The Glass Issue
APRIL 17 - APRIl 20
EASTER SALE - APRIL 5
30% off all Redbird, Bodhi High and 30% off all CBD
MONDAY
DOUBLE POINT DAY
50% off all Panda and Snickle Fritz flower and joints 30% off all Dabstract, Hot Sugar and Snickle Fritz carts and dabs
BEST BUDS TUESDAY
30% off all flower and glass
CONCENTRATION WEDNESDAY
30% off all dabs & cartridges, and 30% off batteries
MUNCHIES THURSDAY
30% off all edibles & beverages
FLOWER POWER FRIDAY
30% off all flower and joints and 30% off Blue Roots and FlipSide
SAFETY MEETING SATURDAY
30% off all flower and joints and 30% off Smokiez
EVERYDAY DEALS
10% off - Wisdom Discount to Guests over 65
30% off - All CBD topicals, tinctures, and capsules
30% off - Daily rotating deals in every category
30% off - Rotating daily featured brand
WES ABNEY CEO & FOUNDER wes@leafmagazines.com
MIKE RICKER OPERATING PARTNER ricker@leafmagazines.com | advertising sales
TOM BOWERS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER tom@leafmagazines.com
DANIEL BERMAN CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER daniel@leafmagazines.com
BOBBY BLACK LEAF BOWL DIRECTOR & HISTORIAN bobbyblack@leafmagazines.com
MICHELLE NARANJO & CARA WIETSTOCK COPYDESK michelle@leafmagazines.com | cara@leafmagazines.com
MATT JACKSON SOCIAL MEDIA LEAD mattjackson@leafmagazines.com
ABOUT THE COVER
It’s back and hotter than ever: our flame-blown, smoldering and, yes, still red-hot Glass Issue spectacular!
For every year that our magazine has been in print, the Leaf has dedicated one special edition to the magic of functional, high-end glass artistry.
On the cover is a stunning collaboration from a dozen different glass artists, captured in UV-reactive splendor by longtime Leaf contributor Jamie Zill. And if you happened to notice this month's borderless cover, well, just remember: Life rewards the bold.
PHOTO BY JAMIE ZILL
JLZILL.COM @JLZILL
CONTRIBUTORS
WES ABNEY, FEATURES
AJ AGUILAR, FEATURES
DANIEL BERMAN, DESIGN + PHOTOS
BOBBY BLACK, DESIGN + FEATURES
JACKIE BRYANT, FEATURES
JEFF DIMARCO, PHOTOS
DAVID DOWNS, FEATURES
REX HILSINGER, FEATURES + PHOTOS
ELLEN HOLLAND, FEATURES WIND HOME, PHOTOS
MATT JACKSON, FEATURES
LENA B. MONAGHAN, AD S ALES + PRODUCTION
MIKE RICKER, PRODUCTION
BAXSEN PAINE, FEATURES
MITCHELL PETERSON, PHOTOS
CHRIS ROMAINE, PHOTOS
TERPENE TRANSIT, DISTRIBUTION
TERPODACTYL MEDIA, PRODUCTION
BRUCE WOLF, PHOTOS
KATHERINE WOLF, FEATURES
LAURIE WOLF, RECIPES
JAMIE ZILL, PHOTOS
We are creators of targeted, independent Cannabis journalism. Please email us to discuss advertising in the next issue of Northwest Leaf Magazine. We do not sell stories or coverage. Email ricker@leafmagazines.com to start advertising!
Editor’s Note
Thanks for picking up The Glass Issue of the Leaf!
Art is one of the few pillars of the Old World remaining, enduring because nothing more beautiful than artistic expression has ever come from human hands.
While many think of classical fine art as the “Mona Lisa” or Claude Monet’s impressionism pieces hanging in fancy museums, the most OG art is in the form of stained glass in churches and cathedrals around the world.
Glass can hold color and shape for hundreds or even thousands o f years without fading or degrading like a painting.
At the Metz Cathedral in France, this magical display of glass and light is on full display. It’s known as “God’s Lantern” for the amount of light coming through the nearly 70,000 square feet of stained glass windows, which depict religious scenes with glass set as far back as the year 1250.
Before there were TVs or screens, artists created famous scenes in glass and constructed not just windows, but unique goblets, jew elry and other forms of art that have lasted through the centuries.
