Salt and Eric Ross compete in the G.L.A.S. Flame Off

Salt and Eric Ross competed against Ghost & Brandon Martin, Bearclaw & Freeek, Christina Cody & Alex K, Alex V & Billygoat, and Lupe & Vorhees. The competition was held December 9th and 10th, 2009 in Madison, WI. 15" of snow accumulated the day before the competition and outside temperatures hung well below freezing. Temperatures inside the warehouse that held the competition weren't much warmer. The blowers deserve a lot of respect. They put in 10 hour days while working in freezing conditions! Here's a 10 minute video of Salt and Eric working on their entry. Their entry came with the following letter explaining their entry. Greeting and thank you for reading this. E. Ross and I (Salt) wanted to take this opportunity to share with you our thought process, what we made and why we made it. We had never worked together before and honestly I think we were a little puzzled as to how we would blend our unique styles together and have our entry make sense and have a chance to win your vote. We got together for one week to talk about and practice for this competition. As we started to develop our ideas and blend our styles we realized how exciting it was to be competing in an event with such talented participants, but also to have it judged by such a large group of collectors. With that in mind we learned that the average glass aficionado wants variety, style, continuity of design and usually water filtration! We set out to make the dream set. A group of pieces that was highly detailed and technically exciting, but also very functional. In other words we wanted to make a composition of pieces that was not only large and fully worked, but practical enough to use and enjoy. So in short we made this set for you the collector,people who in the end decide what's cool. Your set includes a large push bowl for groups and also a small snapper for when you just need a little. Also we included a nail and dome set up since we know the modern glass connoisseur likes to enjoy some extracts from time to time. Since taking care of your nice glass is so important we included a sculptural holder that displays these accessories for your full worked, double layered and sculpted tube. The tube features a low water volume for easy cleaning, and a heavy duty triple marble foot for weight and stability. Of course, no set is complete without a dry piece so we added two, one larger left handed carb and a smaller right hander. This is a hustle bustle world so of course we had to include a onie for traveling. Since the act of smoking is only part of the ritual we made a matching jar and ash tray as well. To us this is the ultimate set. We hope you love it and notice how hard we worked to blend our very different styles and make something you would all want to own. Thanks from Salt and E. Ross