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So honored to be featured in the March/April 2016 issue of Glass Art Magazine, especially since this magazine is published by my peers.  There's a 6-page article that's wide-ranging covering influences, challenges, creative development, etc.  The writer and I spoke for a long time and she...

Frequently I have a bit of time left in my glassblowing day that's not enough to make a piece, so I often make cane cups for fun.  

Most of my work is flattened so I'm well-aquainted with corks--most specifically the smell of them burning. I'm generally using corks to flattening vessels that end up between 15-26" tall x 10-16" wide x 3-4" deep, so medium to larger work. Corks aren't the only tool to flatten glass, some other...

Getting cane and murrine onto a blowpipe presents a number of challenges, the first of which is what kind of plate to use and how to prepare it.  I've tried all different methods and settled on what describe below.  You've got to be careful about prepping and using plates or you'll get...

Ok, this isn't about wiping out something that you can fit your hand into--that's easy.  This is about when you get something (cerium, moisture, dust, dirt) on the inside of a piece with a very small opening.  Since my Spheres and Resistenza both have very small openings, I've figured out...

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The website Splice has an interesting article by the director of photography from the "Detailers" video (the one featuring me) on what it was like to be behind the camera while shooting in the studio.  You can find the article here.   

I don't know what it is with glassblowers, but most of us have a special affinity for tools.  Maybe it's the fact that we can't really touch our material of choice, so more than for other artists/craftspeople, tools are a critical extension of our hands.  While the types of tools are...

I found these math-driven animated gifs on the Interwebs and thought they were super cool (although possibly a bit nasuseating).  

Excuse the poor formatting--it's tricky to get it into the blog.What's new with David Patchen Handblown GlassIs this email not displaying correctly?View it in your browser.In This Update:New Gallery Representation:Netherlands and HawaiiShows: Hsinchu Art Festival, Chihuly...

I'm teaching a class this summer on how to work with cane; specifically Uroboros' System 96 Rods.  I rarely teach primarily because I'm super busy making my own work.  Nevertheless, I've seen a lot of people around Public Glass struggling with cane and knew that I could help out without...

I'm admittedly a bit of a music geek and my ear has been shaped by decades of listening to and playing guitar-based rock. Over the years I've gravitated toward technical and complex musical styles and mostly listen to music that's poly-rhythmic, harmonically complex and interesting to me--which I...