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What does it take to be a lamp worker? One needs to spend a whole lot of quality time in a really good hang out spot: THE STUDIO! I have had my share of glass shops; apprenticed at one, worked at a few, bought one, sold one, build a few. But this place, North Side Studio, is my playground, way better than any other place I have worked. I live in the studio with the mice and spiders; I like to think of it as a one star hotel with out aggravation of all the fancy amenities. I have lived in many glass shops and I have to say that it suits me; I was never a domestic kind of guy. Give me some plywood and a dumpster dived futon and I’m happy. Boulder is a fancy, high end place. 300 days/year of liberalized vegetarian sunshine and lots of rich people in huge houses. The road we are on goes like this: Million dollar house, million dollar house, bunch of kids blowing glass in a barn, million dollar house. I live the glassy life here and wouldn't ever ask for more. Except a better torch. And some more color.
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Ah, sunset at the foot of the Rockies. This place was a farm back in the day and you can see the old water wind mill on the left. When storms come in we all go outside and watch it fall apart. Figure maybe 5-6 more years, and then it's horizontal.
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I have this love/hate thing going on with my ventilation fan. I love it when it works and hate it when it breaks; reasonable enough. I suspect sabotage myself. This is fan #3 in two years. Thank God for the warrantee. Takes about 6 hours to replace.
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I have done a little work for Flow here and there. It's a great publication and for some reason they seem to like me, I have not been fired yet but it's only Wednesday. Will doesn't take crap from anyone and one day he will magazine paper cut me to death.
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When you spend years on end faithfully buying from one supplier there comes a time when you should get some perks. I'm not into free stuff because everyone needs to earn a buck; I like opportunities. In this case wild rides on the 1/3 MPH conveyer belt.
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No, this little girl is not mine. She is my goddaughter. I wonder if Kevin, her father, regrets his decision to make me her godfather, but in any respect I love her and pray for her life and health daily. Dude, nice yellow socks, and who sleeps like that?
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For the industry of lampworking, and for my personal career, Lewis Wilson is the Garden of Eden. Lewis is responsible for getting me out of pipes & into a better place. Here Lewis makes fun of my hideously & strangely ugly face @ the 2004 ISGB flame-off.
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I'm not a dog in the traditional sense; I just live the dog life, if you can get that. This place has lots of toys. Basket ball hoop and a chalk board for summer long games of PIG, except with more letters; you know for months and months worth of playing.
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It gets little cold here in the winter and heating the ventilated studio with propane will put a damper on your wallet quick. I'm not fat; I have three hoodies on in this photo. Record low in the new shop with every one working and the heat on full: -4.
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I have worked in many studios and all of them were hooded workspaces like this one. I visited Glass Works Park out on the west coast and saw there set up and vowed that I would NEVER again work in front of a hood. Hoods vent better, but bays feel better.
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This is one of my older shops, in the garage of a house on the north side of Boulder. I built a sub floor for the shop and for some reason I assembled it in the drive way, I CARRIED it into the shop. 20' x 16' of 2x6 and 1" CDX. Dude, I'm talking hernia.
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The fan draws from four work stations into an empty box, the plenum, and pushes out thru the SSS to the outside of the building. The plenum measures 24” tall by 78” wide by 384” long and is totaly air tight using 50 tubes of the nastiest smelling calk.
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When I first moved into this place I went out to the pond in front of the studio to chill for a wile. I saw a fish like 3 1/2 feet long. Not one person believed me. Not one; until they saw it too. It feeds on sewage I figure, probably could kill a man.
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One day a bunny came into the shop and looked around, found the place to its liking and stayed long enough to crap and urinate on ALL of my glass tubes and rods. Before I could kill it myself it ate some mouse killer and now Bunny grows flowers out front.
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Ruby is a Pit-Chow mix and the only thing she likes better than peanut butter, chasing rabbits and barking at skateboards is acting tough. Dude, she is like a cat. She wishes she was hard core. Kinda like me. God, that's lame.
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So this lady comes to the shop one day with a gun and she violently says that my fan is too loud and that if I want to continue to live I should fix it, "NOW!" So started an 11 day project and the best example of hippie engineering I have ever seen.
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The SSS is 1,500 pound, 6 180 degree turn air maze, with a 2.5 expansion rate made from multiple layers of ½” plywood, ½” drywall, and barium sheeting (about the heaviest flexible material I have ever seen). I’m talking less than SILENT now.
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I had to hire a lady to water my plants because I tend to slack on that. But I love plants in the studio, adds life force to the place, helps you think better with some growth around you. I gotta have the green.
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I’m not known for being overly functional in delicate social situations or for having a clean house, bench or car. Pictured here is some stuff surrounded by a whole lot of trash. I love my bench, it is who I am. Dirty and full of incomplete thoughts.
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This is my bench, if you look you can see my television. 480 channels of digital brain washing, makes for easer quotas. I started working with the TV about 5 years ago and will never go back to the radio. CNN, HBO, Skinamax: what more could a boy ask for?
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This photo was taken from in side the ventilation plenum looking down onto my buddy Mike's bench. The plenum is not the coolest place to hang out, unless you like glass dust and spiders, but I'm happy with how it works and it makes for a cool photo.
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The North Side Studio is, as a majority New Englander shop, home of Red Sox fans. I know I’m a hater, and that is normally considered as a bad thing; but hating the Yankees is like community service. It just needs to be done. F you Jeeter, eat my Sox.
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You gotta love dogs. They love you no matter what and when life hits the fan they are the first on the seen to lick it up. Ruby and I share birthdays, July 20th. Me in 1975 her in 2004. I'm not real photogenic, but the dog? So cute.
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Going to conferences like GAS (2005,4,3,2,1), ISGB (2005,4,1) or Salem (2005), internet inspiration like this site, Flow Mag,and talking with glass friends on the phone is the only way I survive. I love to see people work hard, to make visions in glass come true, because I want that for myself. I am pleased with my work not because it's good glass (my pieces need a lot of improvement) but because I know I put my heart into it. I am proud to say that I learned from Big Daddy Bruce. The biggest inspiration I have and the only reason I can push myself, the only way I can find the energy to work hard and stay focused comes from my glass friends-teachers who also ‘get-er-done’ tough everyday: Jason Ryner,Keysha Whitsel,Jason Herring,Kevin & Keith Engelman,Greg Hoff,Andrew Brown,Will Menzies,Steve Sizelove,Rosburg,and Solfiel.If you see me not working, kick me in the head. One Love, God bless and above all else: KEEP IT HOT! hwc05
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZveryhappyharold
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Harold Williams Cooney
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