Add Custom Beauty to Your Home with Blown Glass

By now, you've probably seen or heard about glass blowing, but you may not understand the process or have seriously considered blown glass for your home. More and more, glass blowers are taking their art to common homeowners, eschewing the austerity of the art museum into a thriving home improvement business. Many common home fixtures and accents are already being produced for homeowners, and more are surely on their way. Take a minute and read about glass blowing and what it might do for your home.

Glass Blowing: The History and the Process
Glass blowing is the formation of glass into useful shapes while the glass is still in a molten, semi-liquid state. While glass blowing has been around, essentially, since the time of the Romans, glass blowing came into its own art from in the early 60s. While these early days of blown glass art saw the craft limited mostly to museums and specially-commissioned pieces, today, glass blowers across the country offer custom-made but practical blown glass pieces for homeowners.

Glass blowing involves a three-furnace process of heating, shaping, and cooling. Successfully negotiating this process requires intense training and considerable skill. Glass blowing is also one of the fastest growing hobbies in the United States, but for pieces designed to be used in your home, you'll probably want to leave the craftsmanship to a professional glass blower.

Using Blown Glass in Your Home
The first two areas that have seen an influx of blown glass fixtures are sinks and lighting. Blown glass goes hand-in-hand with the recent popularity of vessel sinks. Many vessel sinks are made from blown glass, and vice versa. These sinks sit above your countertop, add a distinctive sense of décor to bathrooms, and are a great way to showcase the beauty of blown glass in your home.

The other common place to see blown glass in the home is lighting fixtures. Elaborate blown glass chandeliers are quickly replacing the stilted crystal chandeliers of the past. These chandeliers are by no means cheap, but they're usually no more expensive than the crystal they're supplanting. In addition, blown glass lighting fixtures can be fashioned into wall sconces, overhead lighting, and can be combined with a ceiling fan. Virtually any lighting fixture can be made from blown glass.

Other small fixtures or purely decorative pieces can also be made from blown glass. Think: wall art, coat racks, even small side tables. One thing you can count on is that blown glass is sure to continue to grow in popularity for some time.

Glass Blowers
Finding a glass blower may be one of the only instances in home improvement where finding a specialist or the most experienced artisan can be a negative. Not to say there's anything wrong with these artisans, but more and more decorative glass companies are offering glass blowing pieces to homeowners. You may want to talk to individual artisans, but beware that you may be paying top dollar for the simple act of getting a customized, piece-of-art ensconced in the tradition of museum art. If you're willing to pay top dollar and/or intend the piece to be primarily decorative, this may, in fact, be the way to go. On the other hand, for items like bathroom sinks, the more streamlined design and process of a decorative glass company may be able to offer you a significantly cheaper price for a comparable product.