the world is running out of glassblowers and yet you want to become a fucking doctor
One of the most jarring moments of my university education was in a physics class when I was given a device that measures gravity and was told “this cost the university sixteen thousand dollars, but the only glass blower in the world who could make the glass springs inside it died so it’s literally irreplaceable. If you drop it those springs will shatter. Go fuck around with it for a day and take some measurements”
In the UK there's a thing called the endangered crafts list which I highly recommend if you fancy discovering some crafts you never even knew existed. Scientific and optical instrument making is considered 'critically endangered' and glassworking (scientific glassware) is just considered endangered, which is for 'crafts with a shrinking market share, an ageing demographic or crafts with a declining number of practitioners.' There's some other crafts in that category which are easier to teach yourself or go to classes on that list, like lithography, marbling or block printing on fabric, so it might be worth considering those if you're looking for something to try.
Reblogging myself as I wasn't expecting so many people to pay attention to my comment. Again this list is JUST FOR THE UK as I noticed someone commenting on that, please look into whether there are similar things in your own countries and share if you find anything as I'd love to see them.
There are some crafts considered 'extinct' because the whole process isn't completed in the UK, like making cricket balls where most of the steps can be done here but not the stitching for some reason which is outsourced to India. There are lacrosse sticks produced in other countries where it's more popular as a sport, otherwise the whole sport would have died out by now.
Anyway, I just wanted to add that there's a new version of the list for this year which is now online here.
