Crafts: Glassblowing's gotten easier for amateurs to learn

The popularity of glassblowing in the United States has been steadily growing because of a development in the 1960s called the studio glass movement, when furnaces used to melt glass could be made much smaller.

[...] glasswork had to be done in an industrial furnace; now, the furnace is more the size of a small car.

Because of the studio glass movement, glass as a medium went from utilitarian objects — drinkware and windows — to fine arts.

College students trained in glassblowing became teachers, and glass studios began popping up in neighborhoods alongside urban mainstays like coffee shops, dry cleaners and pet groomers.

The studio glass movement all started with the work of Harvey K. Littleton, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he started the school's first glass program and where student Dale Chihuly learned his art.