Starfish Designs – Exclusive Glass Supplier to “Radical” Russ Belville
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 4:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Starfish Designs from Bend, Oregon
If you’ve followed the Stash for a while, you’ll know that one day at the Portland Hempstalk last year, I was eyeing the amazing glass on display when I had an idea. I used to be a professional musician and I had a drummer friend who was sponsored by Gretsch Drums. He got free drums and equipment, so long as he promoted them at every concert and on every album.
Wouldn’t it be cool, I thought, if I could get a glassblower to sponsor me as a marijuana activist? I’d get free glass so long as I promoted them wherever I went. I brought it up while talking to Andy of Starfish Designs. He pointed at his table and said, “which one do you want?” and our sponsorship was born.
We worked out a deal where he would send me a pipe per month – Pipe of the Month Club! So, imagine my surprise when I get to my PO box and find he’d already send the pipes for the rest of 2009!
My Starfish Designs collection
The long ones are called “Original Gandolfs” (name misspelled to avoid trademark infringement). Two of the shorter Gandolfs have a nice raised brown piping that spirals around the shaft.
NORML logo etched on a 7" Gandolf
The seven inch Gandolfs are perfect for a travel case, though at home I prefer to use the 16″-20″ ones, because the long throw cools the smoke and it’s very easy to pass to friends who are sinking into the couch.
Four inch shorties and 7" Gandolf on a stand
The shorties make for a nice pocket pipe, though they don’t hold too much of a bowl and have no carb on them. They’re perfect for some hash. Most of the pipes 7″ and longer have decorative nubs or faux leaves that work as “kickstands” to keep the pipe standing on a surface, but for others, they include a carved wooden stand.
The wacky stuff - curly-q's, shotgunners, and a smoking grenade!
The really interesting pieces that blow people’s minds at the summer festivals are the curly-q’s. Andy’s given me one with a tight triple spiral and one with a big single loop.
The smoking grenade will blow your mind!
Then there are the two “shotgunners” (I think that’s what they are!) and my favorite, the smoking grenade. There’s a bowl on top, a place to suck face on the front, and a carb hole on the bottom (again, I think!)
Topics: "Radical" Russ Belville, Bend, glass, glassblowers, Oregon, paraphernalia, pipes, Starfish Designs
Starfish does not sell directly to customers. You must be a retailer. They will not sell single pieces.
im actually wondering how i email radicalruss i have a question om wondering how to get a hold of the star fish designs glass blower who does gandolfs,i had a very nice one and cats broke it and replacement named dumbledore,im wondering if he could blow a new gandolf similar to my old one,repair it as its just the stem that’s broke,he was a 14 incher and he was a magnificent piece.thank you
email russ… stash@norml.org
Call Starfish… 541-788-glas
[...] sidebar ad for my glass sponsor, Starfish Designs, so now if you click it, you’re taken to my post with all the photos of my pieces. I called Andy & Bob to let them know I was showing the blue Gandolf at Hempfest; I [...]
[...] stash at norml dot org. Two of these people so far will win an Urb Age Prize Package and one of my Starfish Designs “Gandolf” works of functional glass art (unless they live in Idaho, Pennsylvania, or Indiana). One prize goes [...]
i was just wondering, does anyone know if they stamp a little star on the bottom of their pieces? i have a nice gandalf piece and its got a star but i didnt buy it knowing it was a starfish pipe. help…?
Yes, the little star stamp is on every Starfish Designs piece.
Yeah, is there a web site, online catalog, or only a phone number?
Alas, no website yet, but it is coming soon. If you call the phone number, they will send you a catalog (and, it will light a fire under them to build the website, and it will make them feel real good about giving free pipes to some podcast producer.)
I guess I know what I’ll be spending a little of my refund on then.
Wow, those pieces are nice! Does Starfish Designs have a website? I’d like to pick up one of those mid-sized or long “Gandolfs”.