I've loved functional boro glass art since the first time I ever saw an art glass pipe in like 1994. I was a stoner teen in Arcata, Humboldt Co. California. I think it was a Snodgrass piece bought at a Grateful Dead show. I spent a lot of time after that looking for people with gun cases at music shows and festivals trying to find a killer color changing glass piece. I don't think I had that piece for more than a couple months before I broke it tragically, and had to save up again to get another.

My family and I moved to Oregon the next year. My older brother chose to stay in Humboldt. In the summer of 95' he called me and said "guess what bro? I'm blowing glass!" I was on a bus heading down to stay with him in a few weeks. I'd never even seen lampworking done before.
I learned how to make a mushroom necklace, a super simple pipe, and a nug jar, sorta, and had to go back north.
My dad set me up with a basic setup in our little garage, and I started making some simple handpipes and chillums to sell to locals. They were pretty crappy pieces. I wasn't even making them right. I had forgotten an important basic step. I was making them all one handed, by just making a bubble and then letting it stretch by gravity. They were pretty wobbly.
In 96' I went back to CA. and really learned what I was doing. 
I spent the next four years doing it mostly as a hobby, though I was in the shop everyday. I wasn't even old enough to go in a headshop for those first years.

When I was 20 I moved back to CA. and was blowing glass full time with my brother. That's when I really developed my own style and began making some of the designs I still make today.

Over the next 20 years I was a full time pipe maker. Mostly selling to head shops, and a couple distributors. 

When the import glass started flooding the market, I couldn't make common designs anymore. Store owners would look at a piece that took me an hour, and say, I can get that for less than $5. I had to stick to my own unique designs, so no one could compare them to the import stuff.
I've heard the line "that's too expensive, my customers won't buy it" from nearly every shop I've sold too since then. I'd always say, "just try a couple, people will buy it", or even leave some on consignment if they wouldn't even do that. And they always sold. There were always people willing to pay more for a unique piece. 
My tree design pipes, mushroom pipes, local sports team, music bands, and university logo pipes were my bread and butter.

Since covid happened, I'm now selling online only. Still making and developing my 3d sculpted nature designs, and also making millefiori images for other glass workers to use in their work. Check out a youtube video on millifiori/murrine making if you don't know what it is. It's one of my favorite glass techniques.