Made in fourth-century Rome, the “Lycurgus Cup” is one of the earliest examples of silver and gold fuming in glass. This technique gives the majestically crafted vessel different colors depending on the light passing through it and whether it holds liquid.
"I’VE SEEN PEOPLE RIGHTFULLY CARE FOR THEIR MOTHERSHIP DAB RIGS WITH THE SAME ATTENTION AND REVERENCE AS THEIR CLASSIC CARS.”
This type of art can’t be generated with artificial intelligence and can’t be mass-produced in a factory. A combination of heat, color and passion pours out of the artist and into molten glass, reforming and shaping it into something beautiful that, if properly cared for, can last forever.
Most unique of all is the fragility, the nature of glass being that it can break. You can’t really break a painting or a bronze statue, but glass art is especially valuable and unique because of the care involved.
I’ve seen people rightfully care for their Mothership dab rigs with the same attention and reverence as their classic cars.
With all respect to glass artists, from stained to soft glass t o the borosilicate community, our favorite glass pieces are the ones that get us high, which this magazine celebrates.
I’m proud to say that our 15th annual Glass Issue is our best one yet!
4/20/26 4/20/26
- MUST BE A LOYALTY PROGRAM MEMBER TO QUALIFY - STACKABLE WITH MUCKLESHOOT TRIBAL DISCOUNT ONLY
TO ALL THE PIECES WE’VE LOVED AND LOST
Today, I write to you from the depths of pure devastation. Recently, my beloved little bowl leaped out of my handbag and crashed onto the tile below, shattering into a few big, unmistakable pieces. Not a crack. Not a chip. Total annihilation. My stomach instantly dropped. My chest clenched. And then, dramatically but also completely sincerely, I actually started crying. If you’ve ever broken a piece you actually loved, you already understand the scale of this reaction. It’s disproportionate, sure. It’s also completely correct.
WAS MY PIECE, MY LITTLE SIDEKICK. It came everywhere with me and served me well for a few years, which by any measure is a long-term relationship. Long ago, a friend gave it to me — I haven’t seen them in years, but the pipe stuck around, which felt like a small, useful physical talisman forever marking our connection in time and space. It was tangible. It held memories. It held routine. It held, quite literally, the shape of my hand — until it didn’t.
There’s something uniquely brutal about the way glass breaks — not just physically, but existentially. One second, it’s intact, integrated into your life, part of your daily sensory rotation.
The next, it’s a pile of fragments you can’t fix or glue back into anything functional. You can’t pretend that it’s the same object. There’s no slow fade; just a hard stop.
I did what any rational person would do: I tried to assign meaning to it. It was Mercury retrograde
— fitting, actually — and Instagram assured me that we were all in a period of releasing what no longer serves us, on top of it. Fine. Sure. If my spoon was cosmically destined to exit my life, who was I to argue?
This is, of course, bullshit. But it’s elegant bullshit, and sometimes that’s enough to get you through the first 24 hours. Because the real issue isn’t just that it broke. It’s that a glass piece, if it’s a good one, is never just a thing. It’s functional art in the most literal sense — you don’t hang it on a wall, you mostly, actually live with it. You handle it constantly. You build rituals around it. It becomes embedded in your muscle memory in a way that’s hard to replicate with anything else.
It’s a friend. A good piece changes your Cannabis experience by shaping and refining it. It becomes the portal between you and the plant. And portals are sacred spaces!
And then, because it’s glass, it reminds you that none of that is permanent. There’s a lesson in there, if you want one. Something about attachment, about fragility, about the risk inherent in loving objects that are designed — beautifully, inevitably — to break.
Or, more realistically, there’s just this: If you’re going to care about your pieces — and you should, because that’s half the point — you also have to accept that one day, probably at the worst possible moment, you’re going to watch one hit the ground and shatter. And it’s going to feel bad.
If my spoon was cosmically destined to exit my life, who was I to argue?
Which means when it’s gone, it takes a small but specific version of your life with it. That’s the part that catches you off guard. Not the inconvenience — though, yes, suddenly you don’t have your preferred way to smoke, which is its own kind of crisis — but the absence of something that felt quietly essential.
You’ll replace it, eventually. You’ll find another one that fits in your hand the right way, that earns its place in your rotation, that starts to accumulate its own set of associations. It won’t be the same, which is exactly why this one will stick. But for a minute — or an hour, or a day or however long your grief lasts — you’re just standing there, looking at the pieces, thinking: Well, fuck. And honestly? That’s part of it, too. Thanks for the memories; onto the next piece we go.
