“It was 2010 when I first went out on my own to start making functional art. I stopped by a local smoke shop near my house, and well – was put up to a challenge by the owner to put a dragon on one of his pipe pieces. After making it, a light turned on and I discovered another revenue stream I could excel in.”
(Known as 3-D glasswork, the glass is transformed into){3-D glasswork it’s called, forming the glass into} unique shapes of expression and style. This kind of glass work for smoking pieces was not as common at the time, as most custom work was done in the coloration of the glass.
Javier explains how he found his groove in crafting functional smoking pieces:
“It was nice to get into. I added what I already knew about tubing, and worked at attaching art work to the tubes. The main challenge was tweaking the oven temperature. I usually used it at 1000 degrees and had to work my way up to 1100, it took a while to figure out the perfect temp. From there I started to innovate in 3-D art.”