Glass Education

HOW TO PICK YOUR PIPE

As a general rule, always start with the purpose or functionality of the specific piece in order to determine how to pick the right one.

Mobility

A mobile piece will face more dangers than a home piece. Mobile units also may be smaller and lighter for carrying in a pocket or a purse and typically are not water based due to spillage.

Bowl & Hole Size

The Retail Tobacco Dealers Association (RTDA) specifies a bowl of an inch wide by ½ inch wide as an optimal size for a long, even burn. Depending on your use, the bowl size will vary, large for a communal piece, smaller for a personal or taster style piece. Often overlooked, it is an extremely important facet to review before you purchase your pipe. Chameleon quality control uses a two stage 2 poker with 2 millimeter and 3 millimeter diameters to measure the aperture and ensure that the bowl hole is no smaller than 2MM and no larger than 3MM. A bowl hole of less than 2MM will clog easily whereas a hole greater than 3MM will allow too much ash/ember pull through.

Bowl Condition

We spend so much time on the bowl because it is where the combustion occurs and is where long-term life of the piece is made (or not). Inexperienced glass blowers and especially importers do not properly prepare or finish the area of glass before or after the bowl is pushed into the glass because of the extra steps involved.

Glass Preparation Process

First, the bowl area needs to be pre-thickened before the bowl push. The push will thin and stretch the glass, so if it is not thickened before hand, the bowl will have inconsistent thickness. This inconsistency will cause the bowl to be prone to breakage due to residual stress imparted to the glass from repeated uneven heating and cooling of the glass during use. Second, the bowl needs to be fire polished after the push to reheat/remelt the glass and remove stress left by the relative cool temperature of the carbon tool. Left alone, the stress shows up as jagged lateral lines (up & down) in the bowl, which (again) will ultimately crack and lead to the demise of your pipe. Concentric circles are also stress but do not cause early cracking. Third, the bowl should not have air bubbles of any kind. While an air pocket of less than ½ millimeter will not create enough expansive force when heated during use, anything larger will eventually weaken and crack the bowl due to repetitive stress of expansion and contraction (gases such as air expands and contract faster and with more force than solids). Hold your pipe up to a light source and examine the bowl area carefully before you buy. Watch some of our videos about what to look for in a quality piece.

Overall Size

A smaller pipe offers less time for the smoke to cool between the bowl hole and the mouthpiece whereas a larger/longer pipe will allow the smoke to cool more. Pipes like the Chameleon Original “Gandalf” completely cool the smoke before it reaches the mouthpiece due to its extreme length.

Flat Spot

Make sure there is one under the bowl so your pipe does not roll over and spill your tobacco!

Position of the Third Hole

Righty, Lefty, Endy or “NCH”? Your call, just get one that is most comfortable for you. No Cleaning Hole (NCH) refers to a lack of a third hole. Old school smokers remember a time when pipes did not have this feature, and realistically, it is not really needed in a hand pipe. It is important in a hookah to clear volumes of old smoke, but, in a hand pipe a cleaning hole is not needed if the pipe is cleaned regularly. It is useful however if cleaning is less often and you have stubborn stains to remove.

Color

Once you have established the functional needs, next review the desirability or beauty of the piece. The palette available to today’s glass artist is enormous. Gone are the days of dim, drab colors, replaced by colors that almost pop out of the glass. Unfortunately, many blowers do not stay current or do not wish to use newer colors because they are difficult and expensive. Combinations of brown and green may not be what you are looking for.

Cleanliness of Design

Are the colors smeared together into an unintelligible jumble of overlapping lines, giving the appearance of a messy finger-painting or is there a well chosen set of complimentary colors combined into a discernible, attractive pattern?

