Steele Creek Glass blowing studio/and shop carries a variety of hand-blown glass. Rich Creek has 14 years of glass blowing experience, come on into to the studio and watch him work.
My interest in glass began in Providence, RI with a friend who was a glassblower. What caught my eye was how much color you could put into a piece without it all mixing together and turning brown. I tried to get a job at some glass studios but they all wanted to do apprenticeships and I had bills to pay.
Upon moving to Bisbee, AZ I found a glass factory with on the job training. I kept bugging them hoping they would hire me. One night the manager had a dream that they had hired me, the next day I got a call with the news that I was hired. I worked there for four years and even held the position of foreman, but the factory setting didn’t leave much room for creativity and being the foreman meant you spent more time fixing problems and catching employees goofing off than you did actually blowing glass.
In 2002 I borrowed some money from my dad, paid a friend to build a shed in the back yard and left the factory. I quickly outgrew the shed and over the next 7 years had several studios in a few warehouses around Bisbee. Mainly concentrating on wholesale work supplying gift shops and distributors around the country.
In 2009 I moved into my current location at 31 Subway St in Old Bisbee. This location is different because not only is it my studio but also my retail store. Here you can find my glass art along with photography, ceramics and copper work made by artist friends.
I like to make glass art that is functional. Bright and colorful glass pieces that are used and appreciated on a daily basis, as opposed to something that is going to sit on a bookshelf and collect dust.
