Glass Art for Sale

This piece originated from a desire to meld glass and copper together by blowing a large glass tube into a cage made of copper. Combined with a strong interest in science, space in particular, the idea of making a rocket went from thought to conception.

“Afternoon Delight” is a fully functional smoking apparatus with many gadgets for the multi-faceted use of this art glass piece. The astronaut is a slide with ground joint foot. The helmet hides the bowl at the top of his head and has a special place to nestle while in use. His jet pack is decorative but his wrench is shaped to clean the bowl hole, and his ray gun is an oil dabber. The satellite is a dish for oil, and a ground joint glass on glass oil dome and nail are on the rocket tube. A Justice Apparatus dated and titled copper tube holds the lighter.

Because rockets are pointy, the top of the tube is topped by a pointed jar and cover. This piece was made to be a sculpture that conceals the smoking apparatus. Your great aunt Mildred who has unexpectedly popped ‘round for tea will think you have an interest in space travel art and never know that this rocket truly shoots for the moon and back!

The large blue glass tube was heated slowly and gently, rolled in silver and carefully blown into the copper fins of the rockets base. The four unique marbles are banded in a steam punk style to make a stable base. The copper patina is blue fume with beeswax sealing the surface. All of the copper work on this piece is hand fabricated and cold connected to the glass – all of the smoking surfaces are entirely glass. It stands at 28” high and the four marbles forming the square bottom are the widest dimension at 12” each side. Mountain Glass Arts in Asheville built the box for this piece to nestle in with a double box and foam for safe shipping.

The title of this piece was inspired by the glass artist James’ brother who started singing the song after seeing the work in progress on the metalsmith Nadja’s workbench.