Fuming & Color Change

The secret to color changing glass is actually the fuming. Fuming is the process of vaporizing a precious metal (silver, gold, platinum) onto clear glass. This atomized metal is what causes the glass to appear to change color. It actually does not change color, which becomes obvious after the first time you clean the pipe. Here is why: As you use the pipe, the oil from your tobacco hits and sticks to the inside of the pipe. Over time, it builds up to a point where light no longer passes through, it is reflected. As the reflected light exists the glass, it passes through the fume layer. Different metals produce different light prisms as the light exits the glass, giving the appearance of a change of color. Note: More is not better. If the fume is so heavy that is becomes opaque, there will be no light passing through which means there will be no color change. Look for a transparent fume job for best color change.

Pattern & Design

This area is one of the most contentious in glassblowing. What is Inside Out (ISO) work? What is Surface work? Is there such a thing called “fakey”?

Inside Out

This is where the fume AND color are both melted into the inside surface of the raw glass tubing by pre-melting the tubing and making a wine glass. This two-step melt is why ISO is often referred to as “double blown”. ISO maintains the brightness of color and the depth/thickness of the glass best. It requires the most preparation and most in process work time of all blowing techniques, and is therefore often the most expensive. Surprisingly, it is not the best technique for the best color change.

Surface

This is where fume and color are applied to and melted into the outside surface of the raw glass tube. As the glass melts, it is exposed to the oxygen rich flame of the torch and the color often fades/washes out due to the oxidation. The fume is not affected, and consequently, surface work is the actually the best color change blowing technique.

“Fakey”

This is what knowledgeable glass connoisseurs refer to when some blower mistakenly refers to their “internal fume” pipe or their “sleeved” pipe as “inside out”. Sorry guys, no short cuts allowed. No pain, no gain!

Thickness & Depth

Probably the second most contentious area, thickness is thought to indicate strength. Borosilicate, the engineered crystal material commonly known as Pyrex, obeys standard engineering science. Force = (Mass) x (Acceleration) where A is constant (gravity). If you have an extremely thick pipe, you have a large Mass. The thicker the pipe, the larger the Mass, the larger the impact Force when the piece is dropped. Simple science everybody. Thicker pipes DO feel better in the palm of your hand, but they are not stronger or more impact resistant (quite the opposite actually). There is a marginal strength associated with thickness where glass blown paper-thin is truly more apt to shatter; like a light bulb, and an average thickness pipe is actually the strongest.

Decoration

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but make sure your clear magnifier marbles are highlighting a point of interest on the pipe. Make sure the color marbles compliment the piece. Is the Dichro stretched so thin to where it looks like stringy tinsel or is it rich with minute points of light?

Quality

An unseen part of glass is Quality, which is driven from unseen factors in workmanship and especially the final process of annealing. Since it is unseen, some blowers and especially importers do not take this final (and most important) step because specialized glass kilns are expensive and use a great deal of electricity. However, in reality, that cost is simply transferred to you (the buyer) because the fist time the piece is dropped, the chances of breakage are 3x that of a properly annealed piece. Rule of thumb…you get what you pay for.

ALL ABOUT SHAPES

Tobacco Accessories, specifically pipes, come in a myriad of shapes. Most casual observers would assume this to be an aesthetic choice, however, while the look of a pipe IS important, one cannot discount the functional consequences of forcing smoke to follow a specific path.

Bore VS. Vessel

First, a discussion of bore style vs. vessel style pipes. Bore style pipes are synonymous with dry (non water-filtered) wood, meerschaum and stone raw materials. The solid nature of the raw materials lends the bottom of the bowl and the throat of the pipe to be bored with a drill to create a small straight airway. A vessel style pipe has no such constricted airway and allows the smoke to swirl and mix with ambient air available throughout its hollow core.

