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2B Glass Pumpkins are Northern California's Fall Favorite - Replay · Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy

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Hi, Everybody. We're at 2B Glass in Cameron Park, California.
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California is number one rated glass blowing studio.
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And they let us come and get some footage of all this fun stuff
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they're doing. Making pumpkins. And it's fall. I'm wearing orange because
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it's my favorite color. So I am uber excited to be here.
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Erika and I even drove through rainstorms through the mountain to get
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here today with some accidents. It actually was kind of rough. So
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I can't wait to show you guys. Come on in and. And let's look and
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see what they're doing. All right. So Zane's gonna gather up some
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molten glass out of this furnace. This holds 1,000
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pounds of molten clear glass when it's totally full. And so
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that's at 2,100 degrees. And so he just took what's called
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a gather. Now he's pipe cooling it. Cause the pipe does get a little bit
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hot as the furnace gets low. And so that glass that he has on the
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end is actually clear glass. Just looks
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orange right now because it is 2,000 degrees.
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He's gonna roll it in that color over there. And so the glass is so
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hot that the color sticks to it. So we just got all those different colors
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on there. This is a mix of colors. So there's like five different colors in
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there. This is one of the ways that we can put color on the glass.
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And that is called frit, which is crushed up chunks of
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colored glass. So now Zane's gonna
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come over here. He's gonna heat it all in in the glory hole.
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And you guys will see that once it's all heated in
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that it will all be one. Now it's kind of all melted in. It's no
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longer sharp. He's gonna come over here to the table. He's gonna roll the
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glass on the table. And then he's gonna. He's getting
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ready to blow his bubble. This is glass blowing. Right?
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So right now the piece of glass that he has is
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totally solid. But he's about to change that. So he's waiting for the right
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temperature. He's gonna blow really hard in the end. He's gonna catch the air in
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there with his finger. The heat of the glass is air. If you guys watch
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closely. And that happened pretty quickly. He just shot a bubble
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all the way down to the very bottom. Now he's gonna hand it off to
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Aaron. And Aaron is.
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Aaron's gonna go ahead and sit down and he's going to
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grab what's called the jacks. He's gonna create a little constriction. Right
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off the edge of the pipe here. So eventually, we can get this pumpkin off
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the end. Aaron also has his blow hose attached. So he's able to blow.
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Zane's on the little mold here. We're making an organic pumpkin. And then
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he's gonna set it down Inside of that mold. He's gonna blow
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really hard, Kind of lift up. And then this will make the
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shape of the organic pumpkin. Now Aaron's gonna sit down again.
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And then he's gonna create a constriction. Right off the end of the pipe here.
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And eventually, we have to get this pumpkin off the end. So he's
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making a little constriction. Right off the end. And he's also
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blowing a little bit. Now he's gonna light the hot torch. This is
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3,000 degrees. He's gonna put a little hole in the bottom. And
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he's gonna blow real nice and soft.
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And then I'm gonna get ready for the stem.
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And Aaron's gonna flare that open.
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Same stem as last time, Aaron? Yep.
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Okay. And then Aaron is gonna open that.
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I'm going in my color here. For the stem, which is just one
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color. And it's a little bit finer. I have to do
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two rolls. Okay. I'm still gonna hit this off.
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And then I'm coming over here. To get this hit off. So
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Tate can put on the stem.
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And Tate's kind of just kind of what I just
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similarly did. But he's gonna go in a different type of mold. So all of
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our stems have texture on them. And then he's gonna
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run over here. And he's gonna try to basically do this as fast as he
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can. Cause as soon as he comes out of the heat, he only has about
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30 seconds. Before the stem will turn solid. So he's
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gonna push down, pull up. Then
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he's gonna do our coiled stem. So it's like, our stem that's kind of, like,
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floating in the air. These ones are kind of harder. Cause
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you have to kind of nail your temperature correctly. Is this.
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Do a couple curls. And then it's
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just going to kind of make it float in the air.
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He's going to try to cut it off, hopefully with a couple curls left.
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He's gonna torch this last little bit. You might not
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believe us, but, like. That pumpkin's still at, like, thousand twelve hundred
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degrees. Even though it doesn't look like it. Like, the torch that Tate's using right
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now, that torch is burning at, like, around 3,000 degrees.
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So he's just going to make sure. Everything's nice. And seated down nicely. And then
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he's gonna run this in the annealer. And the annealer sits at
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915 degrees. And that's pumpkin.
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So now what's going on right now, Aaron, we have. Our timing
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has to be perfect. That's why I'm looking at him. He's looking at me. We
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know exactly where we are. Aaron's pumpkin can't be too
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cold or too hot, right? If it's too hot,
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this is gonna deform in our. Our shape will be ruined
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if it's too cold. Just what I said before. The whole thing's gonna
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explode. So it's like, right as he knocks that off, I gotta come over here.
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Cause we're on a limited time clock. The heated plate that I'm on
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Buys us a little bit more time. You guys can see how hot and gooey
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the glass is. I get one chance to do this. So I'm going for
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the stem. If I mess this up, it is totally messed up. Gonna grab my
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stick. I'm waiting for the right temperature. I'm gonna wrap this around. You can see
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I'm going pretty quickly. The glass is starting to set up. This is probably the
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hardest color. And it's a mini pumpkin, which also makes
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it harder because it's so small. These are actually harder to
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make. Than the bigger pumpkin stems. So you can see that's rock hard.
