How to Choose Glass that’s Right for You
You may notice while perusing the endless pages full of heady, American made glass here on Sweet Piece of Glass, that we offer a lot of different styles from a lot of different glass artists. But without actually trying out a piece, how do you know if that piece of glass if going to be right for you?
I Have Many Styles
Choosing the right rig can be fairly easy, as long as you ask yourself the right questions, and know enough about the different types of functional glass art to make a decision without actually trying out the function on each one in person.
Do I want a tight or loose draw? Do I want a recycler, Spinnerjet, or just a regular two hole perc? Do I care if the downstem is removable? How much am I willing to pay for a piece of glass art?
Am I the sort of person that likes to suck on a rig as hard as I can? There’s going to be different rig and perc styles for every kind of person who dabs or smokes. Once you know the answers, finding a new sweet piece of glass is super fun and easy.
Moving the Water
Different styles have different function. As you can see from the site, I’m definitely a huge fan of the Philpot Spinnerjets, recyclers, and crazy sculptures that have simple, yet great functioning, classic two hole percs. My normal daily drivers range from functional sculptures by Kiebler, to recyclers, to Philpot Spinnerjets.
The Spinnerjet is definitely one of my favorite glass rigs right now. There’s just something about the rumble of a 14 mm Spinnerjet moving water around a thick base that makes the hair on my arm stand up. If you’ve ever used one before you’ll know what I’m talking about. Couple the sweet, sweet function with the razorsharp, curvy form, and you have a gorgeous piece of glass fully equipped to be an epic daily driver.
When I’m cleaning my Philpot, I’m usually using a recycler of some sort. I love the way the water moves around with the smoke, the way the drain forms a whirlpool bringing the water back to the can, awaiting the next trip around the glass form. There’s definitely something soothing about watching water move around glass. Sometimes I’ll get lost in the movement, and before I know it, an hour has gone by and I’m still sitting down waiting to take a dab. Just completely lost in the moment thanks to the meditative properties that are endowed in functional glass art.
We have a whole huge selection of super functional, great price recyclers made right here in Eugene by our friend Chappell Glass. If you want a recycler that functions great and is under 250 bucks, it doesn’t get any better than the work Josh Chappell is putting out.
Perhaps you enjoy glass with a removable downstem. We offer pieces that fit that category from a couple of different artists. Most of the work we have from Kiebler features removable downstems, as well as this rager collab from Bhold Glass and Shockey.
Another question to ask yourself is, what colors and type of glass do I enjoy looking at. Are you more of a UV or a CFL person? That probably depends on the lighting where you do most of your dabbing, or if you have a spot to show off your glass art collection. Some people go heavy on the blacklights, so they are more into the UV glass art, and some like to play around with LED / CFL lighting.
Do you like clear pieces or full color? Millis or opals? There’s definitely a whole world to get lost in when you start thinking about all the different possibilities. The other part of the equation, is what sort of quartz do you prefer?
Quartz Bangers or Diamond Knots?
The Jred Diamond knot works great for most, if not all types of functional glass art. The Spinnerjet gets a great pull when used with a Jred Diamond knot, and all of the recyclers on the site function perfectly with the Diamond Knot and the Economizer quartz banger. If you are more of a banger person, we’ve got you covered. SPOG sells Jake Mizer Economizer quartz bangers. These are the best, most affordable American made quartz around. If you want to read more about the Economizer quartz banger, check out the review we did of them here on the SPOG Blog.
If you go with a quartz banger, you’ll need a carb cap of some sort. We have you covered there as well. But that’s definitely one of the reasons I prefer the Diamond knot over a quartz banger. The ease of use and not needing to use a cap. The downside is, you can’t really take huge globs off a Diamond Knot. I mean you can, but it’s definitely not pretty. A quartz banger like the Economizer is much better suited for larger dabs.
The Bottom Line
Ask questions if you don’t know. Peruse the galleries, look around on Instagram accounts. That perfect piece of glass is out there waiting for you. If it happens to be something in the SPOG gallery, always feel free to hit me up on Instagram with any questions. I’m always happy to help.
I also want to share with you a new project I’m working on. I’m trying to make little function video mashups for all the functional pieces available on SPOG. The first one I finished is for UNLMTD Glass. You can check it out below, or at the bottom of his page in the private collection. Definitely drop me a comment and let me know what you think.