A Word on Quality

1. Fifty pages of new and imaginative designs to keep your cases looking interesting OR is it more of the same identical pipes you can get anywhere from anyone?
2. Deep stock available for next day shipping OR is it the guy who just restocked his van at the port who you won’t see for the next three months?
3. Novel applications of technology with costly proto-typing OR is it a knock off for a buck less after the fact?
4. A 100% guarantee a phone call away OR is it the local guy who is always there when he needs you most?
5. Amazing new colors and combinations OR is it faded, burnt & bubbled?
6. Amazingly deep and thick hand-worked inside out (double blown) with expansive color OR is it just lots of clear glass with a few stringers jammed in and not melted together?
7. Crisp, clean patterning OR is it muddled, cloudy shmears?
8. Interlacing levels of Silver, Gold, Platinum & Copper laid on transparently for maximum color change OR is it silver sprayed on so thick and opaquely that the only color change will be from India Orange to Skidmark Brown?
9. Strong glass annealed in expensive glass kilns OR is it weak unannealed trash that will crack, craze or shatter the first time it is dropped?
10. Pre-screened under light and polariscope to detect cracks prior to shipping OR is it shipped to you without quality control regardless of functionality, condition or sale-ability?
11. Made in the USA with taxes paid in full OR is it cash going back overseas to finance the purchases of Chinese made AK-47’s destined for the Middle East? (Customs bust in Miami in early ‘04)
12. Domestic manufacturing that pays social security, disability and unemployment OR is it imported so that zero goes to pay for your future retirement?
13. Fully hand worked OR is it imported as a necklace then drilled out and left containing noxious glass dust to be inhaled by you and your customer?
14. Choosing traditional accessories and hanging in there for our customers through thick and thin OR is it contemporary pipes with revolving phone numbers that get disconnected at the first hint of hard times?

What is Dichro?

So you just bought a Dichro decorated pipe, but it just doesn’t seem to have that sparkly zip you thought you were guaranteed of getting with Dichro. Well, in the never ending downward spiral of who can make the cheapest schwag, a few techniques have evolved to give some companies the license to call some of what they sell a Dichro decorated pipe. And they do not lie, for at one time; Dichro was a raw material prepped for use in the pipe that lacks the sparkle and zip you expected. But before we get too deep, how about a quick primer?

Dichroic Glass is a multi layer coating placed on glass by using a highly technical vacuum deposition process. It’s a lot like making high-speed computer processors, which is why the stuff is so expensive! Quartz Crystal and Metal Oxides are vaporized onto the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. Originally created for the Aerospace industry, Dichroic Glass is now made available to the artist community by several of the same reputable American companies and now by some less than quality conscious companies who have not perfected the process yet.

The main characteristic of Dichroic Glass is that it has a transmitted color and a completely different reflective color. Furthermore, these two colors shift depending on angle of view. With the play of light, together with its vibrant color, Dichroic Glass is a prime tool used to add interest to any piece of work or project. With over 45 Colors of Dichroic Coatings available, artists have unlimited freedom of expression in straight Dichro and exponentially more avenues available with the palette of boro (pyrex) colors available to “back” the various Dichro colors available.

Each color has a Transmission color (this is the color you can actually see through the glass if the coating is on clear glass) and a Reflected color (this is the color you see when the light bounces off of the surface of the glass). For example “Blue/Gold” will be Blue in transmission and Gold in reflection. If a black/opaque sheet is Blue/Gold, you would only see its reflection of Gold (Yet, it is still called Blue/Gold). The reflected Dichroic colors shift towards the cool end of the spectrum when they are fired. e.g. a Blue/Gold shifts to a lime green; the degree of shift depends on the kiln firing temperature.

Some companies and especially importers have developed preparation techniques that stretch the Dichro so much that it begins too look like dull elongated metallic splinters instead of bright, sparkly points of light. If you have been disappointed in the past with lower quality Dichroic Glass which foils, creeps or appears burnt out, you unwittingly purchased a pipe with over-stretched or imported Dichro. Typically, stretching Dichro will yield 4X as many “stringers” as normal backing delivers, which allows these companies to make claims about how expensive pipes from companies like Chameleon are relative to their own. The old adage holds true here; You get what you pay for. This is not to say that there is no room in the market for cheap Dichro, because there is. Just make sure not to compare apples to oranges.

