Collecting EventsCourt of the GourdsShows & SalesAdd to My CollectionCheck a Piece

№ 01 Collecting Events

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№ 02 How it works

Make it. Buy it. Vote.

A time-boxed call for pieces. Makers enter work that has a Glass ID, collectors check what they bought to add it to their collection, and everyone spends a few votes.

Getting in takes a Google sign-in and nothing to install. Glowtbook (your studio notebook) and Check a Piece (point your phone at a piece to see who made it) are web pages that work on a phone. Voting needs the same sign-in and nothing else.

For makers

  • Glass ID

    Log the piece in Glowtbook and register it: walk around it with your phone and it gets its Glass ID, so a phone can recognise this pumpkin later.

  • Publish

    Push it to the public directory. Once it's approved it has a page of its own and a link anyone can use to check it.

  • Enter

    Enter it in the collecting event with your studio, the edition size and where to buy. Then tell your people.

For collectors

  • Buy

    Get a piece from a shop in the collecting event — at the studio, the market, the website. The maker gets paid; that's the point.

  • Check

    Open Check a Piece, point your phone at the piece, and let the confidence climb. 70+ across a few angles is a match.

  • Add

    Add it to your collection. It's now a checked piece with a real provenance trail — yours.

  • Vote

    Spend your votes on the entries you'd take home. Swap them as often as you like until voting closes.

For shops & hosts

  • List

    Get your studio on the record: submit it to the Directory, or say it's yours if it's already there.

  • Host

    Running an ornament day or a pop-up? Open Glowtbook → Shows & Sales, make the event, print the QR for the table. Buyers add their piece to their collection on the spot.

  • Enter

    Every maker at your table enters their own pieces from their own Glowtbook — up to five each, one legendary. The studio board adds them up.

  • Ask

    Want a collecting event themed around your shop or show? Propose it on the Discord.

Rules of play

Makers

  1. Enter your own work, made for this collecting event.
  2. Up to five entries per collecting event.
  3. Register a piece (give it its Glass ID) before you enter it. That is what makes it Uncommon or better, and what the measured awards use.
  4. One legendary per maker per collecting event: an edition of one, with a Glass ID and its legend written. Don't say which piece it is — the collector finds out when they add it to their collection.
  5. You can't vote for your own pieces.
  6. "Solo" means made without an assistant on the pipe. On your honour.

Collectors

  1. One pick per award, plus your People's choice votes.
  2. Adding a piece to your collection needs the piece in your hands (its Glass ID matches) or the maker's confirmation.
  3. Each piece can be added to your collection once.
  4. Points: common 1 · uncommon 2 · rare 5 · legendary 20.
  5. Complete a set — one piece from every studio in the collecting event — for the badge.

Rarity

  1. Common any approved entry.
  2. Uncommon has a Glass ID.
  3. Rare has a Glass ID, edition of three or fewer.
  4. Legendary the maker's one-of-one, revealed when a collector adds it.

Everyone: the collecting event never handles money — buy from the maker. Admins can remove entries or collected pieces that break the rules; disputes go to the Discord.

№ 03 Entries

This collecting event's pieces.

№ 04 Awards

The categories.

One pick per award on top of your People's choice votes. Measured awards are settled by the Photo Mat, not the crowd.

№ 05 Leaderboards

Who's ahead.

№ 06 Yours

My collection.

№ 07 Past & upcoming

Other collecting events.

The calendar

  • October

    Court of the GourdsBlown-glass pumpkins from every studio.

  • December

    Heirloom OrnamentsThe ones that go on the tree every year.

  • Spring

    PaperweightsMurrine, millefiori, the lampworked garden.

  • Summer

    DrinkwareTumblers, stemware, the glass you actually use.

  • Anytime

    MarblesSmall, fast, and dangerously collectable.

№ 08 Why this exists

A reason to buy from a working shop.

Independent glass artists need collectors who come back, and collectors want to know the piece on the shelf is the piece the maker made. Collecting Events are a reason to buy from a working shop this month, a way to prove what you own without a certificate in a drawer, and — quietly — a census of who is making what, where. No cash prizes, no entry fees: recognition, badges, a homepage feature, and a growing record of real glass in real collections. Data stays open under CC BY 4.0.

Propose a collecting event on DiscordOpens the Discord, where new themes get talked through.
See the shows & sales