GLASS FROM THE PAST
Remembering the smoking apparatuses from throughout my weed-smoking life
I’m just going to get my ultimate weed confession out right here at the top: I am a terrible joint roller. Sure, I can get together a smokable joint in a pinch. Last year, I was on a rooftop terrace in Barcelona, Spain, with rolling papers, a grinder and a jar of Garlic Budder, and I made it work.
LIKE THE BEATLES LYRICS, “I get high with a little help from my friends.” I’m lucky that many of the people I typically hang with all know how to roll joints better than I do. Because of the master rollers in my weed-loving circles, I get away with smoking a lot of Cannabis that I did not have to roll up myself, but I also generally have a backup option.
I typically carry a glass pipe in my purse as a just-in-case alternative. I’ve also been known to stuff cones (a nice joint option because they don’t require licking the seal, which is sort of unsanitary if you think about it).
I have fond memories of my first pipes. When I got my first job at a Cannabis magazine, my then-boss gave me a pipe as a gift. It will always be a favorite, as it represents success in a field that was initially just something I loved and then turned into a job. Early on, I invested in a padded pipe-carrying pouch that could hold my pipe, a little weed and a lighter.
Pipes are my main option for on-the-go smoking, but bongs have also always had a place in my heart for at-home smoke seshes. When I was younger, my friends had a 4-foot plastic bong from Graffix with a scary clown face on it. A friend had to light the bowl for you, and while it did get you super ripped, it wasn’t the best-tasting hit because it was made of plastic. Smoking out of glass just tastes better.
I had some basic bongs back in the day, but my first real bong purchase happened because of my job in weed journalism. Back then, I got to travel a lot for work. One place I frequently visited was a glass show in Las Vegas. I worked the magazine booth, getting the word out about what we were writing, and I would walk the floor on my break.
This show, CHAMPS Trade Show, featured cool activations, including live glassblowing demonstrations and a glass car demolition derby. There was a lot of glass for sale, and I bought a green bong with a big glass marble and an extra glass swirl around the outside. I got a great deal on the bong because I was at a business-to-business show, and then the shop owner shipped it to my house so I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking it on the flight home. I smoked out of that bong for a long time, but at some point, it must have broken because I don’t have it anymore. More than a decade ago, at my first job in Cannabis journalism, I was lucky to work in an office where I could have a bong on my desk. Even though we weren’t supposed to smoke in the office, some rules are meant to be broken. We tried to be respectful of the other offices around us, and every once in a while, we’d hit the bong and blow the smoke out the window. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed our office for good in 2020, I inherited the bong. It’s pretty amazing, with multiple chambers to filter the water.
Nowadays, I use another bong from that era, which was sent to me as a gift, as my travel bong. I have a large padded bag for it that I use as sort of a briefcase whenever I’m on a reporting assignment where there might be an opportunity to sample some flowers.
I recently got to do a taste-testing session with my main weed mentor, Cannabis cultivation expert Ed Rosenthal, and everyone was impressed that I brought my own bong. I knew I wouldn’t be able to roll up respectable joints, so I brought my bong to make sure I could sample all the weed on offer that night.
My new favorite bong is from Jerome Baker Designs. When I was a youth, the bongs I coveted were from Jerome Baker Designs. Established in Eugene, Oregon, in the early ’90s, Jerome Baker was one of the leading Cannabis glass companies throughout the ’90s and early 2000s.
Smoking out of glass just tastes better.
In 2003, Jerome Baker, aka Jason Harris, was arrested by federal agents as part of Operation Pipe Dreams, a nationwide crackdown on Cannabis accessories. Harris had his assets seized and was sentenced to one year of house arrest and five years of federal probation. In 2012, after Colorado’s recreational Cannabis legalization, Harris
relaunched the original Jerome Baker Designs and established the Las Vegas Dream Factory at its headquarters in downtown Las Vegas. In 2024, I went to Jimi Devine’s Heat Quest in Las Vegas and smoked off of the bong gifted to him by Jerome Baker. Once I tried it, I decided to fulfill my youthful dream of having one, so I contacted them and paid a visit to the Dream Factory I love my bong and how it rumbles when I hit it. I love how stoned I get when I smoke off of a bong. I recently had a party where I was encouraging my guests to hit it. Remembering my glass from days of yore brings me back. These are physical touchstones from my life, artistic tributes that mark my love for a flower.