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That is no longer moving. No longer moving. Now this
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glass is cold right here. When I go to break it, you'll see it's actually
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going to break. Like, it's broken. I didn't cut through
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it. I'm going to go ahead and blow that off a little bit.
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Make sure there's no little shards or anything like that on there.
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Just going to take my oxygen propane torch here. And
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I'm going to torch in that sharp part.
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Now, this is 3,000 degrees. And then I am
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going to make sure. That my stem. Is really nice. And seated
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to our pumpkin. And then this pumpkin will
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get loaded. Away in the kiln. We won't see the true color until
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tomorrow. And that's how glassbone works. This pumpkin is still
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above 800 degrees. You can see we got a whole bunch of pumpkins
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in the kiln here today. We're at the end of our workday. So Tate
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was telling me about the mold here. That they had it designed from
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scratch. We have different sizes. So, like, this is the small
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one. And then we also have a Big one. And then we
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even have one that's bigger than this. But what makes it so cool is that
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this opens from the top, and then it opens. So it's, like, kind of
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complex. And so the pumpkin, this has an undercut,
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so you wouldn't be able to get out of it. So there's no one else
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that has a mold like this. We had this custom built
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and designed for us to our specs.
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And so this was, like, three years in the making. And then this is
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a bigger one. So we can make a giant pumpkin. This is all, like, machine
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cut on a plasma table. A bunch of fancy
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math. And then also why it's hard. It has to be able to open and
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close. It has to be able to lift up so you can get out of
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there. But the other hard part is these lines have to have
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to line up perfectly, because if these are off at all,
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you'll be able to see in the pumpkin, and they won't have the perfect
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ridges. So the pumpkins that you get from us that are organic
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lined pumpkins, no one else in the world has, we had these custom made
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for us. So here you go. Aaron's gonna come on in here. He's gonna stick
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the glass in there. I'm gonna close it around it. I'm gonna press down. Aaron's
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blowing, and then he's gonna pull up. You can see the glass is expanding
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inside of there. And then when he taps his foot, that means he wants open.
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And then I have to lift up so he's able to get out that undercut
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on the top. And so then you see the difference between
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the pumpkins we were just making. This is the same color as before,
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but it's a totally different look of the ridges. This is a more
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organic shape of the pumpkin. Right.
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Just people running around the whole time. So you kind of learn to have. A
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be very careful with everything. Yeah.
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So you guys make this so you can put a tea light in it. I
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saw that from your website. That's so cool. All right. That's
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kind of like, you know, we didn't invent the glass pumpkin. So it's like kind
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of our take on it, and we like to kind of make things useful.
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Right now you can get them that light up.
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So all of ours have a hole in the bottom for tea light or rope
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lights. You got your little tapper bat. Is that what you call that thing?
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Yeah, it's the break off bat. The funny part is you can't tell anymore.
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But this is actually Tate's old like
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10 year old baseball trophy. Oh, that's so funny.
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You used to be able to see like the names and stuff ingrained in it.
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But it's been many, many years now. I'm sure you've used your
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trophy bat more than anyone probably ever in the world.
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Yeah, he's waiting for a bubble or. See
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this is the same color but it looks a lot different in this style of
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pumpkin. So why we like the organic mold is like
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the same colors kind of do like they
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just look different. They blow out different. So it's like some colors
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look better in this style of pumpkin, some colors look better in the other style
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of pumpkin. So it's just more variance.
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But I personally like the look of these ones better.
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So go ahead and torch that in.
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There is a organic lucid caramel
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pumpkin.
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The caramel ones are awfully cute. Yeah, they're could
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be a fun name too, right? Yes.
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Like a pumpkin spice. That's right. Pumpkin spice.
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Pumpkin. Yeah. Ash who owns part of the business
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too, does a lot of the naming. But it's total skill
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to name the pumpkins.
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Which ones are harder to make, Aaron? These ones are the round ones.
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Probably the round ones. I don't know.
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Ask Zane. He'd be more. Which
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pumpkin's harder to make, Zane? The round one or the organic?
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Really? This one?
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Round. He says round is harder to make. Is it just
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harder to get it like completely round? And then this is like this one's
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more forgiving. Is that or what do you think? Well, it's this one is.
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Since we have that mold, it's like you're blowing the finished
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shape. Oh, I see. So it's like the other one. It's like we have to
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make the shape. That's what I was gonna say. Oh, gotcha.
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But it's like, it's also
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like we always like to say everything glass belongs extremely hard until it becomes easy.
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So it's like, you know, I've made tens of thousands of
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pumpkins now, so that's why I asked. Zane is like I'm biased. I don't.
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Doesn't matter me now. Yeah, I've done so many. Put in your 10,000
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hours. Yeah. So I did a speech this week and I'm like 10,000 hours of
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mastery. You know, just 10,000 hours of mastery. Whatever you're doing.
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And then he just said 10,000 hours. Just like as
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if I asked him to say that. Yeah, we're way,
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way over 10,000 hours. I bet you are. Yeah.
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Yeah. We tried to do the math.
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Well, we haven't done one today. When we worked in the
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factory, there's. A move that you can do where. You smear the color over a
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bubble. It's called an overlay. And it's like Aaron did that
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job for like two or three years
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and it's like he made 120 to 150 a day. I just
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put color on full time, two years. So it's like just
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like, just in that one move. It's like 10,000 reps or something.
