Featured Blower: Lucas Paulazzo "Family Glass"

I believe in the karma of a glass pipe.  At Smokin Js we try to find quality people, not just quality glass.  We think it's important for our customers to know that the glass pipes they purchase from us come from a good place, made by good people, crafted with good intentions.  We don't buy products off any artisan traveller passing through the area.  We take time selecting our glass blowers and make sure to build a solid relationship with them.  This process shows through in the quality and consistency of Smokin Js glass pipes.

Our featured blower this winter is Lucas Paulazzo.  All of Smokin Js Paulazzo Pieces are on sale until the end of the year.  He has been working with borosilicate glass since 1998.  Lucas is one of the most 'chill' characters I work with.  I looked up the term "down to earth" in a slang dictionary the other day, and sure enough Lucas' picture was associated with the definition.  The most endearing characteristic of Lucas Paulazzo is his dedication to his family.  He is based in the mountains of Southern Oregon with his beautiful wife, two children, and a new-born baby on the way.  Lucas counts bee keeping and organic farming as his main hobbies away from the torch.  All year long the Paulazzo family tends to their orchard, garden, and bees.  When the zombie apocalypse comes, the Paulazzo family will be among the survivors.

 

Lucas has another passion that "drives" him perhaps more than glass blowing or cultivating his family's food .... He is a hardcore Volkswagen enthusiast.  He was bitten by the "bug" at the age of sixteen, and he hasn't been able to recover since.  He finds a Volkswagen to be the perfect mode of transportation deep into the woods to go camping, making the trek up the mountain to go skiing, and hitting the river banks for a swim.

 

Glass blowing ... down to earth ... organic farming ... chill dude ... bee keeping ... Fahrvergnügen ... I think we might be in business with a modern day hippie!

As laid back as Lucas may be away from the torch, he takes a far more aggressive stance on the torch.  He studied scientific glass blowing at Salem Community College under Joseph Luisi.  Over the years he has developed many styles, but instead of making every kind of pipe, he develops unique and innovative products and sticks with them.  Even though Lucas has reached a HIGH level of glass blowing, he has not let it go to his head with inflated prices.  Some of Lucas' pipes are Smokin Js most popular products because the pieces are innovative and technically sound, but yet have a respectable and value conscious price.  With that being said however, Lucas has been ramping up his skills for some serious head pieces.  He has started a series of natural dome percolating stand-up water pipes that blend all of his creative talents and years of experience.  Smokin Js is fortunate enough to be able to offer the first piece in the series as the grand prize for our New Year's drawing (pictured bottom).  More details to come.

 

"I appreciate those that take pleasure in my creations.  I am thankful I can keep turning the glass."  Lucas Paulazzo.

 

Amazing full dichroic multi piece reversal bubbler. 

 

Innovative dome percolating dedicated oil bubbler.

 

Fantastic white/dichroic reversal beaded sherlock pipe.

 

Ultra thick beaded and inside out fumed shark pipe.

 

The big one!  New Year's drawing grand prize.  Sick.