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Solos and Collaborations 2015 - 2016

A collection of past solo work and collaborations. The following is a roughly chronological exhibit of selected pieces made on my cross country road trip from September 2015 through September 2016. It contains my thoughts on the collaborative process and ruminations on specific events.  It will be amended as I obtain the best photos and videos of work that I've created in this time. Big thanks goes out to Jeff Dimarco @iamjeffdimarco, Wind Home Photography @windhome, Chris Baltz @photosbybaltz, Jesse @photosilicate, Bang Le @banginaround, Jay Rivard @jrivardphoto and others who have photographed my work, providing a record that I definitely did something with my life.

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Jacob Vincent: Italian Ice

Jacob is very consistent in the execution of his work and he has clear standards by which he operates. It was very satisfying to accent his existing design with these cubes. The choice of clear drips gives it some added intrigue. Photo by Jacob Vincent

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Purdy: Skadi/The Ice Goddess

In September 2015, Purdy created several collaborative goddess sculptures with different themed fades. Ours is a take on the mythical Skadi. All of the color in this piece was drill mixed to create a specific palette. This was one of the first pieces where I played with the idea of a monochromatic variation throughout the work. Photo by Jay Rivard

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B-Money: Fumed Icer

I always have a good time chilling with Brad. This was one of the first pieces bringing fuming and the ice cube concept together. I shaped this one out while brad did all the decoration with each section being fumed and patterned. Photo by Jeff Dimarco

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Tommy B: Wig Wag Icer

We decided to go all out on this piece. The blue is only used for filler and every cube has a linework pattern. I was definitely nervous about using tommy's sections and not overworking the glass in the quest of achieving sharp corners. I think everything went ok.

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Tommy B: Linework Melter

I really like how Tommy was able to focus his efforts on making tight sections while I shaped out a piece that allowed both of our styles to breathe and complement each other, Photo by @Photosilcate

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Glass Munky: Dewar Ice Bubbler

Munky is a really hard worker. Like, he just doesn't take breaks. This is one of my favorites that we've made together. A really even balance of styles in both shape and color choice inform this piece.

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Solo UV Icer Mini Tube

The lightplay and overall vibrance of this piece made it an instant favorite of mine. It has the impermanent feeling of ice melting, and using tranparent colors allowed me to experiment with saturation, especially on the solid cubes. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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Riel: Candy Cube Melter

This piece was a chance for my friend Gabriel and myself to experiment with color choices and explore the dimensionality of transparent textures. We had just scored some colored tubing and wanted to make something cool with it. No pun intended. Photo by Jeff Dimarco

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MTP: Mismatched Icer

Ben has such a funky style with these mismatched linework sections. We agreed it would be fun to shape them into cubes and work from there toward this finished piece. It's the first rig with icicles and after we made this I continued in that vein, with more and more of the work having a 'frozen' appearance. Photo by @photosilicate.

Noah Rockland: Turtle Geode Reef

I taught Noah a few things when he was first starting out and I'm impressed with his determination in building a process and perfecting the methods of his style. This is part of a two piece series incorporating both of our sea life ideas into 2 collabs. The sandblasted details give these a very smooth finish and soften the colors. It was great to make such nice work with an old friend/student.

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Chem Dawg: Icy Hammer Dry

Chem Dawg is an OG in both the growing and glass scene, his contributions lasting well into the new generation. This piece incorporates my milli chips into his shaping with added melting cubes. It represents a meeting of old school function and surface work with new school conceptual and sculpting sensibilities. Photo by Jeff Dimarco

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BMFT: Icy Milk Bottle

Brendan is definitely an inspiration to anyone thinking about doing a glass roadtrip. He has a good sense of the industry and understands the challenges. He was happy to oblige me at The Portal in Denver where we put together this collab of his classic milk bottle shape with my faded and mixed color ice cubes. The function is superb on this one. Photo by me.

