Chihuly is the Thomas Kinkade of glassblowing.

He doesn't even do any glassblowing himself, he just doodles weird paint spludges on a canvas and has all his poorly-paid interns do the actual work.

What happened to the good ol' days when macho douchebags would gravitate to blacksmithing?

Does that mean 99% of your income comes from making glass pipes and selling them in Phish parking lots like every other glass major I know?

What did glassblowers used to use before they had newsprint?

Mmm, most pipes, bubblers, chillums etc. are made with a different glassblowing technique, one in which all you need is a torch and some tools, unlike large scale studio glass such as this where you have big motherfucking metal pipes and furnaces full of 2000 degree glass, and huge operating costs: like 80 dollars an hour on propane and electricity. The unefficiency of it all (except for the big names like chihuly, lino, dante marioni) is why the studio glass movement is really really dwindling. It's sad, it's a beautiful art.

As for the newsprint question, I can honestly say I don't know? But papering is never explicitly necessary in any piece, there are always many ways to shape and approach the material (blocks, jacks, marver, pulling with tweezers, molds, a lot of shit).