This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Size isn’t everything. A glassybaby is a small, colored glass cup. But the light of a candle coming through a glassybaby generates more: it gives warmth to a cold day, a ray of hope in darkness, a calm token of peace in the busy world.
Available in four hundred rich colors with whimsically descriptive names like Seattle Sunset, Grandma Jane’s Caramel and First Kiss, glassybaby ($40 each) are simple yet elegant, colorful, glass vessels that can be used as a votive, vase, table centerpiece or even a vibrant statement on an otherwise drab desk.
Using a multi-layered glassblowing process, it takes four glassblowers — from a team of 70 — to create just one unique, handmade glassybaby.
Every year, glassybaby donates a percentage of sales from store promotions and “goodwill” colors and to support organizations dedicated to cancer care, healing and quality of life. These causes are close to the heart of glassybaby founder Lee Rhodes, a three-time cancer survivor.
To date, the company has donated more than half a million dollars to charities including Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, The Humane Society, the Veteran’s Hospital of Seattle and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Lee learned glassblowing as a hobby, and as she began giving the lovely votives to others, glassybaby was born. To Lee, they represented “that deep breath that we often forget to take.”
Lee’s inspiration came from the many patients she met in chemotherapy rooms who could not afford day-to-day costs like groceries, childcare and bus fare during treatment; the expenses that health insurance doesn’t cover. From the beginning, glassybaby had the mission to donate money from sales to help patients with those costs, so they could find healing and hope.
In 2003, glassybaby opened its first retail store. Today, the Madrona neighborhood of east central Seattle on the western shore of Lake Washington is home to the company’s main store and studio, where a team of dedicated glassblowers produces an average of 500 glassybaby daily. The company also has stores in Seattle’s University Village; in Bellevue; and in New York’s West Village.
As each glassybaby leaves the door, Lee, reflecting on her own journey, knows that it will play a part of light, beauty and healing in a new story.
“glassybaby allow people to take that 30 seconds of peace and calm to find healing,” Lee says. “I feel joy that we have created something that touches so many people.”
Discover more at glassybaby.com or visit their hot shop seven days a week to watch glassblowers at work. 3406 East Union Street, Seattle, 98122. (877) 299-3591.
