Jim Thingwold
120 S. Kroeger St.
Anaheim, CA. 92805-4011
Phone: (714) 520-0121
Email Jim@hotglass.com

The first time I saw someone blowing glass was at my dad’s machine shop when I was about 12. I knew then and there that I wanted to learn how to do it. There was a passion within me that I just had to learn more about this fascinating art. I started hanging out and watching Harold Hacker blow glass at his shop at Knott’s Berry Farm—this was back in the day when there was no admission charge—and I think I was such a pest that he finally decided to put me to work. By 1969, he was teaching me the craft.

Soon after, I was making things faster than he could sell them, so he got me a job over at Disneyland. In 1972, I went to Florida for the opening of Disney World. After a few years there, I joined forces with Bob Kernohan, headed up to Ocean City, New Jersey, and opened a shop, Petite Glass, on the Boardwalk.

In 1978, I sold out to Kernohan and returned to California. For about a year, I blew glass for George Powers in a shop near Anaheim Stadium, working along side Steve Gruba and Kemp Curtis. Then, I started blowing glass out of the garage of my home in Huntington Beach, which I continued doing for more than 20 years.

Soon after I began working out of my garage, I realized how much I missed the camaraderie that comes with working with others on a daily basis. I have always found the isolation of working alone to be the biggest challenge of lampworking. As time went on, I decided there was a need in the glass world for lampworkers to connect with each other. By 1987, I was motivated enough to begin the newsletter that became Glass Line magazine.

At that time, the glass world was not as open as it is today. Lampworkers did not share information; in fact, they tended to be secretive about how things were done and glassblowing was usually passed down from father to son. Rarely did people like me have the opportunity to learn about glassblowing from someone like Hacker. I was truly fortunate.

The first issue of Glass Line was four pages, black and white, and it contained no ads. It featured an in-depth profile of Hacker—which can be read online on the HotGlass Forum—and that was about it. Hacker was generous enough to share his mailing list with me, so that was my original mailing list. It began as a bi-monthly publication, which continues to this day.

As Glass Line celebrates its 20th year, I want to thank each of you—glassworkers, collectors, manufacturers, advertisers and supporters—for your longtime interest and support of Glass Line and its mission to share information and connect lampworkers in the world of glass.

Jim Thingwold
(http://www.hotglass.com/access/v20n1/GlassLine_v20n1.pdf)

Publisher of Glass Line newsletter.
Manufacturer of TimeWork Kilns.
Some of my other glass work can be identified by my initials stamped in the bottom.