My story
Here are the broad strokes... I was born in Copenhagen in 1980 and fell in love with glassblowing while studying architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. After graduation, I helped found a teaching studio called Third Degree Glass Factory, and honed my skills there before traveling to Scandinavia through an American/Scandinavian Foundation grant. Since 2008, I have run East Falls Glassworks, Philadelphia's public-access glass studio. I also have an awesome senior dog and a beautiful wife, though you probably want to know more about the glass, right? Well, below are some pictures of stuff that I have made. You can also check out a line of custom lighting I make here: www.LetterpressLighting.com. I used to make a lot of tight, rigid, and technically challenging shapes, but now I like to get a lot looser with it. Times change....
But anyway, what you really need to know about me is that I took my first mangled gather back in 2001 and immediately realized how incredibly much there was to learn about glass. So I scoured the internet and hit the libraries trying to find out everything I could, only to realize that there just aren't a lot of educational resources out there to supplement hands-on blow time. Though I loved watching them, it was pretty obvious pretty quickly that Youtube videos shot on shaky cell phone cameras with grainy images and terrible sound had limited use as teaching tools; that's when the Glassblowers Guide was born.
Here's the thing... glassblowing is always going to be hard and there's no substitute for actual hands-on time in the hotshop. However, if you're going at it alone and unsure of what you're doing or why you're losing pieces, then you're wasting time and money. I know how frustrating that can be and I want better for you. I spent lots of money figuring out the best way to do something so that you don't have to. If you're someone who's willing to learn from the experiences of others, then you can shave years off your education and that's why I'm here.
Pure and simple, I want to help you make beautiful art.
Nikolaj Christensen
But anyway, what you really need to know about me is that I took my first mangled gather back in 2001 and immediately realized how incredibly much there was to learn about glass. So I scoured the internet and hit the libraries trying to find out everything I could, only to realize that there just aren't a lot of educational resources out there to supplement hands-on blow time. Though I loved watching them, it was pretty obvious pretty quickly that Youtube videos shot on shaky cell phone cameras with grainy images and terrible sound had limited use as teaching tools; that's when the Glassblowers Guide was born.
Here's the thing... glassblowing is always going to be hard and there's no substitute for actual hands-on time in the hotshop. However, if you're going at it alone and unsure of what you're doing or why you're losing pieces, then you're wasting time and money. I know how frustrating that can be and I want better for you. I spent lots of money figuring out the best way to do something so that you don't have to. If you're someone who's willing to learn from the experiences of others, then you can shave years off your education and that's why I'm here.
Pure and simple, I want to help you make beautiful art.
Nikolaj Christensen