FIRE FOLLOWER A NEW BLOOM FOR BLUEBERRY STRAINS
TERPHOGZ’S NEW BLOOBERRY LINE GOES UP AGAINST BLUE CAVIAR, BLUE LOBSTER AND MORE
Consumers and growers are in for the kind of competition that we can all rally behind: a tussle for who has the loudest blueberry terpenes in the Cannabis game.
Terphogz — the California-based popularizers of Zkittlez (known as The Original Z, or just “Z”) — debuted five new Blueberry strains dubbed the “Blooberry Line” for spring. Terphogz’s managing director, Jon “Jondo” Orantes, said, “It’s begun, the blueberry wars have.”
The declaration encapsulates a simmering trend in contemporary ganja, with peer brand Cookies selling Blueberry Caviar flower. Berner is developing new crosses from it with award-winning Ridgeline Farms. Blue Lobster nabbed a nomination for 2025 Leafly Strain of the Year. Blue Nerdz continues to dominate. I’ve smoked all of these strains — they’re fire.
TERPHOGZ
BLOOBERY
Let’s get into the Terphogz Blooberry drop first.
Terphogz has released about 30 to 50 regular seed packs of Blooberry Headband (707 Headband x Bell Springs Blooberry), Blooberry Pie (Z-Pie x Bell Springs Blooberry), Blooberry Zruntz ((Z x Runtz) x Bell Springs Blooberry), IC Bloobies ((Ice Cream Cake x Sherbert) x Bell Springs Blooberry) and Black Truffle Blooberry (Black Truffle Gelato x Bell Springs Blooberry).
The priciest is the Blooberry Headband at $269 for 10, which tells you where the hype is at. The rest of the set goes for $240 for 10.
Why this drop now? Terphogz has a hit with 2023’s Blooberry Z (Dankster Blooberry x Z), which is $180 for 10, and its 2025 offspring Bloogatti (Bubblegum Gelato x Blooberry Z). Bloogatti remains available for $220.
For this new Blooberry line, Terphogz co-founder Tony Mendo said the team went back to some early 2000s Blueberry work. They selected a new male based on taste, referred to as Bell Springs Blooberry, and pollinated Terphogz’s whole lineup with it. The tastiest standouts made the cut listed above.
Some are good for hash, others are good for flower. Orantes recommends the Blooberry Pie (Z-Pie x Bell Springs Blooberry), as well as the Blooberry Headband (707 Headband x Bell Springs Blooberry) for hash production.
Blooberry Pie should yield more and finish faster, with a wholesome blueberry pie aroma and flavor. The Blooberry Headband may take longer and yield less, but it has the most hype. The Headband and blueberry terps hit like a musical mix of high and low frequencies.
Each regular pack should have the typical polyhybrid spread of phenotypes: a mom-leaner, a dad-leaner, several hybrids of both parents and a recessive weirdo.
Award-winning journalist, author and former Leafly senior editor David Downs’s monthly genetics intelligence dispatch.
BLOOBERRY ZRUNTZ
UMMA SONOMA BLUE LOBSTER
Mendo said growers can expect “more of a broader spectrum as far as the Blueberry lineage goes, as well as some of those deep killer blueberry jelly terps.”
Orantes said, “If you’re like me, you’re just praying for the weirdo ones.”
Blooberry Zruntz ((Z x Runtz) x Bell Springs Blooberry), IC Bloobies ((Ice Cream Cake x Sherbert) x Bell Springs Blooberry) and Black Truffle Blooberry (Black Truffle Gelato x Bell Springs Blooberry) will be your top 40 radio hits for cash cropping.
BLUE BELLES
In honor of the blueberry bloom of 2026, here’s a roundup of Blueberry strains we’re seeing out there.
All respect goes to Oregon breeder, legend and super-nice guy DJ Short. His 1998 F4 Blueberry is $59 for four feminized seeds.
DJ Short told the Leaf that the Blueberry cultivar stays uniquely effective, and it’s always satiating.
THE HEADBAND AND BLUEBERRY TERPS HIT LIKE A MUSICAL MIX OF HIGH AND LOW FREQUENCIES.
“I call it tolerance threshold, or burnout, and Blueberry shines there,” he said. “It’s the sense of satisfaction that applies beautifully to the Blueberry. That’s why she’s holding through this test of time.”
