BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A new small business has opened; Its niche is rare and is only the second of its kind here in the commonwealth.

Shane Spickard, the owner of Sweaty Glass, has transformed his passion for glass blowing into a business

Spickard has been fine-tuning his creations since 2019, and fell in love with the art style after attending the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee.

Spickard said, “Just absolutely fell in love with it. The process, the material, the rabbit hole that is glass.”

Now, he’s transformed a garage into his own glass making factory. He creates glass cups, vases and other decorations by getting melted glass out of a hot stove.

He puts some glass frit on it while it’s hot, which will melt into the design of it later.

Spickard said, “It’s pretty mesmerizing, the way it handles, the way it looks. It can be a distraction, too.”

Spickard heats the glass and repeats this process, until he sculpts the shape with several tools such as tongs, and even his hands covered with newspaper.

“This is about eight sheets of newspaper that I folded up, soaked in water, and burned it in. It almost acts like a hand tool, like a glove,” he said describing the process.

Eventually, he’ll blow air through the blowpipe to help inflate and shape the vase. He will also make an incision so the vase can be removed.

Eventually, taking it off and putting it on a punty. A punty is an iron rod used to hold or shape soft glass.

Once Spickard removes the piece from the punty, he takes his torch and smoothes out the glass.

Spickard said, “That way you’re not going to cut your finger when you touch the bottom.”

The vase is then put into a stove where it will be for the next 12 hours.

 Sweaty Glass is at 144 W 10th Avenue in Bowling Green. Spickard teaches classes for anyone interested in glass blowing.