Heady Glass: What Is It

Heady Glass (“Headies”), what is it and where does it come from? Heady Glass is often referred to as glass that is “Made in the USA.” Heady Glass is usually considered high-end and is intricately blown by experienced glass artists and may include different styles of colorwork, wig wag, honeycombs, and detailed millie embellishments.

Headies are usually made by one glass artist or maybe a team collaborating together combining their styles and skill with the flame. The team utilizes high-quality materials and thicker glass which adds a lot more artistry to their work. German Schott Glass is considered the highest quality tubing and most heady artists use Schott Glass. On the other hand, imported glass is usually mass-produced by teams of trained glass blowers, however, the imported glass typically uses thinner tubing and cheaper materials. With imported glass, you may see paint and other designs on them, but usually, a lot less attention to detail and artwork is involved.

Obviously, what separates Headies and imported glass is the price. Headies almost always carry a hefty price tag because of the cost of materials and time-consuming workmanship involved. Like with any artist, some glassblowers build up reputations that also drive their creation price tags higher. An imported glass piece is cheaper because it usually is produced quickly and efficiently.

Headies are commonly made from beginning to end one unit at a time. Sometimes Headies are not made in one day. The more elaborate creations may take time and effort and lots of skill. Careful crafting almost always allows every heady piece to be one of a kind and very unique. Heady artists usually never try to replicate their work over and over again, whilst import factories churn out multiple pieces of the same glass design. Sometimes import factories take shortcuts to produce glass pieces faster, which may result in lower quality products compared to Heady Glass.

Glass is still glass at the end of the day and nothing is unbreakable. In my opinion, I definitely feel that Headies are more durable than imports. Have you ever dropped your pipe or glass piece and it broke in half? A clean break? When it almost looks like you can just glue it back together? That is a sign that your piece is made of quality glass. Imported glass tends to shatter when it breaks resulting in lots of chips and jagged edges. 

At the end of the day, this does not mean that you should not buy imported glass. Imports are more affordable and get the job done, however, Heady glass is glass art, and collector pieces that most smokers dream to have. In my experience, it is amazing to own Heady bongs or Heady glass and keep up with the artist to see what other pieces they create. Every Heady artist has their own signature style for their glass art and glass collection. For example, Algae has his brain matter pattern. Dustorm uses his rainbow UV colors that no other artist has. Flame Princess creates elephant rigs that are almost too adorable to smoke out of. Certain colors and the way the glass is shaped, they all tell their unique story. Every glass artist is different. Just like Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet.