My Private Tour of the glassybaby studio & hot shop

Today I was treated to lunch, and a private tour of glassybaby studio and hot shop in Madrona, WA.

I had lunch with Mary, Tracy and Annjette at a fabulous little cafe around the corner from the store. I've had the pleasure of having met Tracy a few times before, but had never had the opportunity to meet Mary (who I have corresponded with at length for the past two years) or Annjette. We had a really lovely time catching up, and getting to know one-another.

After lunch, Mary and Tracy were busy with meetings, but Annjette had time to take me on a personal tour of the glassybaby hot shop and studio.

I had been to the studio before, but it has been almost three years. She told me that they had grown the space since then, and she also brought to areas that I hadn't seen before. Very cool!

First, we went to the hot shop, where we watched the glassblowers make the glassybaby. I've taken a couple of glass-blowing lessons over the last few years (once in this very hot shop!) and I'm always amazed at the skill and artistry that goes into each glassybaby. It takes four glass artisans to make one single glassybaby. You can watch the process of the making of a glassybaby here.


Overview of the hot shop


molding the glassybaby


trimming the glassybaby


the final torch


putting the glassybaby seal on the bottom

After we watched the process of the creation of the glassybaby for a while, Annjette brought me to the back room where the glassybaby are sorted and stored.

The first area we went by was the quality control desk, where the new glassybaby are scrutinized to make sure that they are in perfect shape without any flaws. If there are any flaws at all, they are sent to the "Seconds shelf" (and eventually stored in the warehouse until the bi-annual seconds sale).


here is the list and codes of the flaws that Quality Control are looking for


some of the imperfect glassybaby which will become seconds. You can see that some of them are numbered with the code of the flaw

Next came one of my favorite parts of the tour: the wall of color bars used to make the special colors of the glassybaby. The bars are imported. Most are solid colors, some have multiple colors swirled into the bars (these may be used for colors like Jane's Caramel, Hudson, etc.,). Depending on the color, each glassybaby uses an inch or more of the color bar. Some glassybaby colors may require up to 1/3 of a color stick.


some of the color bars used to make glassybaby

Finally, we saw the part of the room used for storage of the stock for the Madrona Store. There are two other stores in Seattle, and one in San Francisco with a similar storage area. glassybaby also has a large warehouse where they keep a larger number of stock and from where they do their online deliveries.


the storage area for stock of the Madrona store

Our tour ended in the storefront of the Madrona store.


front window display at the Madrona glassybaby store

My thanks again to Mary, Tracy and Annjette for a really special lunch and afternoon. I look forward to another visit soon! xo

PS: I love factory tours!!