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It was like nuts. It's way more than that. You think it's more.
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I think it was like 30 something thousand times or something. So what's
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different from what you guys do here versus the factory?
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Our quality is a lot higher. Is that a bad
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question? No, you can ask that. It's
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a different product. It's a different product. Okay.
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So it's like in the scheme of things, everything is different because we're making something
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different. Yeah. So it's like if we
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started making cups, it's like some things would be similar, but
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then like all of a sudden you're gonna be like, I've never seen this
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before. This is way different because we're making something different. So are
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pumpkins your guys' kind of the main thing all year long? That's what we're known
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for the most. Well, what we're known for the most is pumpkins
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and ornaments. We're known for the pumpkins the most because we do the
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hand blown glass pumpkin patch. We have three this year. We had three big
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events. We already had two. The one
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coming up is next weekend. Not this weekend, but the week after. City of
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Folsom, 12 artists, 6,000 pumpkins. And it's like a normal
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pumpkin patch like you would go to when you were a kid. But they're all
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just glass. So it's just like a glass pumpkin patch. So we're both. We're
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known for that. So we've been doing that for seven years. We'll be the seventh
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year. The one with the Folsom, the one we did this year
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that's coming up at the city of Folsom will be the seventh year.
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And that's just next weekend. Next weekend. Okay, so I saw your
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ornaments. Are you guys. Have you guys started making ornaments too? Are you gonna wait
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till after October? No, we already got thousands of
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ornaments already. Thousands already done. Well, that's.
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I did see some in there for sure. Yeah, we have some in there. But
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we have. This year is our first year. We're trying to actually stay
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organized and, like, have proper inventory of stuff.
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So Tate will probably take you back there. We have boxes just full of, like,
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this, like, you know, if we had pumpkins, we would have 30 of this pumpkin
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sitting on the shelf. Right. But since it's pumpkin season, we don't really have much
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inventory. Yeah, pumpkins
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first. I get
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so excited to decorate for fall, and it's all pumpkins and orange.
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That's why I had to wear an orange shirt today. I had to wear orange
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and black. You guys are also orange and black. So on
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after accident, I was thematic. Little
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bit. Totally on accident. Nice.
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You have to start your. Your pumpkin collection. Look at the back of his
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shirt here. It is like Mary's and same
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colors. I did that. Right, so.
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So we are going to sit down now with Tate and Ash and just ask
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a few more questions. It was so fun to see you do all your work,
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Tate in there in the studio. So I know you guys
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have been building this together for a while now.
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And Tate, I think you told us a little bit in there about how you
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started out, you know, learning, started doing this when you're 17,
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and then worked in a factory for a while and. And all
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that, and then this came about. So how did
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it start? I know you said you've only been here three years, right? In this
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building? Two years. Two years in the building. Yeah. Okay, so it's
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grown. How long is. How'd you come up with the name
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2B Glass? It was like, our last name is Bezdek,
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and it's like, oh, is it too. Is it two? Is it to be glass
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or not to be glass? And like, we were young, and it was
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just like all we were thinking about is glass and glass and
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glass and that we should make, you know, something
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like, we just want to make everything out of glass. Like, oh, let's make a
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pot out of glass. Let's make all of our drinking out of glass. Let's make
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all of our bowls out of glass. It's like. Like, everything should just made
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out of glass. And it's like I'm not good at spelling
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either. So it's like, you know, it's like, hopefully people remember
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it. It's like, you know, making names is really hard. So it's like since the
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number two, the letter B, glass. Like, to be glass. Like, you know,
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you want to try to remember that to be or not. To be, but you're
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going to be glass. That's right. Yeah, exactly. There's.
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It's like, a lot of puns kind of in it as well. Right.
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You guys have a great entrepreneur story. So, like,
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in your words, like, how would you. How do you feel like you got here
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from the start? I know it. I know kind of the basics of how it
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started, but from the factory. Let's go from there. Like, from the
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factory. And you decided to be like, I'm going to start it on my own.
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How did that go? And you were. And you guys knew each other then, right?
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That's where we met. So me and Ash met in the factory. Factory. She was
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the buyer. I was the glass blower. And then
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I swindled her with my charm. With
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your charm and good looks and. That's right. It's a.
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It's a beautiful, romantic story surrounded with glass.
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That's right. Very much so, yeah. I think I
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knew early on, very early on, that
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I wanted to do my own business. And I like, even, like in high school,
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I was like, I want to work for myself one day. I want to be
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my own boss. I want to do what I want to do, how I want
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to do it. And so we work in the factory, and we
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learned a lot there, but we knew that once we got to
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the highest level, which was called the trimmer, that
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I wanted to learn everything that I could learn there because we only made one
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product. And then once we were not allowed to leave until
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we were at the top of the food chain, Got all the skills I needed
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to learn there. And then from there, I was like. Okay,
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well, now we did that. We kind of know how to blow glass. And then
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it was more of like, we knew early on that we wanted to have a
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business. And so I was like, okay, well, how do we do that?
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Swindle me. That's how we do that.