DJ Short’s son continues the mission as the brand Blue Star Seed Co. with Candied Blueberries F1 (Zkittlez x 1998 F4 Blueberry S1) and Stoned Berry F1 (Chem D x 1998 F4 Blueberry S1), which he said has “pungent, raunchy, chemical-diesel aromas with grape hash, apple cider and berry pastry notes.”
The brand Life is an Adventure has a Blue Cheese (Big Buddha Cheese x Blueberry) that’s $25 for three fems.
Atlas Seeds sells a Blue Dream Auto (Blue Dream Auto x Blue Dream Auto) that “can be set loose outdoors and it does its thing without a lot of fuss,” according to its product description. In clone form, the widely respected Rebel Grown also has Blue Dream cuts for $99.
New in 2026, Blueberry Honey from Humboldt Seed Company smells and tastes just like it sounds.
Got a favorite blue strain we missed? Send recommendations to david.downs@gmail.com
TERPHOGZ
COOKIES BLUEBERRY CAVIAR
Page Burner
If you love to rip a heady piece and sink into a rich piece of historical fiction, this month’s Page Burner pick is for you: “The Glassmaker” by Tracy Chevalier.
THE SOMEWHAT MYSTICAL, timebending narrative of “The Glassmaker” spans across six centuries, from the height of the Renaissance to modern day. Our journey begins in 1486 along Murano’s famed “canal of glass” in Italy. On this small island in the Venetian Lagoon, glassmaking is a craft so prized that master artisans, or maestros, were once forbidden to leave.
It’s here that we meet Orsola Rosso, the eldest daughter in a proud family of glassmakers. She grows up fascinated by how the furnaces glow, but as a girl, she’s expected to stay out of the workshop and contribute to the household. When her father suddenly passes away, the Rossos’ livelihood is thrown into uncertainty. Orsola learns to make glass beads in secret to keep the family business afloat in a world where women are not welcome at the workbench.
What makes “The Glassmaker” so mesmerizing is Chevalier’s unusual passage of time. The story leaps throughout eras of history, yet the core cast of characters remains with us.
Time moves differently here in the City of Water: fluid and bending, much like molten glass itself.
Time moves differently here in the City of Water: fluid and bending, much like molten glass itself. Across the centuries, Chevalier explores the quiet resilience of women navigating male-dominated crafts, all set against the backdrop of Venice and its evolving artistic landscape.
As you read the novel, be sure to also pay your respects to the modern, badass women in glass featured throughout this issue of the Leaf. Like Rosso, they’re proof that creativity — and a little rebellion — always has a place in our world.
the glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
Published by Penguin Random House @tracychevalierwriter
ANDY METZLER
Andy Metzler is old school to the core and definitely qualifies as a local at Mount Baker. This guy rips the slopes; we’ve seen it firsthand. He’s spent countless years around Cannabis, focusing mainly on cultivation and distribution for decades. But now he lends his knowledge and friendly presence to the retail side of the market.
GREEN
STOP MT. BAKER
7466 MT. BAKER HIGHWAY, DEMING, WA
8 A.M.-8 P.M. SUN.-THURS.
8 A.M.-10 P.M. FRI./SAT. (360) 746-8734
METZLER WAS BORN in Colorado but raised in the Puyallup area. He went back to Colorado to attend a university, but ultimately ended up making Bellingham his home for the last few decades so he could enjoy Mount Baker’s amazing runs and backcountry.
Back in the day, he operated in the medical Cannabis scene and quickly became a preferred provider for a lot of local patients. Five years ago, he started his journey at Green Stop Mt. Baker. This is the local spot for anyone living in the Cascade foothills of eastern Whatcom County. Additionally, it is the last retail Cannabis shop if you’re on your way to enjoy the Mount Baker Wilderness area. This locally owned and operated store has deep roots and goes above and beyond to support the community.
“Andy brings a positive attitude and a contagious laugh. That, with his compassion and knowledge of people and Cannabis, makes him the perfect fit for us here at Green Stop Mt. Baker,” Erik Merta, owner of Green Stop, said.
“ANDY BRINGS A POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND A CONTAGIOUS LAUGH.”
Like a lot of us, Metzler has always enjoyed the high, but his heart definitely leans toward the medical side of the plant. His ex-wife was diagnosed with cancer cells that went into remission after Cannabis use. His friend’s child suffered from leukemia, but they discovered Rick Simpson Oil and its healing properties. His grandparents found comfort and mental well-being when they finally tried Cannabis later in life.
