Bob Snodgrass
Born in 1946, Bob Snodgrass is universally recognized as the Godfather of Glass — the single most influential figure in the history of borosilicate functional art. He began lampworking in 1971 under Chuck Murphy, purchased his first torch in 1974 in Independence, Missouri, and spent years selling at flea markets and street fairs before discovering the Grateful Dead scene at Irvine in 1987. From that Easter weekend forward, Snodgrass and his family traveled the Dead circuit in a retrofitted 1940s bus, blowing glass live in parking lots and selling directly to fans — creating the very concept of the heady glass market. His accidental invention of silver and gold fuming — vaporizing precious metals onto borosilicate to create color-changing glass — transformed the art form forever. Rather than guard the secret, he taught it freely, seeding a generation of artists. He settled in Eugene, Oregon, which became the global mecca for boro glass because of him. His iconic "Snoddy" skull pipes, his sidecar design, and his mobile production studio are the stuff of legend. Today he continues to work from his Eugene family compound alongside his wife Marie and multiple family apprentices. Every artist in this archive owes a debt to Snoddy.
Location: Eugene, OR
Browse all glass artists