There is also some debate over Standard and Premium Dichro and whether or not there is a difference. There is. Currently, there are three distinct quality levels available. Economy, Standard and Premium. Economy is typically manufactured with the intent of being Standard, however due to contamination (imperfect vacuum) or unbalanced and/or improper mix of chemicals (acidity is too high), the Dichro appears dull and is often described as burnt. Basically, one of the layers did not develop. Standard grade is bright, with clearly developed double-layered transmission and reflective coloration. Premium (Tri-Chro) has three layers and thus, takes more time, expertise and more expensive machines to produce. Therefore, premium colors are a little more expensive.

Caring for & Cleaning Your Pipe

Chameleon Glass produces durable color changing glass that will provide multiple opportunities to observe gradual color change sequences and last a lifetime with proper care and cleaning.

Caring for Your Pipe

Don’t drop your piece. We have all heard the stories of the bouncing glass pipes. This is not an urban myth. The pipes are made of Pyrex and are extremely strong when well annealed. Some drops are perilous and you do not get a second opportunity. However, over time, each bounce leaves residual stress that will accumulate and lead to the eventual crack or breakage. Don’t drop your piece.

Cleaning Your Pipe

There are several commercially available cleaners (Formula 420, Orange Chronic, Dr. Green’s, and Grunge Off) available from most tobacconists and smoke related products stores that will do an excellent job cleaning your glass pipe. A note of caution, however; internally fumed pipes, typically referred to as inside out or double blown are susceptible to fume “wash out” when cleaned with a strong cleaner that includes solvents. Surface fume is melted into the glass and will not wash out, while internal fume cannot be adequately melted in due the inability to really get the flame inside the piece at a 90 degree angle for optimum melt. If the fume is washed out, the pipe will no longer color change. Check the label. Any alcohol based cleaner (more than 50% alcohol content), or cleaners that include petro-chemical based ingredients (gasoline, diesel fuel, lighter fluid to name a few) will probably wash out the internal fume.

If you are unable to find a commercially based cleaner, create your own. Mix 4 parts very warm, (yet, not hot) water with one part dish detergent and one part salt. Very hot (boiling) water will cause uneven thermal expansion and will probably break your piece. Submerge your piece in this home brew overnight. Rinse thoroughly in very warm water. This home brew will eliminate the majority (not all!) of the tobacco particulate from your pipe. If you have a stubborn area that refuses to clean up, fill the pipe with home brew cleaner and add a teaspoon of coarse grind salt, then shake vigorously. The course salt will act as a gentle abrasive and help to clean the stubborn spots. Pipe cleaners, Buddy Systemz and small nylon brushes also help to eliminate observable residue.

Cutting Edge Raw Materials

A brief primer on ‘hard’ glass, known as brand name Pyrex, and as its scientific name borosilicate (boro) can be found on Wikipedia, which may be a good place to start depending on your familiarity with the various types of glass. This article will neither dig into the cutting edge lampworking techniques developed and utilized in the domestic pipe making industry, nor address functional advances inherent in the application of scientific glass blowing technique or materials.

The Genesis of Color Changing Glass

To appreciate the kinds of cutting edge raw materials we purchase to make the most visually expressive glass we can, I will focus this article on color, because it is the most visually attractive part of modern boro. To appreciate where we are, you first have to understand the genesis of colored/color changing glass.

Artists have worked with common ‘soft’ glass for millennia because of its low melting point and permissive molecular structure that readily accepts colorants. The drawback is and has always been its relative structural strength. For self-reinforcing shapes, like vessels (dishes, vases, bottles etc.), structural strength was less important. For non self-reinforcing shapes, like those of sculptures (organic forms such as human, animal or plant) with crystalline structure ‘dead ends’ (fingertips, wings and flower petals) where the lattice abruptly ends, structural strength was more important. Borosilicate, or ‘hard’ glass, lacks valence shell electrons to give or take so it essentially bonds to itself and does not need self-reinforcing structure to create a circular bonding path. Boro is the only glass strong enough to hold up over time in sculpture. No problem, unless you actually want that glass flower sculpture to have color.

There were in fact depression era boro “colors” — translucent greens and blues that occurred sporadically due to contamination in the crucible,. However, boro by its very nature (low porosity/high melting temperature) resists the addition of colorants. For almost a century, borosilicate was only available in colorless clear.

