I Have Always Been Fascinated By Watching Craftsmen Make Animals Out Of Glass,

and have seen a few paper weights being made as well,

 but New Jersey-based artist Paul Stankard, takes the art of making paper weights to a new level, 

after battling undiagnosed dyslexia for his entire youth (at one time graduating the bottom of his class), Stankard struggled greatly to identify his life’s calling, while in college he discovered scientific glass blowing, the manual process of creating scientific instruments out of glass for use in laboratories, He was instantly hooked and for 10 years worked with industrial glass, 

eventually the pressure of a growing family at home lead to an experiment with the creation of glass paperweights in his garage to supplement his income, it wasn’t long before an art dealer discovered his work and he began to create art full-time, His pieces now appear in over 60 museums around the world including the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Louvre,

you can see much more of his work at the Corning Museum of Glass, and in his book, Homage to Nature, what a great way to use glass and what skill.