18 Beaker Bong Factories – Straight Tube Hookah Smoking Glass Water Pipe – Cannabiz

• Height 29cm

• 5mm glass

• Comes 19mm bowl and diffused downstem

• Built with high quality borosilicate glass

While this guide has focused on traditional, hand-made glass bongs,  machine-made, mass-produced bongs are also incredibly common in today’s market. These bongs are made through more or less the same technique of applying heat to make glass malleable and shaping the hot glass through a process of spinning, molding, and blowing air.

The art of glass bongs: Style and decoration

One of the things that make glass bongs unique is that they also function as art. In fact, some high end glass blowers make incredibly intricate and artful bongs that carry price tags over six figures. Even more affordable pieces often include stylistic and artistic elements, typically in the form of colors, etching, or by making the bong into a unique shape.

Some glass blowers add color by melting chunks of colored pigment or glass into the main tubing being used to make a bong. As the artist forms the pipe, they can stretch and manipulate these flecks of color into different lines and patterns.

Alternatively, artists add color to glass through a process called “fuming.” The technique involves vaporizing certain types of metal — often silver, gold, or platinum — and passing that vapor through the initial glass tubing. This process coats the inside of the tubing with the metal so that as the artist transforms the initial tubing into the bong, those streaks of metal stretch and transform into interesting streaks of color.

Along with color, glass blowers often add molten glass to the exterior of the bong, creating mini sculptures or designs on the outside of the piece. The bong itself can be made into whatever shape the artist imagines — as long as it maintains a water chamber, neck, mouthpiece, and an opening for downstem and bowl.