Studio time is expensive. Unfortunately, most glassblowing students still learn through a combination of apprenticeship and observation – a slow and inefficient method. The Art of Fire teaches you quickly how to manipulate the glass through a series of structured lessons and exercises, including use of safety exercises to prevent burns, inclusion of a companion DVD with 5 hours of video instruction for you to view, over 500 photographs and illustrations to improve your understanding of the glassblowing process, step-by-step instruction for all basic techniques, and fixes for more than 50 common problems. About the James McKelvey began teaching glassblowing in 1987 and has taught thousands of students how to safely play with fire. He is a co-founder of Third Degree Glass Factory and a popular speaker on the art of glassblowing.
This book, along with the companion DVD, makes a great learning resource for my glassblowing class. I would recommend this to anyone thinking about, or getting started with offhand glassblowing.
This book rocks. It explains everything I needed to know about blowing glass that my stoner instructor forgot to mention. It not only shows you how, it shows you why. I got it on Amazon, but they don't sell the 4 DVD set, so you'll have to Google that. The DVDs are a super learning tool and show you exactly how it's done.