iN PHOTOS: The artistry of an Okanagan glass blower

Glass blowing is widely known for some as a hobby that can hold entertainment for hours, given the intricate craftsmanship, the delicacy needed, as well as the endless possibilities of what can be created. For Mike Astral of Kelowna, glass blowing is a full time career. After 12 years in the industry, Astral is one of the 100 career glass blowers across Canada. Standing in a warm room at his workshop in Rutland filled with glass of all colours, fragile Christmas ornaments festively strung from a pole on the kiln, pop culture stickers adorning the walls, a polaroid of his wife and neon pink sticky notes with memos sprawled across them, Astral makes his best creations in this workshop. Astral creates his pieces with gravity, heat and air pressure to form the unique shapes for each of his projects. The pieces are created from resilient borosilicate glass so the creations can withstand extreme heat or pressure. Astral has a passion for creating long lasting legacy pieces that can withstand the test of time. “Glass is my immortality. If all of the stars align and things go well, this glass could still be around 5,000 years from now and I think that is just so cool," he said. “The thought that somebody years from now could find one of my marbles with my makers mark on it and know we were making this stuff and there was a craftsman named Mike Astral, and they’ll analyze it and find gold and silver and all this cool archeological stuff and be like: we have no idea how these ancient people did this. I want to be one of those guys they’re talking about.” READ MORE: Dispute over Shuswap's Crazy Creek suspension bridge lands in court https://infotel.ca/newsitem/dispute-over-shuswaps-crazy-creek-suspension-bridge-lands-in-court/it106465 When creating and shaping his pieces, Astral takes the glass and begins to heat it up over his torch while holding it between two long glass rods. One rod is stable, while the other is spun. Using gravity, heat and motion, Astral can begin to form his shape. With a combination of inhaling or exhaling air connected to a long tube, Astral can expand or retract the diameter of the figure he is creating. When it reaches the perfect size, all that needs to be taken care of it shaping and detailing, or occasionally a hole or two in the hot glass to create bowl like divots. Astral is also a gold panner and rock hound. He spends hours looking for gold in the Okanagan, including Mission Creek in Kelowna, that can be incorporated into his art. Most of the gold found in the area has a silver impurity which results in a mixture of silver and gold intertwined in the flecks. When Astral creates glass marbles, he often chooses to incorporate the precious metals to create a galaxy within the sphere. He likes the idea of putting the earth back into what looks like the galaxy the materials came from, almost as a gracious tribute. “That’s one of the things I find most fascinating about it. Gold and silver and produced in cosmic events like a supernova. I can take those materials and use them to create a visual representation of where they came from.” To create the different colours in his pieces, Astral uses crushed glass in the colours of the rainbow and he can mix the crushed glass to create soft and harsh colours for different creations. Astral makes money by selling what he makes which means a need for constant creation and his creations are in demand. READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: End of summer images from Kamloops, Okanagan https://infotel.ca/newsitem/in-photos-end-of-summer-images-from-kamloops-okanagan/it106333    Astral creates a range of blown glass objects from festive Christmas ornaments, garden chimes and decorations to help liven up the summer, cannabis pipes and even sex toys. “People are always eating, people are always smoking and people are always having sex. If you can make something that tailors to one of those three things, you’re always in money,” he said. Astral has a business deal with cannabis store Mary Janes. Astral works out of their building to create pipes and other supplies and the store stocks the products he creates. He also regularly sells his ware at farmers' markets and Christmas fairs. To see more of Astral's creations check out his Instagram here. https://www.instagram.com/hiddenvillagecreations?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw%3D%3D To contact a reporter for this story, email Bailey Zimmer mailto:bzimmer@infonews.ca  or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .