makers market

Reblown bottle glasses

Reblown bottle glasses

Glassblower Nick Paul of Chicago drinks beer. (Hopefully, he has some friends who help him out with it, from time to time.) Then he takes the empty bottles and blows out their necks to make flat-sided tumblers. Then, in a stroke of packaging/marketing/recycling genius, he puts them back in their original six-packaging and sells them through his online storefront, Windy City Glass. The tumblers have smooth, rounded rims and are annealed to relieve internal stresses. No part of the original bottle is wasted. I love the green-on-green simplicity of his Heineken glasses, above, but the gestalt awesomeness of his Arrogant Bastard Ale tumblers, pictured below, may prove irresistible to me. If I know me, you folks have about an hour after this post goes up before I cave in and buy them for myself.

Featured Maker:  Aaron Ristau

Featured Maker: Aaron Ristau

Colorado artist Aaron Ristau works in assemblage. His pieces include both functional accessories and pure sculpture.

I create art that compels the viewer to interact. The artwork creates curiosity by blending nostalgic aesthetics, historical references, and function.
My whimsical mechanics and functional lighting assemblages are an intricate integration and redefinition of reclaimed components.

Shown uppermost is his Frontier Cartography Droid (sold), which incorporates a working Sega Homestar planetarium. The body is made from a three-neck flask, the legs from sewing machine parts and clothes irons.