glassybaby is art, community, and philanthropy.

We love to share the stories our customers tell about their glassybaby. They often begin with one person’s experience and ripple out to create something bigger for the whole community. When Madeline shared how her glassybaby survived the Palisades Fires, it grew into beautiful partnerships during a time of much-needed relief.  Now, we’re grateful to share Trina’s story—another reminder of how the glassybaby community comes together to make a difference and spread light. 

Hello! My name is Trina Chow. I live in San Francisco with my husband, Dick, our three-legged dog, Wallace, and our (four-legged) cat, Olive.  

I was gifted my first glassybaby in 2009 by my dear friend, Paula, soon after she had moved to the Seattle area. The next year, I went up to visit her and she took my very first glassybaby store where I bought a chartreuse - my favorite color.  

I was attracted to glassybaby immediately. I’m an artist (mostly oil painting these days) and I just love all of the vibrant and nuanced colors of these votives. I love playing with different colors and rearranging them into different displays. I think they are beautiful and individual works of art. I also love what glassybaby stands for: the community, the support of local artisans, and their charitable giving. 

holding my first living color glassybaby in front of one of my paintings

 

I really started collecting glassybaby in 2011. I went back up for another visit to Seattle, and came back with four more glassybaby. When I brought them home, I distinctly remember my husband saying something along the lines of “Those are really pretty. You should get more.” (Little did he know. ..)  That same month, glassybaby came down to San Francisco to host a pop up event at a small boutique where I bought seven more. My collection had officially taken off. Later that year, I went back to Seattle because Paula and I had signed up for a special glassybaby glassblowing fundraising event. I learned two things that evening: 1) I’m terrible at glassblowing, and 2) I spoke with head of fundraising at the time, and asked if glassybaby would be willing to come back to San Francisco to host a fundraiser at my house. This was well before glassybaby had any retail shops in the Bay Area, and they were trying to build a customer base here.  

with Lee Rhodes, January 2014

 

At the time, I had just completed my 2nd of 8 years of participating in multi-day breast cancer walks and fundraisers. Years 3-8 were for a small, local, grass-roots San Francisco based walk called the Immediate Impact Walk. We were a small, dedicated group of women (and a few men!) who raised over $660,000 over 6 years for underprivileged and underserved people battling breast cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area. I hosted 1-2 fundraisers with glassybaby each year, whether it be private events at my house, public events where we could invite the general public, and later in their stores once they came to San Francisco. I also hosted glassblowing fundraiser events at their hot shops at Madrona and later in Berkeley.  In total, glassybaby  donated over $7,000 to the Immediate Impact Walk. 

2011 glassybaby fundraiser at my house in San Francisco

In 2014, I had the great pleasure of collaborating with glassybaby to create a special glassybaby set to benefit The Immediate Impact Walk.  We chose the colors “Fearless” and “Compassion”, and we named the set “Possibilitarian”.  When we released the set, I was interviewed by Mericos Rhodes for a video segment he was working on for the company.  

 

interview with Mericos Rhodes to promote the Possibiliarian glassybaby set (August, 2014)

My glassybaby collection is larger than some, and smaller than others.  Each one has a story, and I can remember when/where I got each one. It helps that I’ve kept a spreadsheet since I started collecting. (Highly recommend!)