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Together. Get her on board. Crack the
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whip. No, it was just like
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I'm the Whip cracker, just to be clear. Yeah, she's
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the boss and makes the boat float and go
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forward in every thing. We're just the guys that blow glass in there. And I
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have all the hair brain ideas.
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It's not totally true, but we. You're a good
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partnership is what I'm hearing. Yeah. Yeah. We all have different strengths,
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and I think we really bring them out in each other. And
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there's something about having a dynamic of three people. And maybe it would
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be there if there was just two of us, too. Just somebody holding
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you accountable and just saying, like, we're not giving up. Like, you're
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tired today. I'm sorry. Too bad. Like, Get a coffee. So there's a
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lot of, like, encouragement and. And just keeping it
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going. And I think in the beginning that was really clear. I was looking
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for my thing when we met. I knew
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being a buyer wasn't my entire future. And
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I had been looking for something art related my whole life. I tried
20:25
many, many mediums, and none of them just really
20:30
clicked. And. And then I met Tate and Aaron, and we
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were working at the factory, and they would just say, when are you going to
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quit your job and just Start working for 2B Glass? When are you going to
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quit and just start doing our business? And then the conversation
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just kind of, you know, they joke and say that, but then it would actually
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be like, well, seriously, like, could you quit? We'll blow
20:50
glass and you can, like, get it going. And so
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eventually we did initiate that. And I mean,
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we were doing art shows before then. And, like, we worked
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and we had. A did shows on the weekend. We were, like,
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trying to figure it out. And so we slowly just, like,
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you know, we just didn't go, like, from working in the factory. And then just
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like, quitting it was like, we would mean Aaron would, like, spend all of
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our breaks, all of our lunches, like, making. Figuring out and making our
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own products. And then we would do shows. We had Etsy, we had a
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website. And, like, so we were getting some sales and
21:27
some traction. And then that started to build and build and build. And then, like,
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we were doing more shows. And then, like, I remember the first Christmas, like, we
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put up, like, 15 ornaments or something. And it's like on
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Etsy, and we sold, like, I don't know, 20 of them or something. Or 50,
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maybe. Probably not 15 styles. Yeah, it
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was like we were just. Like, oh, my God, like, how are we gonna
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make these? Like, what's happening? And so we kind of like, saw. The end,
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like, you know, that it was possible. And then in the
21:56
background, we were, like, built. We were building all the equipment, and we built our
22:00
first shop in my mom's backyard. And so
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we kind of had all the pieces. We kind of knew all how it worked.
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And we just would spend our time, like, building equipment, learning how it would
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work. We became friends with the maintenance guy at the the factory. And
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then it was just like a slow transition of like, okay, we're starting to sell
22:18
stuff. It's kind of happening. We have all the equipment. And then one day we
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went home. We turned everything on, and it worked. And we were
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like, all right, like, we officially have, like, a
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studio. All the parts and pieces work like, it was nothing like the
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scale that it was on now. It was very small.
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Like, we, like, you know, we didn't have any money, so it was, like, very
22:39
rudimentary, like, very this stuff.
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And then it was like, it all worked one day and we were like,
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all right, like, we have a working studio. And then I was like, okay,
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well. Like, let's sign up for some more. Shows and let's do a little bit
22:53
more. And then like, there was just like a turning point where, like, all right,
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we're going all in. It was like, May was May
23:01
2018. April, like right into summer.
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2018. 2018. Okay. And then we were like, all right, let's do it. I
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quit in 2017. Like, September,
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August, September. Got like, little things
23:16
ready to go as far as, like, the website, having a website,
23:20
having packaging, having a business card booth,
23:23
display type stuff. And then they still worked at the
23:27
factory, continued to make product on their breaks and on lunch and on
23:31
the weekends. You were allowed to make work at the factory
23:36
in your free time. And yeah, it really helped develop the
23:39
skills of the employees there to give them that free time to
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really test out what they can and cannot do instead of having them do that
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while they're trying to make product. So it was a win, win situation. And they.
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They made work. And yeah, then they quit in April. And
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we had a rainbow school bus, a mini rainbow school bus that we used
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to do all of our art shows. So we would travel and
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sleep in the school bus. And our
24:06
biggest year was 44 art shows. So we did
24:10
almost every weekend and
24:13
simultaneously put the shop together in Orangevale and did
24:17
the shows and. And then Covid hit and it was. Shows were
24:21
done and we weren't doing anything. So
24:25
that pivoted. We pivoted quickly, bought some camera
24:28
equipment, photographed a few lines of
24:32
work that we wanted to put on Etsy, learned how to take
24:36
pictures and how to be a photographer. Yeah, this
24:40
guy was there the whole time. Such a sweet dog and.
24:43
Yeah, such a sweet dog. So good. I'm like, just so
24:47
careful around all the glass and all the fire and.
24:51
Yeah, all the people coming in and out. Yeah, he used to love.
24:55
So, yeah, then we went online and stopped doing art shows and
25:00
Etsy really took off. So we were really successful
25:04
there and that really grounded us. And
25:08
even through Covid and everything, it was really successful. We just saw
25:11
more and more and more growth and yeah, it's kind of. The rest is history
25:15
from there. It's been a lot of the same.
25:19
But what has been different is we've
25:22
become more refined versions of ourselves
25:26
and more entrepreneurial, more efficient, more
25:30
resourceful. We know how to, you know,
25:34
work with overseas suppliers. We know how to.