“There’s a different way to go about making yourself better than a Band-Aid pill,” Metzler said.
When Northwest Leaf asked Metzler to pick out his favorites, he said, “Trick question. I’m the one that orders everything, and I only choose brands that I like. Everyone I do business with are homies, and I don’t want to pick anyone over anyone else.” That being said, if you’re not on his favorites list, it’s not on Metzler — he wanted to list you all.
Green Stop Mt. Baker is a safe place with quality products and wonderful people. Next time you’re heading out for a hike or some shredding at Mount Baker, stop by this shop and grab some goodies for your adventure. @GREEN_STOP_MT_BAKER
THE HERBERY
“HAVING THAT EXPERIENCE WITH BEING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE FOR THAT MANY YEARS GIVES US AN ADVANTAGE IN A LOT OF WAYS.”
The Herbery is a special kind of retailer, one that has always put customer experience in the forefront. Starting back in 2014, they were among the first companies to bring a reliable, safe and educational retail space for Cannabis to the Vancouver area.
NORTHWEST LEAF toured The Herbery’s Fourth Plain location. It is their fifth store and serves the same community as their original shop on Northeast 164th Avenue, which closed in 2019. The Fourth Plain location was remodeled from the ground up with a focus on customer service.
The parking, online ordering and store layout are specifically designed for efficiency and convenience. The parking lot is more than ample, and displays are curated, not crowded.
Lighting is very important in any retail environment, and with Cannabis, it’s even more intricate. The Herbery team has made certain that customers never get that dungeon feeling sometimes associated with retail Cannabis stores.
Sara Eltinge, CEO of The Herbery stores, and Mike McCoy, Herbery buyer and co-founder, joined the Leaf for the tour. Eltinge described this location’s clientele as “loyal, super loyal.”
“This is their spot. We have a lot of daily repeat customers,” Eltinge said. “The store gets really busy when people get off work every day, both day workers and the night shift.”
Eltinge has a solid background in business and utilizes metrics to help develop stores with a focus on the locality and customer service.
This is just one of the many reasons why The Herbery won a Best of Clark County award in the Dispensary category in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
THE HERBERY
12001 NE FOURTH PLAIN BLVD., VANCOUVER, WA
THEHERBERYNW.COM
@THEHERBERYPNW
8 A.M.-11 P.M. DAILY (360) 776-3160
McCoy was a medical grower for 14 years before co-founding The Herbery.
“Having that experience with being on the other side of the fence for that many years gives us an advantage in a lot of ways,” McCoy said. “We have empathy for producers and gardens, while a lot of these big retailers don’t have any respect for them. Ask anyone we deal with; it’s the relationship that sets us aside.”
From their extremely accessible online ordering program to their in-house medically endorsed staff, consumers’ needs are met at The Herbery. And don’t forget their “herbtenders.”
This extremely loyal, proud and well-educated crew has a great vibe combined with constant smiles.
So, if you are traveling through the southern part of Washington, anywhere near Vancouver, make sure to give one of their locations a try. You won’t be disappointed. If you live in the area, then you probably already know that this is the best bet in town.
Plaid Jacket Super Boof
Kelly’s Sweet Hash Edibles
Chocolate Chip Edible
Cookie Dough
INFUSED PREROLL
Hitters Seattle Super Chronic
Ceres Dragon
Pain Relieving Balm
magnus premium flower magnus
In the Northgate area of Seattle, a very special garden has been built on decades of experience. As one of the few Black-owned gardens in the state, this team has worked diligently for years to build Magnus Premium Flower into the brand we know today.
LEON VERRETT has been a prominent personality in the Washington Cannabis space for well over a decade. At times, he is best known for the Seattle Sluggerz Bluntz, a preroll line that has been a staple in the local market for years. The term magnum opus couldn’t describe the work and energy he has put into Magnus Premium Flower better.
Verrett’s journey started 30 years ago in the famed California Bay Area. After gaining an early foothold in the then-burgeoning Cannabis market, he shifted his energy to the housing sector.
He spent 12 years perfecting the crafts of underwriting, sales, funding and processing. You name it, he’s done it.
Following the crashes we saw in real estate, it was no surprise that Verrett was drawn to a different industry. He landed at MetroPCS stores.
The team mentality, being able to count on the person next to you, speaks volumes about the operation.
After purchasing and running multiple locations, it wasn’t the right fit for him. In 2012, while living in Los Angeles, a longtime friend who was in Seattle hit him up, and he decided to come check out our medical scene.
