TakoGlass
Born and raised on Maui, Hawaii; I fished, surfed, and ate fresh fruit growing up. Of course, I enjoyed some of the islands finest, cultivated by some of the world's best growers. Some of the best smoke I have ever had come from the back jungles on Maui. The grade AAA that never left the hui or went to market. The stuff they never sold, you had to be there to enjoy it.
I started blowing glass in Santa Cruz, California back in 98.
At the Santa Cruz harbor, there was a boat yard that had space for us. My bro from the island was learning how to make pipes and created a studio out of 1/2 of a matson shipping container that was in the boat yard. I had only seen his set up once before, it was on top of his kitchen sink with a fan in the window in Aptos. When he finally moved out into the boatyard, he threw an open house party and invited all the boyz and some chicks to come check it out. That was the first time I saw glass blowing and I was in love.
I came back to the studio every day for months before I finally had a chance to have a turn. What fun it was!! I continued to show up and was able to take over rent in one of the torch stations after several months. My skills progressed slowly because we had to teach ourselves and there was no internet. Finally, I was able to make a pipe that I could sell, and we had a great idea to make some money. Santa Cruz has a huge swap meet and at the time Pipes were not allowed to be sold in there.
We were the first to sell pipes at the Santa Cruz swap meet (to my knowledge). No one else was doing it. We killed it and made a fat wad of cash! So stoked! I was a full-time roofer at the time and that sucked so I was looking for anything that could get me off the roof. Glass was my answer.
I still have some of my pipes from that studio, I still have some torches, and my kiln from there.
Fast forward through years of blowing glass every once and a while when I had access to a glass studio. I was traveling back when I was young; trips to Maui in the summer, winters in Lake Tahoe, selling glass in the parking lots full of Bay Area stoners at the ski resorts.
I ended up here in Sequim Washington because some family and friends from Maui live here. It’s a cool, small, Pacific Northwest town that has salmon fishing 5 min from my house and a resident herd of 80 or so elk. I love to fish so it was an easy decision to stay.
I have been here about 19 years and had a glass studio in my garage the whole time. I made a lot of production glass in those first 15 years, selling mostly to the Seattle area. If you bought a pipe from a headshop in the Seattle area from 2007-2015 there was a good chance it was one of mine. Really, I was selling glass all over the country and there is a good chance you have smoked outta one of my pieces. I have had people from the east coast show me some art from the early years.
I have taken lessons from so many great artists; Jason Lee, Marcel, Chris Carlson was a TA for that class. Jake C, Hamm, Siren Apparatus, Phil Siegel, and many other great artists.
Now I am a family man, my wife BeezyGlass blows glass in the studio with me. We have been together for ten years and we have one son together. We blow glass and run Takoglass together as a team. We try our best to keep weekends as family time and get out in the PNW to enjoy nature. So please excuse me if I don’t respond to a DM on Saturday.
I really appreciate your support and love.
It’s like living one great dream - I get to create art for a living with my family at the same time.
-Tako