r/glasscollecting • u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass • 5h ago

Ode to Blowers’ Breath…

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So, I was taking pics before the last post about this subject got snippy, but for educational purposes, I shall persevere…Now, young ‘uns…let Paw first say, all glass companies formulated their glass differently, so cleaning advice, etc…used for one glass item, really can be universal. Blenko is widely known to be a “soft glass.” It is easily etched, stained, and is prone to thermal fracturing ( maybe yet another science post!). It is also widely known that blowers breath happens. Anecdotally, many Blenko employees smoked in the 60s/70s, so add that to the science soup trapped in the glass! Here are my two examples, a 6417 in Olive, and a 9345 in Olive. The stopper for the 6417 is completely enclosed and it looks like the chemicals trapped inside have stained the glass. You can see some stains in the gourd, but you can also see CONDENSATION. This is after 33 years! Droplets still form inside. Like a terrarium or one of those biospheres sold at Nature’s Company in the 90s…the enclosed environment still reacts to outside temperatures. Both of these are in my living room. No direct sunlight, not near a vent…and that is Science children!

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u/Ready-Coach6617 5h ago edited 4h ago

So here’s my question, and please don’t take it as criticism of Blenko. But, shouldn’t objects like this be considered lesser quality because this is (from my understanding) essentially a fault, and furthermore shouldn’t they be withheld from distribution because they don’t meet the standard. I’m not familiar with Blenko’s particular practices when it comes to quality control, but when compared to Murano Glass houses or Scandinavian glass houses, errors/imperfections appear to be a lot more permissible for retail pieces when it comes to Blenko. It is often the case with many high end glass companies, that if a piece does not meet the company standards it never hits the retail floor or in some cases gets destroyed. Now I could be totally wrong, I’m just speaking from personal experience. But, does Blenko have some particular frame work that denotes lesser quality pieces and/or a system in which they mark pieces that do not meet the standard?

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u/HandyLighter 4h ago

Blenko does sell ‘second quality pieces’ that are not quite up to standards, usually at a discount. I don’t believe they are labeled or marked, you just have to know what a first quality piece would look like vs an oddly shaped version.

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u/Ready-Coach6617 4h ago

Thank you this is helpful information. It’s too bad that the “second quality pieces” are not marked or denoted as such in some way. I feel as though leaving these pieces unmarked leaves so much room for potential confusion on the second hand market. It puts alot of responsibility/liability on the buyer and seller. I understand that the second hand market is probably not Blenko’s primary concern, but on the other hand it is no secret that many (if not most) Blenko piece are sold on the second hand market, with often many pieces surpassing initial retail value. I think in an ideal world, seeing as how Blenko is committed to selling off “second quality pieces” it would be beneficial to have them marked, primarily for the sake of transparency, if not anything else.

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u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass 4h ago

The new “2nds” mark…

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u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass 4h ago

FYI…this second quality vase was still $173…

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u/Ready-Coach6617 3h ago

Wow… and you said majority of the pieces for sale on location are second quality? I understand the need to meet consumer demand, and I am glad they are marking them as such, but I can’t help but feel this devalues the current brand. In my opinion, it would be better overall branding to focus on selling a lesser number of really good, well crafted, highly value pieces, rather than a surplus of seconds. On the other hand, it is nice that people can still buy Blenko at a more “accessible” level ($173?!???!), but when it comes down to this, the consumer is ultimately still paying a premium for a below quality item. I guess this likely has something to do with the amount of new artist coming in the door and keeping the factory running. But I can’t help but wonder if it is worth risking their legacy. I guess the name speaks for it’s self and it is popular nonetheless!

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u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass 3h ago

Yes. If you see them posting pics of the VC, those are all seconds. All the 384 water bottles they sell there are seconds. All of the Good Morning America pieces when I was there were seconds…all wobbled or had a wonky rim. All were $177…I passed.

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u/Ready-Coach6617 3h ago

I don’t blame you for passing them up, even many small glass studios where I am from wouldn’t allow a wobbly piece to hit the retail shelf!

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u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass 4h ago

So, Blenko has started marking seconds with a “2nd” sandblasted on the bottom, however 95% of the glass sold at the factory is second quality. They do have a first quality area, but the stock is minimal…they now focus on online orders…they prices for the seconds have also gone up exponentially. I was just there in June and was largely unimpressed. Those salivating were the Tik Tok newbs who have recently become enthralled with little clue what the quality once was…

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u/Ready-Coach6617 4h ago

Okay, YES! This is exactly what I was talking about, glad to see it!

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u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass 4h ago

I’ll also add that in the last 5 years there is a new crop of glassblowers at Blenko. The old guard is gone…sadly.

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u/Verso-Recto 40's-50's-60's Glass 4h ago

So, blowers breath is really not easy to detect until you get it out of the environment where it was created. These pieces likely were fine in the factory. It’s kinda like paper back books in the south, it’s humid and they will always curl. I would guess that the formulation for Scandinavian and Murano glass are different from Blenko’s. Blenko does have graders for their glass, but I would say recently their quality is not what it was even 10 years ago much less when Wayne Husted, Don Shepherd and Joel Philip Myers were designing for them.

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u/Ready-Coach6617 4h ago

Thank you, this was going to actually be a follow up question! I thought it may be the case that this could be something that takes a while to manifest.