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Randall Albert Grubb (Randy) was born on August 8, 1961 in Glendale, California. Living in southern California, it was only natural for one of his first creative endeavors to be the building of a hot rod at age thirteen. Recently he designed and built his own car, a large Indy type racer with a tank engine. This has been featured in numerous magazines, and on the opening credits of TV’s, My Classic Car, driven by Jay Leno, its current owner. Randy now lives in southern Oregon with his wife Jeannette. While attending school at the University of Southern California in 1982 Randy heard of and went to see, a glassblowing demonstration that was being given by one of the instructors there. Intrigued by the challenge of controlling a molten glass shape at the end of a five foot long pontil rod, he knew he had to try it. Grubb learned quickly, soon becoming an assistant in the glass department.
Seeing lampwork paperweights in a brochure stimulated Grubb’s interest, as he immediately recognized the greater potential lampwork had over the simpler torchwork technique he was familiar with. Later he had an opportunity to see a number of good lampwork weights at a Santa Monica antique show, and that was all that was needed to convince him that this was a technique that he should explore. Randy built his own studio and began making lampwork weights in 1986.
During the nineties Grubb made upright columns about 10” in height. Some of these enclosed floral arrangements, but the best of them featured corals and an abundance of sea creatures, rendered in a very realistic way. We would like to see him explore this area more thoroughly but at this point his creative energies seem more focused on the automotive world.
Excerpted from The Dictionary of Glass Paperweights, Paul H. Dunlop, Papier Presse 2009.