While clear was acceptable for casserole dishes, artists doing sculptures pined for colored boro to add the visual pop color creates in their work. Enter Richard Clements, a lampworker among the artists constrained by the lack of color available in boro. Richard approached the color issue differently than the glass factories. Instead of finding a way to chemically change the boro molecule to achieve color, he decided it was easier to sneak unbonded colorant in between the boro molecules (interstitially), which, since it was colorless, would cause the boro to assume the color packed in between its molecules. To avoid chemical bonding issues, he utilized oxides which also did not lend themselves to bonding, but would turn color (strike) once they were reheated during the artistic phase of the creation process. In fact, Richard created the first iteration of Chameleon Glass as far as color changing raw materials are concerned.

This process was picked up in the U.S. by Northstar Glassworks in Portland, Oregon. Northstar not only spawned a host of well known alchemists including Roger Paramour, Paul Trautman, Henry Grimmet and Momka Peavey, it is arguably one of two reasons I am sitting here writing to you today instead of churning out an endless supply of light bulbs for General Electric. But, I digress. Striking reds, greens and blues were immediately embraced by artists, but were only used in certain applications due to the imperfect nature of ‘striking’. Put bluntly, then as now, sometimes striking colors turned the right color, sometimes it didn’t, and there is not a huge amount that Northstar or any of its offshoots could do about it. Variables as arcane as barometric pressure over Portland caused wide variation in the end coloration of the colored glass.

Today’s Cutting Edge Raw Materials

Flash forward to the present and the topic for which I type. Today’s raw materials are light years different than the first few pots of red arsenic oxide put out by Mr. Clement. They still require a deft hand to shape and heat, but the chromium sparkle of moss has become legendary in its own rite. For a synopsis of another sparkly substrate used in our products, read the Why Dichro? article also accessible on the website.

According to the major producers of these raw materials, the raw materials pipe connoisseurs look for are not being shipped out of the country and are, therefore, only available to lampworkers in the U.S.

I know this list will be dated within six months, (and that’s a good thing!), so I will endeavor to keep it current. For now, here’s what to look and ask for:

• Red Elvis – A super dense, rich, non-striking red.
• Alien Tech – A striking color that defies placement on the palette – it turns a different color depending on how you use it.
• Red, Orange & Yellow Crayon – Three colors that utilize cadmium, a notoriously difficult element to include in glass. I specify ‘crayon’ because the crayon version is remarkably easier to work at temperature without the signature ‘boil’ marks of lesser cadmium colors.
• Blue Leprechaun – A chromium based color that catches light, magnifies it and throws it back at you in a million points of light.
• Marlee – A meld of Red, Green, Yellow and Black colors that are formulated to get past the fact that these colors don’t necessarily like each other or work well together, that are extruded as once solid multi colored rod.
• Slyme – The new bo$$ in town. Translucent or worked into opacity, this color POPS when paired with opaque dark colors and creates visual interest humans find hard to look away from.
• Amazons – Striking brownish reds, blues and greens that are inherent in all of the “organic” movement designs; very earthy and variegated.

I know I have missed plenty, but if you get any single application or combination of these colors, you will have a visually pleasing, cutting edge piece to enjoy for some time.

Why Not Imports?

Many of you have asked why cheap imports are not the way of the future. Without waving the flag because it suits our business, there are some extremely good reasons why imports are NOT the future of glass tobacco accessories.

This is Important Stuff

Tobacco is a controlled substance. Some people are surprised by this, but one needs only try and buy tobacco to find that most states require a purchaser to, like alcohol, be 21 years of age. As a controlled substance marketed to adults, accessories for use with tobacco are also controlled. Walk into any tobacconist or pharmacy and try to buy a pipe (glass, wood, corn-cob, you name it) or other accessory such as RYO equipment and you will find the same age restrictions applied to the accessory as well as the tobacco. Well, U.S. Customs restricts these types of accessories to domestic manufactures, with exceptions given only to members of SMA and only for specific RYO products. All other items for import are regarded as contraband because of the controlled nature of the product. Imported glass pipes are illegal contraband!