25:38
We have a CPA now. We, we know what we want our future look like.
25:42
We have a year plan. It's not, you know, like, what are we going to
25:45
do next weekend? So yeah, it's a lot more
25:48
sophisticated now. And that's really, really
25:52
exciting and amazing because when you are just
25:55
in the swamp, the first couple of years of just trudging through
25:59
and every day you, you arrive at your email
26:03
with more notices of how you need to be doing it
26:06
differently from either the county or, or the city
26:10
or your CPA or a
26:14
customer. And you know, you really learn how to be a
26:17
business person by practicing it. And so that seems
26:21
like really good advice. Like you learn by doing it and yeah, you
26:25
can't see the five years down the road necessarily when you're just trying
26:28
to start. Yeah, you don't know what you don't know. Right, that expression.
26:32
And so it takes time. And I think, you know, some people might
26:36
grow up with a business background or business degrees or
26:40
family businesses that give them, you know, a little bit more of a
26:44
guide. But my degree is in international
26:48
studies and both Tate and Erin went right into glassblowing out of
26:52
high school. So none of us have business experience.
26:56
And so it was a lot of winging it and figuring it out as we
26:58
go. But I think all three of us are really
27:01
resourceful and you learn as you go. Yeah. And
27:05
Tate said he listens to the most of anyone on
27:09
Spotify. Self educated for sure. Business. Is that right?
27:13
Yeah, I'm in the top 1% of listeners for
27:16
business and tech, whatever that means.
27:22
I listened to a lot of stuff and I didn't think like when I was
27:25
younger that I'd like business. Like I always like didn't like it.
27:29
But then the more is that we did it and it like it just got
27:33
funner and funner and it's like always a problem to be solved and like I
27:36
really like problem solving and complex issues
27:40
and like long term like vision and
27:44
planning and so I like really excel at that stuff. So it's more
27:48
like it's just a big game. It's like game that if
27:52
you win you get to be more successful and like make more money
27:56
and like, you know, people love your stuff and you grow and your work becomes
28:00
better and it's like you become a better person. And I kind of think we
28:03
Think that, like, you know, to move forward in business too, you have to be
28:07
able to move forward, like, personally too, and you have to, like,
28:10
kind of work through your problems and issues. And so, like, to get to the
28:14
next level or move forward, it's like you also have to do a lot of
28:17
work on yourself. And so it's just like a great
28:21
full circle thing that it's like you have to, like, you know,
28:24
work on yourself, work on the business, and, like, everything has to, like, exist
28:28
together because you kind of are the business. Yeah. You're doing
28:31
negotiations, management, you know, people
28:34
skills, customer service skills, obviously, all of those things.
28:38
And when you start, when you're 17, you usually don't have
28:42
great. Any of that. No, no. Yeah,
28:46
it's been really. If you start, if you're 37 or older, you don't always.
28:49
Unless you don't know until you learn it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
28:53
Yeah. So that's been fun. We both like to grow. We both like to learn,
28:58
so it's been really fun to just be challenged.
29:02
It's been stressful also, but it's been.
29:08
It's been really good too. It's understandable, for sure. Well, and you also get to
29:11
do something you really enjoy. Obviously, you started right. Right off the bat with
29:15
it, so. Yeah. Building a business from something you really enjoy, I imagine
29:19
is that's kind of like peak life stuff, you know? Yeah. That's what keeps you
29:23
going, you know, I know it's so cliche to say there's
29:26
an expression, right, that says you never work a day in your life if you're
29:30
doing something you love. Like, I think that's a little
29:34
stretched, but knowing that we love this,
29:38
I, you know, whenever I'm having hard days or really stress weeks,
29:42
we, you know, we recently had a hack hacking situation
29:46
into our banking account information. So that was very stressful.
29:51
And it, you know, it puts you in perspective. You stop and you
29:55
go, do I still want to keep doing this? Has this pushed me over my
29:58
limits? Or can I push through this challenge
30:02
and come out better in the end? And
30:06
so, yeah, there's a lot of stress, but that, that makes you try
30:09
harder and work harder. And then, you know, usually we're
30:13
proud of ourselves in the end. Sometimes we're like, could have
30:17
done that better. Just, we like to say,
30:21
you know, just 1% better every day.
30:25
It's like, you know, you have crappy days and you have good days, but it's
30:28
like, just work through it and then you just keep going and it's just like,
30:31
if you just keep doing it, like, you're gonna get better at it. So it's
30:34
just like, you know, we've made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mess
30:38
ups. And then it's like, okay, we're not gonna make that mistake again.
30:42
Like, add that one to the list moving forward. Like,
30:45
you just learn so much every time. So it's like you just don't know what
30:49
you don't know. And then you do it and you're like, ugh, let's not do
30:52
that one again. And then it's just, it's just like blowing glass. Blowing glass is
30:56
the same way. Yeah. Lots of practice. Lots of practice. So when you guys first
31:00
started, did you know you're gonna do pumpkin and ornaments? Is that the main
31:03
thing? Because those are the two main things you do, right? Yeah. Oh yeah.
31:07
We've been making pumpkins since like day one. Pumpkins for
31:11
sure. You. She really loves pumpkins.
31:15
Can I answer this question? Yeah, go for it. Yeah. I'm like, I want to
31:18
talk. I love pumpkins. It is October. Let's talk pumpkins.
