moved back to Ohio and a few other states selling his work at local arts & crafts festivals, flea markets and street fairs. In 1986 Bob, his wife and their youngest child moved into a bus and hit the road. They worked their way around the country doing all types of festivals and shows. On Easter weekend in 1987 Bob attended his first Grateful Dead show at Irvine. "I saw the crowd burst into dancing and thought this was so tribal I want to be part of this." From there Bob started following the Dead on tour and his craft quickly became sought after. Eventually they settled in Eugene, Oregon. [3] [4]
Snodgrass is credited with having invented (by accident, he says) color changing glass, a type of borosilicate glass mixed (fumed) with gold and/or silver, which changes colors as the dark resin builds up on the inside of the glass. He founded the Eugene Glass School. [5]
The documentary film Degenerate Art depicts the glass subculture that Snodgrass helped to create. He has been called the "Godfather of glass." [6] [7] [8]
Snodgrass taught in Oregon many younger artists how to create functional glass art, including Jason Harris of Jerome Baker Designs, who gained notoriety throughout the 1990s on the U.S. West Coast for his high quality glass bongs and pipes. Jerome Baker Designs had its assets seized during Operation Pipe Dreams, a federal operation to prosecute glass blowers in the United States. [9] After legalization, Jerome Baker Designs began picking up steam again, ultimately creating the world's largest bong at 24-feet high and 800 pounds.
Snodgrass's apprentices also went on to teach many other famous glassblowers. [10]
A bong is a filtration device generally used for smoking cannabis, tobacco, or other herbal substances. In the bong shown in the photo, the smoke flows from the lower port on the left to the upper port on the right.
The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his histrionic mother, and his mentally fragile sister. In writing the play, Williams drew on an earlier short story, as well as a screenplay he had written under the title of The Gentleman Caller.
The U.S. state of Oregon is home to more than 200 breweries and brew pubs that produce a large variety of beer.
The Butchart Gardens is a group of floral display gardens in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada, located near Victoria on Vancouver Island. The gardens receive over a million visitors each year. The gardens have been designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
Reser Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. The home of the Oregon State Beavers of the Pac-12 Conference, it opened in 1953 as Parker Stadium and was renamed in 1999.
O-I Glass, Inc. is an American company that specializes in container glass products. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of packaging products, holding the position of largest manufacturer of glass containers in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.
The Register-Guard is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River valley, and surrounding areas. As of 2019, it had a supposed circulation of 18,886 daily.
Jerry Ross is an American painter.
William Morris is an American glass artist. After retiring in 2007 at the age of 49, he resides in both Washington and Hawaii.
The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It was the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native to Great Britain. The Modern Style provided the base and intellectual background for the Art Nouveau movement and was adapted by other countries, giving birth to local variants such as Jugendstil and the Vienna Secession. It was cultivated and disseminated through the Liberty department store and The Studio magazine.
Operation Pipe Dreams was an American nationwide investigation in 2003 targeting businesses selling drug paraphernalia, mostly marijuana pipes and bongs, under a little-used statute. Due to the reluctance of state law-enforcement agencies to contribute resources to the operation, most cases were filed in Iowa and Pennsylvania, taking advantage of the statute's prohibition on the use of "the mails or any other facility of interstate commerce to transport drug paraphernalia."
Preston Singletary is a Native American glass artist.
The Eugene Saturday Market is an outdoor craft market in Eugene, Oregon. It is the oldest weekly open-air crafts market in the United States. It has a festival atmosphere that includes live performers as well as art and crafts displays and sales, and also food booths and other local vendors. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people visit the market every Saturday.
Karl Bergemann Parsons was a British stained glass artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glass jewelry and tableware.
Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes is a 2011 documentary by American pipe maker Aaron Golbert, aka Marble Slinger, on the art and culture associated with glass pipes used for smoking cannabis. Its title references the German expression degenerate art, an invective used to denigrate modern art during the Nazi regime. The film, which was featured at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas in 2012, follows the history of glass pipe-making culture and the tremendous influence of Bob Snodgrass. The documentary also explores Operation Pipe Dreams and its impact on actor Tommy Chong.
Jerome Baker is a Eugene, Oregon based glass blower and the founder of Jerome Baker Designs.
Jerome Baker Designs is a Las Vegas, Nevada based company in the cannabis industry formerly known as Jerome Baker Designs, and for having created the largest bong ever created at 24-feet high and 800 pounds. The bong was so large it had to be created in parts and assembled at the Cannabition, where it was put on display at “Bongzilla,” the gallery opening of Jerome Baker Designs’ Las Vegas Studio during which “The Mega Bong Series" was unveiled.
Xaver Wilhelmy is an inventor, designer and certified pipe organ builder who was the first in the world to create organ pipes from glass. Wilhelmy created the Wilhelmy American Flag Glass Pipe Organ, the first pipe organ in the world with pipes made entirely from glass.
Lloyd Eldred Herman (1936-2023) was an American arts administrator, curator, writer, museum planner and acknowledged expert on contemporary craft. He was known for being the founding Director of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., from 1971 to 1986.