"I had friend I was going to high school with who had met Alex Vicknair, who was my original teacher,” Birney said. “We clicked and ended up becoming friends and hanging out … over the next two years I would commission some pieces sometimes, go hang out and watch glass blowing, which was very interesting me.”

Birney and Vicknair later bought a warehouse and started running the company, which eventually became known as Global Glassworks. Birney focused his education on the art instead of a traditional degree. He used $500 of his parents' money devoted to education to buy his first torch.

Since blowing glass is so complex, Birney said it requires people have a lot of knowledge, skill, the ability to learn quick and stay on their toes.

“It’s a manual labor, hands-on job, but also part of your skills is your knowledge and understanding of the medium while understanding what you’re doing,” he said. “It is a very complex substance that requires all kinds of aspects of knowledge."

As the owner of Global Glassworks, Birney also has to be a master in business, marketing and managing skills.

“The amount of hat you have to put on if you're an owner extends far beyond just glassblowing into more than 10 other professional careers that all have to be managed by somebody," he said.

Alex Martin, a newer glassblowing artist at the studio, has been given the opportunity to gain extensive exposure of the industry by traveling with Birney to different trade shows in Las Vegas and Colorado. He said as a company, they are trying to do more teaching to provide an opportunity for the community to learn more about glass blowing and how one can make beautiful art using glass.

“At this point in time we’re interested in doing a little bit more community outreach, more teaching and education about glass art and all of the options and things that can be made and how beautiful and recent of an industry it is," Martin said.

Global Glassworks' main push lately has been trying to provide opportunities for the community and offer community outreach events. Several weeks ago, the company participated in a Christmas event in the Village of Ashley, Mich., where they provided live glassblowing demonstrations for guests and had the opportunity to sell Christmas items like small glass ornaments, small glass christmas trees and handblown candy canes.

With another push to provide opportunities for the community and learning opportunities, Global Glassworks works with the nonprofit organization, The Michigan Glass Project, along with other nonprofit organizations every summer.

The Michigan Glass Project is a nonprofit event that happens in Detroit every summer. They bring high-end glassblowers from around the nation, potentially around the world, to Detroit to collaborate on glass. Later, the glass gets put up in a silent auction, Martin said. 

The partnership with them and other nonprofit organizations has been valuable for Global Glassworks so far.

The ability to blow glass and create such distinctive art requires learning and the hardest part about learning is finding somebody to teach you. Global Glassworks' community outreach aims to show people the skill.

Stan VonAchan, another artist at the studio, said that there are a wide range of techniques that can go into glassblowing.

“There’s all kind of techniques for every aspect of glassblowing and that's the trick, finding somebody to teach you how to do any of it," VonAchan said.