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Blitzkriega: Frozen Dawgy

When I first flew to Colorado in December 2015 I was met with open arms by Jake Martin, a fellow drummer and lover of fine things. It was difficult to keep from adding too much to this one but Jake guided me in filling the negative space and using the icicles to my advantage. Definitely one for the books. Or at least this site :) Photo byJeff Dimarco

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Marcel Braun: Airtrap Reticello Penguin Rig

It was tricky to take this prep, with its evenly spaced air bubbles and clean lines, and form it into a finished piece without distorting the uniform quality of the reticello pattern. Marcel became known for adapting this classic italian technique to borosilicate glass, among other early innovations in pipemaking he's made. I really dig the particular thickness and shaping i was able to achieve on this one. Photo by Wind Home.

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D Rock: Cold Can

This piece is the first application of UV color in my ice cubes, we used Electric Flamingo. D Rock has a really solid understanding of the medium, he was actually learning at the same time as Riel in the Boulder scene in 1999 and kept on since then. I've always been really blown away by his execution and this piece is a great example. The clean lines on the cap and encalmos contrast to the natural jumble of cubes. The process was full pro on this one. Photo by Wind Home

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GlassMunky: Cubes and Percs and Wig Wags...

This piece incorporated many techniques on top of each other. Hollow cubes were decorated and shaped into a functional component that was then attached through the bottom of the piece before being resealed and reshaped. There are abstract components and realistic components that make this another mash-up of the old and new. I especially like how we agreed to sprinkle the linework patterning in the neck, on the joint, and in the perc. This one rips like a beast. Photo by Chris Baltz

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Vibe: Ice Climber Bunny

Ryan did a great job with this piece, he built the entire rig and I added my flair to it. The hood was a very impressive maneuver as he had to get what is essentially a hollow cupped bubble that acts as the mouthpiece fitting over the head without touching the eyelids. I'm also very satisfied with how many icicles I was able to add as well. Photo by @photosilicate.

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Yook: The Cold Copter

Lucas and I had talked about making this piece for at least 6 months before I went to Philly and got down to business. We spent a good 4 days taking our time and getting everything just right. The action and intention in this piece definitely translates and I especially love the penguin bombs and icicle missiles. Photo by Jeff Dimarco

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Glasshopper: Aquatic Beanie Bear

I stayed at Robert's place in New Jersey and we had a blast making this piece. He explores a wide swath of nature themes in his milli work and went the extra mile with the use of his fish milli on the body of the bear. I sculpted the anthias and starfish as well as some slyme coral. It was great to be a collaborator on the bear series that robert has been building. Photo by Chris Baltz.

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Trevy Metal: Carved Icer

Trevy got into working with glass from an illustrator/tattooing background. His sense of space and line and style of sparse shading paired with the ability to adapt to the technicality of glass has allowed him to increase his creative output and remain always challenged. This piece features a layer of silver fuming that was carved away by Trevy after I finished the piece in the kiln. I provided the canvas and he provided the art. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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Jawn Owens: Icy Jawn

Jawn has been steady rocking this classic style rig and I'm glad we were able to collaborate on one. This piece builds on my theme of monochromatic variants and this is one of the first with the style choice of agua-azul lip-wraps, which always pairs nicely with my blue/teal transparent color choices. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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Zii: Fever Face

Fever Face doesn't feel so hot right now, or does he? Kim's incredible sculpting came out flawless on this piece. This one was inspired by an experience I had when I was maybe 9 or 10 and had to be iced down from a fierce fever, which I was prone to in my younger days. It was fun adding in the thermometer and flu pills for context. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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Devadita: Snow Print Sherlock

This piece brings together opacity and transparency, edges and curves, and smooth and rough textures. I made sure the pattern that Sarah created and the shaping of the piece were not obscured once I began adding cubes. I'm very happy with the finished result. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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Tyme: Dotstack Penguin Rig

