Fathead Glass isn't your typical gallery. Or studio. Bright yellow letters warn that customers have to be 18 to enter.
To the uninitiated, Fathead's display cases hold nothing more than cool glass in all colors and shapes.
Take a closer look.
Those pretty flowers with thick stems? That delicate pink bracelet? They're more than nice glass pieces. They're, well, let's say, functional art -they're glass pipes.
The intricately designed smoking paraphernalia might be considered the subversive part of the glass art world. Some even go so far as to call it degenerate glass.
Micah Blatt, 33, who created Fathead Glass, just calls it what it is - borosilicate.
This type of glass includes boric oxide, which makes the typically fragile stuff more resistant to extreme temperatures and chemical corrosion. So, borosilicate's stronger and more durable than conventional glass. In an unintentional illustration of this, artist Calvin Mickle, who rents studio space at Fathead, dropped a glass pipe - a windmill that even spins, his nod to promoting green energy - onto another of his pieces. Everything was fine.
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So, because they make smoking paraphernalia, does that make Fathead the Rodney Dangerfield of the glass world? No respect?
No way, says Blatt.
"I kinda feel like with borosilicate, we're like the Beatles - it's growing," he says. "We're the ones setting the pace. In a few years, the stuff that will be made will be unreal.
"Everyone in here," he says, gesturing toward the shop, " is one of the top 100 artists in the country."
It does take some talent to conceal a pipe. Pieces tucked inside the glass cases are eye-catching, with their deeply saturated colors and intricate detailing. One of Mickle's creations features milky-blue squids - and yes, they're pipes - with transparent blue suckers running the length of their long, curling tentacles. They tuck into a metal base that holds them upright.
Mickle, 25, has been working with glass for five years. He's in the studio every day, working behind his $3,300 Delta Mag torch for at least six hours, crafting marbles and sculptural pieces. His family, who's been supportive, has come to expect his work on gift-giving occasions. His grandma got wine glasses, his grandpa a golf sculpture. No pipes.
And how does he deal with the fact that anything he makes could be broken at any time? Well, that's just the nature of glass, he shrugs.
"You do try to work with it," Mickle says, "instead of letting the glass work you."
Fathead Glass
• 513 N. Fourth Ave., 623-3711
• 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays
• Shot glasses, pipes and bubblers. Prices start at $6.
• Next door to Fathead is Mr. Head's Art Gallery and Bar, where a curving acrylic bar doubles as a display case for more conventional glass art and other works for sale, with all proceeds going to the artists.