Importers of glass pipes typically do not support SMA activities because of expense and especially because of regulations concerning the design and manufacture of tobacco accessories. There is also a great deal of accountability required for SMA condoned imports. None of the large importers in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston or Miami conform to SMA guidelines. To get around these guidelines, importers simply do not blow a hole at the bottom of the bowl.

Retailer & Consumer Read This!

Because the bowl has no hole upon entry, the importer then drills a hole in the bottom of the bowl. Most of the importers care so little for the end consumer that the noxious glass dust from the drilling process is left inside the pipe, only to be inhaled by the consumer during first use of the pipe! Glass dust is 100 times MORE DANGEROUS THAN ASBESTOS!

Not only is the dust a horrible leftover of the drilling process, drilling leaves permanent stress in the glass surrounding the new hole. Residual stress is the number one reason for failure (cracking/breaking) of glass pipes over time. It is exponentially more prone to failure where the glass is constantly expanded and contracted by heat. Most notably this occurs at the bottom of the bowl where heat is concentrated during the lighting of tobacco, and is precisely where importers drill and impart enormous amounts of residual stress. Most importers also do not anneal the glass. Annealing ovens are expensive and are often not available in the third world countries where they manufacture the pipes. Ovens also draw enormous amounts of electricity, again, often not available in these countries. Annealing is the same process used in the production of steel to allow the molecules to flow back into re-alignment after the steel has been shaped and formed. In much the same way, glass flows back into it’s polarized alignment and strongest state once properly annealed over the course of several hours in a specialized glass-annealing oven.

You pay a lot for your glass pipe whether it is imported or domestic. Shouldn’t it last a good long time? Imports don’t. Imported Glass fails 100 times more often than domestically produced products simply because of the drilling process and the fact that the finished product is not annealed properly.

As an aside: Always wanted a glass sex toy, but could never afford it? Ohh, but now there is one in your price range? Guess what, it’s probably imported and was most probably not annealed. The same truth of glasswork in pipes is even truer for sex toys due to the thickness of the glass. Sex toys average a requirement of 3x the annealing time of pipes. So, buyers beware! There are no limitations or restrictions on the country of origin of sex toys! Be careful where you put that thing, and while its there, if it is a cheap imitation, don’t push the limits too far, you may be surprised at how brittle solid thick glass can be!

Global Citizenry

So, don’t get off on a tirade that we are espousing some one-world order, were not. One should know, however, that according to readily available videos on the internet, customs documents, and numerous articles by National Geographic, Amnesty International, Green Peace and others, indentured child servitude (child slave labor) is rampant in developing third world countries. It’s not just that the items are cheap; it’s why they are cheap. Children die making imported glass pipes on a daily basis. Some of you who have been to these countries to source fabrics, bags, beads and the like have seen these “factories” up close and personal. Do you really want to support people who chain five year olds to a stake in the ground? Labor is the key ingredient in glass pipes, so to make them cheap, one must have cheap labor. Importers typically pay less than five cents a day for a child to be enslaved for their use. Care to be educated and disgusted at the same time?

Okay, so your response is something like…child slave labor was rampant in America at the turn of the century during our industrial revolution, so while it may be wrong, maybe it’s their turn? Well, flawed as that statement is from a human dignity perspective, how about your checkbook? In December of 2003, the main importer in Miami was busted in a customs sting. He was busted not only for contraband, but also for what he was doing with the cash he had collected from several smoke shops in the greater Miami area. That importer was attempting to use the cash to pay for a container of Chinese made AK-47 assault rifles. Perfectly legal, except that the cash was also to bribe the Chinese manufacturer to change the destination from the US over to Palestine mid-shipment so as to avoid any customs intervention in the US. I mean, really, just what we need in the Middle East—more guns. And just what we need for our industry—glass pipes tied to terrorists.

