Chameleon Glass Zebra Print Briar Glass Pipe

This Briar pipe is the go to piece to enjoy your herbal safari.

The Zebra Print Briar Glass Pipe is fabricated with crushed glass called frit. Frit is created by taking perfectly good 10mm thick rods of colored borosilicate glass and bashing it into bits with a hammermill. Frit is similar in size and consistency to sand. Typically, these bits are scattered willy nilly into a pre-heated glass tube and melted into the glass from the inside out. Frit is the raw glass of choice for consistent coloring inside a vessel to create visual interest with dimension and depth.

If you have ever tried sand art, you’ll know that creating recognizable patterns or shapes in sand is not willy nilly. This glass pipe takes serious skills in sand art. Now add a constrained work space and a 2800°F raging flame. That’s the environment that artist Steven Hoffman thrives in.

This glass pipe features a complex staging process where Hoff uses frit to create shapes and forms prior to fabrication. These pre-fab pieces are placed and backfilled with contrasting frit using specialty tools. The tools accurately place the frit so it does not move during melt in. After melt, shaping is completed, then holes and finally a bowl is pushed.

Artist: Chameleon Glass
Made in Arizona