Over the weekend we were invited back into the studio to see Ben Burton aka Burtoni at work once more before his departure from Las Vegas. We got the opportunity to see the pieces we had seen him work on last time only completed as well as some new work he had for the day. We quickly threw on one of Ben’s preset Pandora channels and quickly got to work on a custom oil rig. Ordered by a Las Vegas native who had heard he was in town, Ben was first hesitant to making it but then realized he could move some time around in his busy schedule to do it.
We first got to work creating the perc and the main chamber, here you can see Ben connecting the bottom part to the rest of the chamber…
Alas we can start to see the basic shape come together, but we have a long way to go…
Here we can see Ben’s torch tattoo perfectly aligned with the torch in his hand, working hard to create entryway for the mouthpiece…
We take a break and Ben shows us a finished tube, adorned with flowers, marbles and greenery Ben insisted he was truly proud of it…
Another view point of this amazing vapor-ready tube…
An artsy up close picture… compliments of the Glass Otaku….
Back to work, prepping colored tubes to be resized, and re-shaped for future use…
The beginnings of a mouthpiece…
Fine tuning the mouthpiece, making sure it’s ready to be added to the rest of the rig…
Finishing the rest of the tubing leading up to the mouthpiece.
Fusion time!! adding our completed mouthpiece to our rig…
After some time in the kiln Ben adds the stemless appendage of the rig, complete with marbles and a male 14mm joint. Ready for globes and curves alike…
While our rig is back in the Kiln we begin working on some sea life for a larger tube Ben is making. Let’s start with a fun Seahorse as the focal point of the piece…
Once the Seahorse is finished we add it to the tube and throw it in the Kiln…Glasses off for a bit.
We can’t wait to see the sea life piece finished! We had a great time in the studio with Ben and hope to see him in the neighborhood soon! Being able to watch Ben at work was a rare treat and we couldn’t be any happier with the results, Ben is truly a humble individual and is always working with a smile on his face. We cannot thank him enough for giving us the opportunity to learn first hand just how intensive of a process glassblowing really is. The prep work, the constant heat and the long hours are just a few of the host of obstacles one must face when on the torch and Ben makes it all seem easy and fun to do.
2 Responses to “In the studio – Burtoni Pt. II”
I’m loving that flower piece. It looks like a plant, I’d love to smoke some plant out that plant
These are so classy I love all the detail to them! It’s crazy to see what artists can do when using thing tubes like that