Now, back to your checkbook. Many of the stores who had purchased the contraband were served with civil forfeiture warrants through customs and were accompanied by DEA officials. The stores were stripped of all tobacco accessories (some lost more than $100,000 in inventory) because the agents “could not differentiate” between the items, so that everything was seized in an effort to “not miss any legitimate evidence” against the importer. After the link between the glass pipes, cash, guns and terrorists was made, a wave of store search and seizures occurred in the greater Miami area. Hmmmm, how unusual. Go figure. Since the initial link was established, several of the major importers have been busted, most recently in Los Angeles, where the single largest producer of chemical pipes, bongs and other glass ornaments was confiscated.

Imported Pipes = Child Slavery + Terrorists + Dangerous Glass Dust + Lousy Quality + American Artists Out of Work

All for an over price differential of between $3 and $10. As an end consumer, is the $3 worth it to You? As a retailer, is the $3 worth getting a visit from customs? As always, all Chameleon Glass products are made exclusively in the good old USA!! A cautionary note to both our wholesale and end consumer customers: the disappearance of several American glass manufacturers has spurned a noticeable increase in the volume of imported glass finding its way onshore.

Glass, Not Paraphernalia

Glass tobacco pipes have received a considerable amount of negative publicity over the course of the last couple years, due in part to the proliferation of clear glass ‘bubble’ or “chemical” pipes, which are arguably designed for one purpose and are clearly not designed for any tobacco or herbal blend. As a responsible retailer, it is important to recognize the differences between glass tobacco pipes and other limited use glass products.

US Code 21-863 refers to ALL materials used to manufacture tobacco accessories; Wood, Meerschaum, Ceramic, Metal and yes, Glass. In specific, pipes with carburetion devices (third holes) are considered to be paraphernalia regardless of the material used to manufacture the pipe.

Traditional tobacco accessories like pipes, cigar and cigarette holders and hookah/sisha pipes are not included in “the list” of Contemporary accessories. U.S. vs. Posters & Things (Supreme Court – 1996) upholds this code as the OBJECTIVE standard by which paraphernalia is judged. Further, it describes other relevant factors in this determination to include whether the owner is a licensed distributor or retailer of tobacco products! Ten states have adopted USC 21-863 as state law, three more are in the process of adoption. All other states have either less rigorous SUBJECTIVE (intent) statutes or no law on this subject at all!

Chameleon Glass pipes conform to RTDA guidelines for bowl depth and width.

Chameleon Glass products have repeatedly been used to “restock” retailers who have unwittingly run afoul of community standards. Restocked stores have ALL been reviewed prior to re-opening by local, state and even federal authorities!

For all the reasons described in Why Choose Glass?, there are more and more tobacco connoisseurs who accept nothing but glass as their chosen accessory. Shouldn’t your store have at least a small selection of these pipes?

Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes

Entartete Kunst = Degenerate Art

“Degenerate Art” is the English translation of the German phrase Entartete Kunst, which came into use in 1933 when the National Socialist (Nazi) party gained power under Adolph Hitler. As a form of social control, all modern art was labeled degenerate and the propaganda that followed focused on the desire to halt the “corruption of art” and served as a catalyst for the Nazi induced connection between race and art. By 1933, the terms “Jewish,” “Degenerate,” and “Bolshevik” were in common use to describe almost all modern art.

The process of “purification” began with raids on museums and galleries in which impressionist and abstract paintings, drawings, and sculptures were removed. Almost 5,000 pieces were burned, thousands more were removed and over 4,000 artists choose to flee the country. The idea of Degenerate Art was established and institutionalized during a time and place when a government regime ruled all aspects of society, but continues to describe art deemed illegal by governments worldwide.

Today, in the United States, it is not uncommon to restrict art to preserve social norms. Glass pipes are an example of this government control, but the art form continues to grow and evolve.

