Still reading this ... but so cool, great link. I would've never guessed they had their own glass blower. Neat.
Technical glass blowing is a fading craft. There used to be a bigger demand for it and it takes an incredible amount of skill and intuition to do right, but few people even consider taking up the challenge now. These masters are being lost to the ages and their work will not be taken up by newer generations. It is only a matter of time before the scientific art of technical glass blowing fades into history. That will be a truly sad time as yet another great trade succumbs to the disrespect of the youth. What scientific discoveries will we miss out on because there is no one left to craft the specialized glass apparatus needed to have that next big breakthrough? I think we are losing something truly great here that can't be replaced with technology.
I agree. So many crafts are lost in this new age where everyone thinks a college degree is the only thing worth pursuing. Truth is, we don't need more people with useless degrees running around. We need more people to pursue the dying arts you speak of. As well as a hundred others.
Hopefully we will see a resurgence in the trades and skilled crafts once the money starts to dry up for professional degree jobs and the trades become the high paying jobs. I like that Mike Rowe is a proponent of the trades and other skilled crafts while simultaneously exposing the reality that degrees do not make better or smarter people. His evangelism is important to the future of the trades and I think he is doing a great service to our young and impressionable generations who are starting to see the future of office jobs as untenable and unrewarding. I hope it's not too late to save some of the quickly eroding trades and skilled crafts. We will lose so much if no takes over for the old masters.
(post is archived)