31:22
Yeah. So originally we did everything.
31:26
We were wherever we could make money. If someone needed a vase fixed or
31:30
they had this crazy chandelier or that they one piece broke
31:34
and they needed something made, we would replace it. Custom jobs, all sorts
31:38
of stuff. We've done lighting, art installations, drink wear,
31:42
olive oil bottles, vases. We even did
31:45
memorial pieces as well.
31:50
And yeah, of course, ornaments and pumpkins and
31:53
seasonal stuff. I feel like I'm missing a lot. But we were all over the
31:56
gamut, the whole gamut. And, you
32:00
know, as the years passed, we realized you can't scale
32:04
that, you know, and so custom orders kind of got ticked off the list and
32:07
like, okay, that's just super time consuming. It's really hard to predict what
32:11
people want. Even when you're having thorough conversations, their
32:15
vision and your vision don't quite meet often.
32:19
It's very time consuming and
32:23
costly. So anyway, little by little, things came off the
32:26
table and we realized that this
32:30
kind of sounds cheesy, but we receive the
32:34
most amount of excitement and joy and enthusiasm
32:38
by selling pumpkins and ornaments. Like, people are just
32:41
over the moon for pumpkins. We do our pumpkin events.
32:45
We usually sell about 6,000 pumpkins a year at our hand
32:49
blown glass pumpkin patch. And I'm from the
32:53
Midwest, so the holiday, I'm from Michigan. The holidays are a big deal for
32:56
my family. My mom, her Instagram name is themarypumpkin.
33:01
You know, she's not involved with us at all, but that is her M.O.
33:05
and we used to have some really amazing Halloween parties and Christmas
33:09
parties in my family, so it's always been a big part for me. And so
33:12
when this business was kind of shifting that way, I was like, yes, yes. Like,
33:15
let's do this. Let's do this. Like, there's so much you can do with that.
33:19
And most people celebrate the holidays in some way,
33:23
and, you know, the pumpkins were super successful. So in the
33:27
end, it ended up being, how do we narrow our focus? We can't be all
33:31
over the map. That's not scalable. What do we love doing? What do the people
33:35
love? And it just kept pointing back to pumpkins and
33:38
ornaments. And so. And on top of that, pumpkins are, like,
33:42
not frowned upon in the glass community, but they're, like, the very uncool
33:46
thing to do. Yeah. So they're kind of, like, the underdog.
33:51
So everyone, like, kind of makes pumpkins, but no one ever puts any thought or,
33:54
like, takes them very seriously. And so, like, they'd rather make a
33:58
gossip. They would rather make, like, fancy glassblowing things like
34:02
rattachellos or in comos or some fancy whatever. I
34:06
don't even know what those are. Yeah. Technical point. That's the point.
34:09
Like, we're gonna serve the community, not the
34:13
glass community. So then that also Ashley liked him and had all
34:16
those things. And then, like, me and Aaron were like, like, let's do this.
34:20
Like, let's become the best at making pumpkins. And, like, we're gonna make work that
34:24
no one can do. We're gonna put in all the reps. We're gonna do different
34:27
stem styles that no one else has ever seen. We're gonna, like, be
34:31
melt beautiful glass, and we're just gonna, like, make custom
34:34
mold, custom shapes. Ash is, like, amazing at color, so we're just,
34:38
like, pushing the envelope now so it's like, you won't really see any
34:42
pumpkins out there that look like ours, because this is, like, what we've
34:45
spent the last, like, five years like, refining and
34:49
focus on of, like, this is what we do. Yeah. Oh, that's
34:53
amazing. So that's fun. Yeah. So it's the finer details that, you know, if you
34:57
really took the time to look at our work and do a comparison,
35:00
you can see how much precision
35:04
Tate and Aaron have with how the stem lays, how big
35:08
it is, proportions, the thickness of the
35:11
glass. We do the hole in the bottom so you can light each of
35:15
the pumpkins up. That's the signature thing we do, that's
35:19
very cool, too. Like, watching it being done is very, very
35:22
interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So they're very good
35:26
glassblowers now, very technically skilled, so
35:29
it's cool to see them be able to make whatever I say.
35:37
So you guys went viral with some videos and that affected your
35:41
business? This is from Tate and Xander have been friends
35:45
since a long time. Xander from a couple episodes ago. So just how I
35:49
found you. So that's really fun and cool to me because Xander's awesome and you
35:52
guys are awesome. So. What happened with that? Like,
35:56
how did that affect your business and what led up to it? Because you guys
35:58
are making videos, right? And you've been making videos for a while? No, not really.
36:02
Not really? No. I've been wanting to make videos for, like, the
36:06
last decade. Yes. I've been
36:10
like, I'm the guy that doesn't watch tv, that doesn't
36:13
do anything. The only thing that I watch is YouTube. And I just watch,
36:17
like, business stuff, woodworking,
36:21
whatever, people fixing cars. Like, just. That's all I watch is.