Tyme is a really fun guy to work with. He rocks a Carlisle, the classic workhorse torch that treats colors in a fundamental and intuitive way. We also both grew up outside of boston and listen to records, many of the punk variety. Needles to say we enjoyed hanging out and putting this piece together, which went really smoothly by the way. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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BFF: Icy Mouth-breather

Becky and I had a few issues making this piece but we loved the idea so much we just couldn't let it go and had to properly execute it. The first time i attached the hat to the mouth-breather there were all sorts of cracking issues so we carefullly had to do a reconstruct and completely rebuild it. I'm glad we did because once the body was in place everything came together smoothly. Becky definitely guided me in being a bit gentler in my process and measuring twice to cut once. 2nd time's a charm I guess.

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Hops: Icy Macho Man

Working with Hops was great. He showed me good Italian in North Philly and we crushed out 2 pieces like it was a walk in the park. It was fun to draw in the design on the hat and glasses of this character tube, and Steve does such a nice job of sculpting out the likeness of the macho man. Photo by Jeff Dimarco.

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AKM: Cold Puker

I really like the color and textural contrast in this one. We used Blue Stardust and a diluted cheese from greasy glass for the puke and the skull as well as my own "frost" mix of clear and white glass for the ice cubes. This is one of the first iterations of the blizzard-tech look that I developed later after my trip. Photo by Bang Le

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AKM: Brain Freeze

I was tempted to make a bunch of pendants with Andrew and maybe 1 pipe but they don't call him pipemaker for nothing. So we ended up making 2 awesome pieces and this pendant. I'm glad we worked off of the split-skull concept because in this collab it is very apt. The cubes are made in part with Northstar's Lucy, so they glow pink under UV light.

Glasstro: Icy Stro-Bubb

Nick executes with a steady goal in mind: precision. I learned a lot from his approach of taking long recognized shapes and patterns and rearranging them into novel designs. We kept this one simple and added an ice cube perc to shake up the function.

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Daddy-O: Ice Candy Tube

Travis and I decided on several collabs and this was the most fun. He put me up for a week at his spot near Tampa and we had a blast making a number of rigs and smaller items. This piece plays with color a bit more than my regular work and it was fun to apply his pollock-tech in contrasting opacity to the color saturation in the cubes. Photo by Jeff Dimarco

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Solo Glass: Iced Out MicroLite

Kyle was really fun to hang with, he brought a very communal vibe to T-Leaf Studio when I visited in April 2016 and I'm really glad we took the time to make this one. It has a lot of little features not the least of which is interchangeable magnetic buttons that can be changed like the slide of a microscope and of course an ice cube perc. The cascading ice cubes work well on Kyle's shape and the icicle joint really sealed the deal. It's also UV reactive as pictured here ;-) Photo By Wind Home

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Burtoni: The Ice Phoenix

The phoenix rising is a classic myth on which we put a chilly spin. Ben is a pro through and through and this piece went off without a hitch. We used Chaka's Ice for the body and Heavy Blue Stardust for the base. I really enjoy the spectrum of blue transparent tones that we created throughout this piece.

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Breaking Through

This piece is a direct reflection of my experience on the road. It conveys a feeling of aspiration and breaking beyond the barriers that often are our own creation. This is one of those ideas that took form in my mind long before I could manifest it in glass. Photo by Wind Home

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Eusheen: Refreezulator

Eusheen has always been an inspiration and OG in the pipe game. It was an honor to throw down with him on this icy version of his Redisculator series.

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Sven: The Gift - The Path of Dana

Mike is a dedicated artist and musician. It was very inspiring to learn from his vibe of slowly and carefully creating a piece of art. He didn’t rush or imbue an ounce of anxiety into his workflow, it was all done with clear intention. We finished this in the wee hours of a Eugene, OR morning before heading down the west coast to continue my trip. I am thankful to work with and meet such a grounded and thoughtful soul. Photo by Wind Home