Glass benders - I grew up watching glass benders at Disneyland and other such places, who built 22 inch tall Cinderella castles and 2 foot scale models of schooners out of clear glass or music boxes and carousels that everybody oogled over in fascination. I can remember watching artists build amazing sculptural items on the fly.....unicorns, horses dragons, castles, carousels, pianos etc. - mostly in clear, some with transparent accents.
Today - A lot more use of color - pieces tend to be more "organic" looking. Its harder to find glass pieces that look "knitted" (spun) today. Many haven't passed on the techniques or many haven't bothered to learn them. There is much more emphasis today on things like goblets, marbles, pipes, sculptural pieces, etc.
The tools are somewhat the same - The techniques have changed .... unfortunately spun glass is becoming a lost art.
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