36:25
I don't know anything. Can't even tell you. I don't know any movies. I don't
36:28
know what's going on in the news. All I watch is, like, cool stuff on
36:31
YouTube. So I've always been like, man, we gotta make YouTube
36:35
channel. We gotta do YouTube. But, like, I don't know how to make videos. I
36:39
don't know how to edit. And also, like, I'm running a whole company and doing
36:42
a million other things. I don't really have time, right. To, like,
36:46
learn and figure this out and do everything as the
36:50
maker, you. Know, as a manufacturer. Yeah. And I
36:53
didn't have time. I'm wearing. Yeah. So we're all just stressed
36:57
trying to do it. Like, coming on the table, coming off the table,
37:01
coming on the table. Finally, he did it. Yeah. So then, like, enough.
37:05
Like, I'd done so much research, and I, like, this is like my
37:09
wheelhouse. Like, this is what I watch. I know everything that's going on.
37:12
And after seeing so many other people that
37:17
do more boring things that I do
37:20
and, like, be really successful, I'm like, man, I got, like, we gotta,
37:24
like, we gotta do it. And so then I just. Like,
37:28
we were in Costco, they had the little Pocket three camera in there. I'm like,
37:32
we're buying one. And I'm just like, for three months, I'm gonna post a video
37:34
every day. Don't care if it's sucks. Like, the first ones are
37:38
terrible. And so it's like, I just like, we're like. I told Aaron, he was
37:42
on board and was like. I was like, we're just gonna come out here. I'm
37:45
gonna grab the camera. We're gonna get mic'd up. Whatever we're doing for the day,
37:48
we try to make it cool. I'm just gonna take a couple shots. I'm gonna
37:51
come up right after work. I'm gonna stay late. I'm gonna, like, edit it up.
37:55
I don't know anything about anything. And I'm just gonna post a video every
37:59
day. I'm gonna try to do it for, like, three months
38:03
and then, like, relatively quickly. Well, I guess,
38:06
like, in the first. Two weeks, we had one that went viral,
38:10
but it was like. It was just music, and it was like 20 seconds, and
38:14
it was just me making a pumpkin stem. It got like, 20 million
38:17
views, but nothing happened. It was just, like. It was just cool. It was
38:21
just cool video that, like. No one buy anything. Like, nothing happened. I think we
38:24
got one order. Maybe it was two orders. And I was like, oh, my God.
38:28
Like, we got two orders. We got one order. Yeah, it was
38:32
cool. So I was just like, it was cool. And so. But then
38:35
from there, it was like, okay, like, we got two orders
38:39
for this one video, you know, got 22 million views.
38:43
Like, but it was like. It was just like a song of, like. It was
38:47
very rudimentary views and sales won't necessarily correlate.
38:50
Yeah. So then I was like, okay, well, we got like,
38:54
that's cool. And I was like, okay, we gotta keep it going. We gotta keep
38:57
it going. And then, like, we had some slow traction, and then we had, like,
39:00
a couple get some. We had a couple get some. And then
39:04
like, a month in, maybe a month and a half in, we had, like, three
39:07
videos all go viral within like a week or a week and a half. And
39:11
then from that point, it was just, like, nuts. Like,
39:14
wow. Just like. Was that just this year, too? Yeah, like, a couple
39:18
months ago. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I think I said saw one. I'm sure
39:22
you did. Before I met Xander. I'm like, oh, my gosh, it's so cool.
39:26
It's just like, when I was in there, I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's so
39:28
cool. How much? I don't know what it is now, but a couple
39:31
days ago, there's one video that has over
39:34
111 million views. And it has, like,
39:38
hundreds of thousand comments on it. And some of those comments
39:42
individually have thousands and thousands comments on them.
39:46
It's absolutely nuts. And it also
39:50
exploded our Instagram and our Facebook page.
39:54
We had like 5,000 followers on Instagram and like a hundred
39:57
on Facebook and our. For, like years. For years. Seven years. I
40:01
mean. And I've been trying, like, you know, posting on Instagram, doing what they say,
40:05
like, you got to be posting consistently. Trying, trying so hard
40:08
to make time for that with everything else. And it was just such
40:12
a lost cause. And then our Instagram now has
40:16
218 or something thousand followers,
40:19
which, you know, isn't like millions, but to go from
40:23
5,000 followers in a couple months. So that was like. So we
40:27
have been getting orders and orders and orders, and it's been really amazing.
40:31
Normally, July and August are really dry for us as a business. There's
40:35
not, you know, we have our Mother's Day event. We have a second sale in
40:38
March, and the holidays and the pumpkin season
40:42
really support the rest of the year. So historically, July,
40:46
August have just been kind of. We catch up, we get sleep, we
40:49
prepare for. Yeah, we kind of get sleep. We, you
40:53
know, brainstorm and. But this year, it's just been absolutely nuts.
40:57
So it's. It's been really, really amazing. And I think we just.
41:01
Yeah, we struck a chord. I had watched enough YouTube video.
41:04
I've watched enough woodworking videos of like, people that
41:08
are makers and craftsmen like me. In every other category, there's
41:13
not a million, but a lot of people, like, for woodworking is like the best
41:16
example. It's like go on YouTube on woodworking. There's like a million people you could
41:20
watch that are all like, amazing woodworkers, and they make these amazing
41:23
videos. And you go on the glass bowl, and there's not a single person doing
41:27
it. And it's like, everyone loves Glassblowing. And it's
41:30
like, no, but no one explained explains what's going on. So that's the biggest thing.
