Introducing our Jedi Glass Collection

Jedi Glass

 

We would like to introduce you to one of our favorite partners: Jedi Glass. This husband and wife team makes some really killer art and we are thrilled to have them as part of the fam. I have known them since 1999 when I was blowing glass in Santa Cruz, and they are absolute sweethearts! The nicest people ever who create rad pieces that everyone should own. Read on to learn about them, their process, and all the love that goes into each piece they create!

 

Jedi’s Roots: How They Got Started

Jedi Glass is a labor of love that lets owners Eliza and Bryan live their dreams. They grew up in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley enjoying the local green bud and dreaming of glass pipe making. This incredible path paved the way for them to create the lifestyle they wanted, working together and raising their family from home. Currently, they are living the dream on a small forested plot in Oregon. 

 Eliza and Bryan both bring unique skills and talents to the business. Eliza, a lifelong artist, holds a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art from UCSC, with a concentration on printmaking. They met while Eliza was in college and Bryan was an industrial electrician who was learning to blow glass in his spare time with Jeff Rogers at a studio in Menlo Park. 

Within just a year of shacking up together, Bryan became a full-time glass blower. A couple of years after that, Eliza finished her degree and they have been working side by side ever since. 

 

What Inspires Their Artistry

Like moths to a flame, they use an old-school decorative application technique as their muse. Using silver and gold fuming as their foundational core while designing sturdy, functional handpieces that folks fall in love with time and time again. 

 The duo now holds a combined 51 years of experience, which is quite an accomplishment! Though many people think they should be using their skills and talents to make high-end glass pieces, they simply aren’t interested. Their focus remains on creating beautiful, entry-level glass pieces that help smokers fall more in love with the overall culture and passion for glass. 

 

How Their Style Has Evolved

Color, form, and function have always been Jedi’s focus. Placing care into the end experience of their pieces, durability, comfort, and ease of cleaning have always been priorities. If you’ve ever been so lucky to have a Jedi piece, you know how much attention to detail has been infused into it. For example, they offer rounded /smooth holes. Large carbs to clear bowls after each hit. And balanced weight to ensure durability after a few solid drops. 

 Over the years, Jedi has also experimented with different silver and gold layering patterns. They pay close attention to how different sources of their minerals affect the coloring approach, which allows them to achieve the insane colors you will see on each of their pipes. Likewise, they also enjoy experimenting with the ever-growing color palettes, offered by the many outstanding colored glass manufacturers.

 

What Keeps Jedi Glass Inspired?

Like many creatives, Eliza and Bryan are driven by the need to pay the bills while earning a living as creative people. They have great pride in being early pioneers of this burgeoning American trade, and maintaining this legacy is super important to them. A lot of care goes into each piece and their business as a whole, and they are driven by the joy they hope to bring with their work. From the enjoyment of using each piece to watching their pieces color up through use; it’s a really fun experience they love to deliver! 

Aside from glass, they are dedicated to co-parenting their two children and learning to grow food, which are all benefits of working from home. 

Since moving to Oregon, 15 years ago, they keep their business ever-booming by building connections and attending the tradeshows to gather orders for work, which they fulfill and ship around the country. Having a steady demand for their work keeps them busy, and it allows them to maintain a close eye on all the little details that go into making each piece.

 

Goals and Dreams as Artists

Eliza and Bryan consider their glass pipes and bubblers to represent master craftsmanship. One dream they share is to use this medium for more self-expression and art-making in the future when their kids are out of the house. In the meantime, though, their focus is on creating tiny moments of beauty that most people can comfortably afford. 

Their greatest challenge, like many artists, is the balance of creation and monetary responsibility. So long as their art-making is driven by economic interest, self-expression is not possible. 

However, as arbiters for this market, Jedi Glass is thoroughly inspired by the ever-evolving creativity it breeds; how so many people can take the same materials and create such a variety of work. 

We have to applaud them not only as artists but as savvy business-owners as well. Eliza and Bryan have managed to survive many ebbs and flows as the trade has grown, including living through Operation Pipe Dreams, as well as a few economic recessions. They have seen it all; as we have moved from a culture of secrecy to one where beginners expect all answers to be readily accessible all the time. 

With that said, we’d like to thank Eliza and Bryan of Jedi Glass. They are true leaders in this industry and we are so happy to have them here at TakoGlass.com! Go and check out our Jedi Glass collection: https://www.takoglass.com/collections/jedi-glass

 

 

 


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