Smoke art: Alex Vicknair’s glass creations still lead the way

When it comes to cannabis art, Alex Vicknair is a local leader.

Vicknair’s hand-blown glass pipes were a hallmark in most of the fabled local head shops in pre-dispensary days. The caregiver days also signified a golden age for local glass. Vicknair has been in the thick of it for over a quarter century.

Vicknair, who has a studio in north Lansing, was first exposed to glassblowing back in 1996 while living in Seattle, where an acquaintance showed him how to blow glass and started him on a path to a lifetime of bowls, bongs and rigs.

With a blowtorch and a piece of glass, Vicknair begins the process of crafting an artisan ashtray.

Vicknair has been back in Lansing for 26 years, and through that time the scene for blowing heady glass has changed a lot, from the pre-legalization stigma, through the the caregiver years, and to today’s grim reality of foreign imported cheap glass sold at every pot shop, smoke and vape shop and convenience store imaginable.

Vicknair told me that small hand pipes are his favorite to make. Small bowls are probably the most accessible and utilitarian choice among his work. You can really see, and more important, feel the difference compared to a cheap import version you pick up from the dispo. The quality and passion are well worth the price. Once you have had a real bowl like this, it’s hard to go back to the $5 liquor store special.

I asked Vicknair what it’s been like navigating this scene and industry over nearly three decades.

 “The glass game has changed so much,” he said. “It was basically nothing in ‘96, and now it’s a huge industry. Pipes are being imported from countries that don’t even have a weed culture.”

He lamented that many consumers now don’t even look for hallmarks of quality in glass or have much knowledge about what those would even be.

Vicknair been riding the counter-culture wave for decades and has seen countless new artists and trends come and go. He acknowledged the game is always in flux. Vape and concentrates make up a huge segment of glass that didn’t even exist in the ‘90s, and the import game has driven costs low and competition high.

After removing bubbles from his piece, Vicknair starts shaping it into an ashtray.

Through all the changes in our culture and industry, though, Vicknair has maintained his connection to the counter-culture community and his passion for the art of blowing functional glass that people in our community find great joy and utility from. Be sure to hit him up on Instagram or other social media to purchase a piece or even commission one of your own.