Charley Reynolds makes some serious bongs. The Burlington, Vermont glassblower crafts pipes of varied colors and forms with such virtuosity it’s hard to decide if his work would be better suited for getting people high out of their minds or sitting in the pristine displays of an art gallery. He’s a testament to the value of following your passion: A two-week glassblowing internship ignited his interest in 2006 while he attended boarding school, and today he makes a living selling his smokeware.

Pipe-making’s countercultural nature kept discussions with his family stiff in the early days. “Being a 16-year-old, it’s a pretty difficult question to ask your mom ‘Can I make pipes?’” Reynolds says in retrospect. “For many years we really didn’t talk about what I was making.” He gained some major experience during an eight month stint at The Bern Gallery after starting a biology degree at the University of Vermont. He took a year off from school to hone his craft and rented a room above Nectar’s, the infamous bar in Burlington where Phish first played.

Since January 2013, he’s been glassblowing full-time. He took a four and half month period to travel and learn the industry landscape, sometimes sleeping in his Jetta station wagon, sometimes crashing with bong-making confidants. His tour took him from Vermont to Maine, Massachusetts, and New York (a glass studio in the basement of a major Manhattan apartment building stands out), and continued to New Jersey, North Carolina, and Florida.

Photo courtesy of Charley Reynolds

A workhorse mentality and desire to stay out of his comfort zone led Reynolds to develop his signature “plaidicello,” a reference to an Italian glass technique called the Reticello. He uses glass made with two percent depleted uranium, creating unique plaid patterns that come alive under a blacklight. “If anyone sees it, they’ll say that’s a Charley Reynolds piece,” he says. “If anyone tries to copy it, a lot people who are customers will actually defend me and contact them and tell them that they’re copying my work.”

Steady orders keep Reynolds making a lot of the same designs regularly, which can be tiresome. “It easily becomes a monotonous job where every day you make the exact same thing in the same style, and maybe all you do is change the color. Spending eight hours or so doing something like that drains your spirit. I think that’s why one of the most important things you can do in glass or any style of art is experiment.” Some of his new ideas include embedding tree patterns or the Vermont skyline in glass.

Collaboration between Reynolds and KGB Glass. Image courtesy of Charley Reynolds

Reynolds has built a sturdy pipe-making and selling network and a near 7,500-strong following on Instagram, where he conducts most of his business. “It’s the closest thing to a gallery that’s right on your phone,” he says. Putting his work on view in the vastness of social media has proven its worth. By 2016, he could sell a bong for $1,000 to $1,400 retail. Now some of his pieces pull $2,500 from store shelves. He sells his work all over New England and across the country, and recently received an inquiry from a smoke shop he admires in the United Kingdom.

Relationship-building remains a huge boost for Reynolds’ career. “The more traveling you do, the more shops you get to know, all the sudden a shop will see your work and say, ‘I’ve never seen it before, I love your idea, how can I get some?’”

Charley Reynolds–Glassblower
Burlington, Vermont
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Top image: Collaboration between Charley Reynolds and Danny Camp Glass, photo editing by Chandler Ellis

The post High Art appeared first on Take Magazine.

If you are a fan of alternative comic books, the name James Kochalka should almost certainly ring a bell. His is the visionary mind behind the Johnny Boo, Dragon Puncher, and SuperFuckers comics as well as the autobiographical American Elf series. He was also the first Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont.

However, in some circles, the cartoonist—who was raised in Springfield, Vermont, and now lives in Burlington with his wife, two kids, and two cats—is perhaps better known for churning out jocund, exuberant yet edgy experimental rock that recalls the likes of Ween and early They Might Be Giants.

Kochalka says he’s done time in numerous bands since junior high school, and even plays live shows with his band, which features members of art-rock collective Swale. Or at least he did. “Technically, I just retired,” Kochalka says. “I had a big, big concert for my 50th birthday that I billed as my last show ever. But since my official last show ever, I’ve played three impromptu shows and it made me wonder why I wanted to retire in the first place.”

Jame Kochalka, photo by Sam Simon

As James Kochalka Superstar, he has released over a dozen albums and a handful of EPs. He began writing a cappella tunes on his own before joining forces with gifted players who could help bring his music to life. “I am so lucky to have some really skilled musicians to work with,” he explains. “I had several bands that never played out, though. One was called Soap Men, and was with a buddy of mine. We both worked at a Howard Johnson’s, cleaning rooms, so all of the songs were about cleaning.”

When he was college, he formed Jazzin’ Hell with Peter Katis, who, today, is a sought-after producer who has worked on albums by bands like Interpol and The National. The Casio-imbued jazz combo performed throughout New England and even opened up for Dinosaur Jr, the Lemonheads, and Phish before calling it a day.

His cult-like following began growing when he was in grade school, and started selling his subversive comic books he’d print using the copy machine in his friends’ father’s office for half a buck. “Straight profit,” Kochalka says with a laugh. “Someone was paying for these comics to be made, just not me. Probably the local church paid for it all. My friend’s dad was a minister.”

This fall, Kochalka says that he’ll release SuperFuckers Forever, a sequel to his popular series of books, and next March, he’ll debut Mechaboys, a comic about two teenagers who building a robot battle suit “to take revenge on everyone at their high school. It’s kind of like Robocop meets Superbad. His eighth children’s book, Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer, hits bookshelves next summer.

Kochalka credits his New England roots with his success as both a cartoonist and a musician. “We have such extreme differences between our seasons that, every time the seasons change, I feel rejuvenated, and it is like a rebirth each time,” he says. “I have four rebirths a year. When it gets cold in the fall, and the leaves fall off, I get really excited, and then it starts to snow, and that’s really exciting. And then the snow begins to melt and turns to mud, and that’s exciting, and then it gets real hot, which is really exciting. It makes me want to create.”

Want to know what’s on Kochalka’s playlist? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify Channel. While you’re there, take a listen to the playlists of other musicians we’ve featured. Enjoy!

James Kochalka–cartoonist/musician
Burlington, Vermont
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Top image, James Kochalka by Luke Awtry

The post Comics and Codas appeared first on Take Magazine.