41:34
So it's like, you know, just like you guys are gonna see in the video,
41:37
I kind of explain what's happening. And so that was kind of our focus. And
41:41
it's like, yeah, all those videos that got these millions and millions of view. It's
41:45
just me and Aaron in the studio. We don't have a camera guy. We don't
41:48
have a script. We don't have light. We have nothing. It's just me
41:52
holding a camera and a blowpipe. All right, Aaron, like, rig
41:56
this one up and like, I'm gonna one hand this one and I don't know,
41:59
say something cool and like, let's figure it out. And it's
42:03
me sitting down on the computer. I don't know anything about editing and. I'm just
42:06
like clipping them together, watching. YouTube videos, like trying to figure it out.
42:10
And I think we just struck a. Chord because it's like we're like. It's just,
42:14
it's real, it's authentic and it's just us in there working
42:17
and it's not this big operation and like. It's not
42:21
over produced. It's fun. And people like that, I think nowadays
42:25
like just seeing they do behind the scenes. Authenticity. Authenticity
42:28
is, is important to people. Yeah. And he's a goof. Like.
42:32
Well, he's a very good story. You guys both are very good storytellers if you
42:35
notice like this. I rarely ask a question because I don't have to. So
42:39
like just like you're telling this story. Such a good. No, it's just so
42:43
good. That's a. That's a compliment. Thank you.
42:47
That's good. Yeah. Relaying your story. Yeah,
42:51
it's been really fun and we got many more videos to come,
42:55
so stay tuned. Subscribe to @2BGlass. Check us out on
42:58
YouTube. We're gonna hit a million subscribers this year.
43:02
60 ornament videos coming up. You're not gonna want to miss
43:06
them. I love that. That seems like a good
43:09
place to end, doesn't it? I don't know how to get
43:13
better than that. So thank you guys so much. Appreciate your
43:17
time and I love your beautiful new space and thank you. Beautiful view
43:21
you have here. If it wasn't raining, I imagine it would be even more beautiful.
43:24
But we get some really great sunsets. I bet. I bet. But it's
43:28
nice and cool today and October. Thank you for your time
43:32
and I wish you guys all the best. I imagine you're going to get so
43:35
busy that when I ask to come up again, you're going to be like. I
43:39
don't know, just like. Don't expect us to talk, but you can come if you
43:43
want. We won't do that. No, no. I wish you
43:47
guys all the best. So that's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a
43:50
really fun and crazy wild journey. So
43:54
we're very passionate about it. Yeah. Can tell we're just
43:57
getting started. Just getting started. Yeah,
44:02
us too. At Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy. So also come see you at
44:05
the. Hand blown glass pumpkin patch, 48 Natoma street
44:09
in Folsom, California. 12 artists, 6,000 pumpkins,
44:13
live glass blend, free popcorn, free parking.
44:17
You definitely want to come check it out. It's like if you love pumpkins, you
44:20
love fall, you love glass. This is where you want to be.
44:24
October 11th and 12th. We'll be there Saturday
44:28
and Sunday 11th and 1210 to 5. 48
44:31
and Tome Street, Folsom, California.
44:35
Hand blown glass pumpkin patch. I think you got it.
44:39
You want to make one more Zane?
44:43
That's three of those. And then we're gonna
44:47
switch loose to caramel after that. Yeah, okay.
44:52
That one. I'm just not very happy with that one. Huh? That one's.
44:56
You're not happy with it? No, Aaron's not happy with that one. Stem
45:00
kind of. We're not stem. My shape kind of got funky.
45:05
All right, now we're just gonna like rip through like
45:09
whatever. We're gonna switch after this one. So after this one we'll. And then we'll
45:13
do a big curly stem. That'll be a little bit more fun. I'll try to
45:16
go get this orange tape.
45:23
One that I really like. Even though it's really hard, it's one. Of
45:27
the harder ones to make.
45:39
It's lucid caramel. That's what it's called,
45:43
lucid caramel. This is the 2021 Pumpkin of the Year Lucid
45:47
Caramel. And it's like four colors in one. The
45:50
same color. It's like iridescent. Yeah. It just
45:54
has a bunch of weird stuff. You'll see. Yeah,
46:04
you don't. You don't. Not until tomorrow.
46:08
Well, I mean we kind of do because like these are our products. But the
46:12
reason we're remaking this is this one struck too much in the kiln and them
46:15
want they weren't web quality so we got to redo them.
46:21
Right? Yeah. This one's unpredictable.
46:26
Like take and show you. They're still sitting over there.
46:31
What this looks like compared to what. It finishes out as sometimes is way
46:35
different. You start the next one, Zane.
46:41
No water break for you.
47:05
That looks good. Way better than yesterday.
47:13
Oh, come on.
47:19
Let's go.
47:25
So this will be our full curls curly stem.
47:29
One we were doing before was the coiled stem. This
47:32
one's.
47:37
Well yesterday. They all look clear and then they all turn brown.
47:42
It's just because that kiln dude glass. Is already setting
47:45
up. See it's starting to stiff up like. We did at the beginning.
47:49
Plate tubing on the hot top shelf on the left, right next to elements.
47:53
It's pretty good looking stem. And they ran smoke.
47:57
Yeah. So it's hard now. Right. It's not moving
48:01
anymore. Stick it in there. We
48:05
did those like blow off some. Of the shards
48:08
first thing. Now it's sharp right there where I cut it because it broke
48:12
off where the top selling from, you can see. And it kind of changes when
48:16
I hold it up.