The Modern U.S. Pipe Movement

The artists in this show represent the latest generation of pipe makers, with the roots of the modern day US pipe movement stemming from the post Vietnam War era. Returning Vietnam veterans had been exposed to water pipes and brought the culture and Thai word for water pipe, baung, home with them. During this same time, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs”, setting the stage for the ongoing battle between glass pipe artist and government.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the pipe movement continued to gain momentum with the development of techniques and working styles. By the mid-1990s, the new crop of lampworkers, born into an age of increased globalization, fiber optics and computer chips, had their own ideas and approach. During a time when jobs (union jobs, jobs in manufacturing, jobs on the family farm, etc…) were being outsourced and not wanting to work in the service sector for minimum wage, this young group of lampworkers took to the torch and picked up pipe making on a larger scale.

For these artists, making pipes was more than a job, it was a passion. As demand grew, more young people entered the ranks of glass blowing and the “old guard” became teachers of the craft. Within 10 years there was an estimated 5,000 new lampworkers. Most of these lampworkers operated below the radar with pseudonyms so it was difficult to know just how big the industry was. The pipe movement had caught the eye of mainstream America.

Like most movements, the pipe movement represents a kind of social upheaval to those who do not understand some of the more taboo parts of our culture. The pipe community has felt this misunderstanding in the form of its artists being discounted as less than and pipes as less than art. The powers that be would wipe us from the face of American culture if they thought they could. However, we have endured and what did not kill us has made us stronger. I have to wonder if our being targeted has anything to do with the tendency of our political beliefs and how that contradicts the status quo. Personally, I have come to see this turmoil as a right of passage. I realized that the same types of things were said about abstract art and Dadaism when they were first introduced. In that type of company the negative attention is a badge of honor. – Salt

By the early 2000s, new glass color had entered the market, creating new artistic opportunities for the artists. The ever increasing presence of glass pipes caught the attention of the federal government, which lead to a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation and mass arrest of pipe makers.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Acting DEA Administrator John B. Brown, III today announced the indictment of 50 individuals on charges of trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia. The charges are the culmination of two nationwide investigations code-named Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter and include indictments against national distributors of drug paraphernalia and businesses nationwide. – DEA News Release

As part of this “bust”, the federal government published photographs of fairly provocative drug paraphernalia and referred to a billion dollar industry, neither matching the reality of the glass artists or their pipes. The DEA never showed pictures of the glass pipes, many like those exhibited as part of this exhibition and did not talk about the human side of the artists that were arrested, making $30,000 a year before expenses. The “bust” did generate headlines during a time when the administration needed to divert attention away from another high profile topic.

The crackdown scared a large number of artists out of the profession and opened the door for India and China to step in and start mass producing cheap pipes, flooding the American market. This shift in production has been mirrored throughout the USA, with most manufacturing jobs heading oversees. The glass pipe artists in the USA have responded to this change by continuing to raise the bar, focusing on individuality and bringing creativity and artistry to their craft.

Watching the changes that have occurred over the last fourteen years in the pipe-making movement has been amazing. It has brought an interest to things that are handmade, and it has enabled many artists to become independent. In a world of factory made and molded goods, it’s nice to get a breath of fresh air from an artisan that still believes in the value of a one-of-a-kind handmade piece. – Clinton

Pipe Makers Persevere

Since 2003, the American pipe maker and lampworking community as a whole have stepped up the artistic quality of their work, experimenting with new forms, pushing the limits of the glass. As the artists push the boundaries, new colors have been introduced by Glass Alchemy, Ltd., new tools, torches and kilns had been designed to keep pace with these mavericks pushing a new art form. This pipe movement represents a class of talented artists that are striving for a quality lifestyle in a nation whose real wages are going backwards for the first time in fifty years.

In the field of lampworking, successful non-pipe artists sometimes tend to walk their creative paths in relative isolation. They bank on being unique and finding their niche and while this is also true for pipe makers, in the realm of collaborations, we might possess a certain advantage. Being ostracized from the “fine art clique” for our entire history has forced a certain amount of intermarriage and technique swapping. This has led to a clearly defined and universally understood lexicon now shared by thousands.

When we speak the same language, our separate voices come together in harmony, and the result is far more powerful than what any of us could achieve alone. – Banjo