CHAMPS Summer Glass Games Winning Glass Pieces Story By, Matty White

Matty White’s Summer Glass Games Recap
By Matty MF’ing White

What up, what up, what up! Matty here coming fresh off a world wind summer adventure! This year was a tough year for the crew, the show dates were so close to our annual hometown celebration, The Oregon Country Fair, that we had to rely heavily on our crew. A big part of the crew came straight to Vegas after a weeklong festival in the Oregon Wilderness.

I really want to thank Karl Taylor, Jeremiah Kern, and Greg Wilson for coming through in the clutch and helping the rest of our staff make it all happen. It takes an army of people like this to get ‘er done.

This year’s summer games had 8 categories to compete in with over 200 possible chances to play:
Stack It Up
Ray Gun
Balance
Photo Realism
Puff Puff Pass
Adopt Me
Good vs Evil
All Day Team

It is never easy to explain what it is like to be in the center of hundreds of glassblowers, hungry for a medal in the glass games and their golden ticket to the Glass Games Masters. It is definitely 2 long intense days of glassblowing.

The first day saw a very strong showing from many of the GlassBlowers. Seasoned vets like Bill Burroughs-Habitat Glass and Eric Swartz-Bonelord and relative newcomers such as Blake Waters-Liquid Glass and Chris Valdez- Sko-Eet really did strong and filled the Paragon kilns with high-quality entries.

Day two was just as intense and nerve-wracking for the glassblowers, some pieces made it into the kiln and some pieces didn’t… Contestants like Daniel Porte-DaPo and Steve H really shined. Even the less seasoned glass blowers, such as Austin Flasch-Flash, really stepped up to the challenge. Some worked small and some went big, but they were all what the glass Gods would let the glassblower get away with.

On the third day, the glassblowers rested and the Judges got to work! This year’s judges represented decades of glassblowing from production to art glass. The judges were,
Bob Snodgrass world famous for his discovery of silver fuming technique.
Kaj Beck the Wonka Farmer whos tripped out tiles and styles have grasped collectors by the stones.
Eliza a Jedi from Jedi Glass a perennial hard worker and co-owner of one of the best production companies around.
Elbo whos dino-style and creativity has vaulted him to the top of many collectors must-have list. By all recollections, he is also a decent DJ!

The judges spent hours going over each and every piece checking for flaws and functions. It was a very impressive amount of art to judge in such a short time. After some serious deliberations and discussions, there were some great winners ready to be announced.
And the winners are:

This show, we included a special award for two standout artists, allowing them to advance to the Masters round. These artists made amazing art, despite the Glass Gods being against them, and deserve honorable mention. We are excited to have Bill Burroughs-Habitat Glass and Jonathan Fischbach- Fish, advance.

The awards were awarded and the people cheered, in the end, it was another great contest and some new artists and seasoned vets made it to the next dimension of the Glass Games, The Masters Event. There is still a few more chances to reach the finals, so be on the lookout at the Orlando and Denver Shows for some awesome new artists to be added to the roster.

Click images for larger view.

Photos by, Sly Vegas