It didn’t take long before Verrett and his local friend founded Emerald City Collective Gardens, the first official medical Cannabis collective in downtown Seattle. This place was solely developed to serve patients with clean medicine and safe access. It’s not about the money; it’s about providing the plant to the people.
“I tell people, ‘I love growing, I hate selling it,’” Verrett told Northwest Leaf.
“I’d rather give it away to the people that need medicine.”
There was a particular calm feeling when we toured the facility; everyone was busy and efficiently completing their tasks without stress. The team mentality, being able to count on the person next to you, speaks volumes about the operation. Every product here is hand-grown and -processed. There’s no duff or trim in these prerolls; they are made of the same amazing buds you get when you purchase an eighth or an ounce.
To really see the fruits of their labor, give some of their unique strains a try. We sampled Queen of the South, an amazing hybrid that swings to the indica side. The beautiful flower consists of dark purple and crimson shades with a solid, dense structure. The flavors reminded us of berries and mint, complemented with a sweet finish. High was on point, relaxing, but no couch lock. We’d highly recommend this one for an afternoon sesh with some friends!
Still one of the few Black-owned producers in the state, Verrett and the Magnus team are built from the ground up. Everyone here knows how to do each step of the process, and they do it with confidence and experience. @MAGNUSPREMIUM
IT’S THE SEASON of fresh fruit, so we turned to the Bodhi High team that’s made delicious concentrates since 2015 in the Spokane Valley. There’s nothing better than fresh terpenes, and the same aromatic and flavor compounds that are in the humble strawberry plant are also in the Strawberry Cough Cannabis plant. In a beautiful display of nature’s glory, Cannabis brings the best of the plant world into dabbable form, with a little help from the Bodhi lab techs. Ready to start buzzing, we begin with the Strawberry Cough, a classic Sativa cross of Haze x Strawberry Fields that tantalizes senses with sweet, syrupy fruit terpenes. The terp crystal consistency is lovely for dabbing. The gooey, globby, high-terpene texture sends a rush of fizzy, hazy strawberries combined with a fresh vanilla and green apple gas that smells and looks delicious. Dropping a glob in our Focus V for a low-temperature dab releases a rush of berry-citrus fuel that’s extremely smooth and fresh, exhaling in bright clouds of fruity vapor. Effects dance around the head like a buzzing honey bee, sending euphoric energy with a happy dose of stoney wonder that’s perfect for spring nature walks and smelling fresh flowers.
Dabs are great to get you ready for adventure, but once out and about, there’s nothing like a disposable vape to keep the good vibes flowing. California Orange is a classic strain with roots going back to the ’80s, and it drips with fresh citrus terps. The liquid live resin shines in this high-tech vape, which has a quartz atomizer and three temperature settings.
The first puffs on low heat are all citrus, with a funky, fuel, Kush-like exhale that’s reminiscent of a weedy Orange Crush. There’s no sugar rush, but there is a big hit of stoney energy that hits the frontal lobes, preparing the mind and body to float and flow through adventures like a bubbling spring brook.
CULTIVATED BY Plaid Jacket
Cuddler
Prepare for your with a strain so stoney that it demands a cup of coffee, as we celebrate the origins of arabica beans with the Ethiopian Sky Cuddler by Plaid Jacket.
go hand in hand, and they are best alternated between puffs and sips with plenty of repetition. Landrace Cannabis is the wild ancestor of
from the Hindu Kush mountains in modern India and Pakistan, where it grew wild before being cultivated and bred for the traits we know and love today.
Coffee was also once a wild plant, unknown to the world until trade with Yemen in the 15th century brought Ethiopian coffee arabica to the forefront of high-value crops. Ethiopia is the origin of arabica, which is cultivated at high altitudes, leading to sweeter flavors. Today, 90% of the country’s beans are grown organically in traditional farming or semiwild settings. Much like the hash-producing regions in the Middle East, methods haven’t changed much for thousands of years, keeping tradition alive along with unique genetics. Here in the PNW, the Plaid Jacket team uses their cutting-edge facility and tissue culture lab to grow unique strains with high technology, delivering delicious flowers and concentrates that are always top shelf. Their cut of Ethiopian x Sky Cuddler Kush is bold and beautiful, like a fresh cup of Joe, and ready to melt minds into a happy puddle.
Frosty buds glisten from the jar like fresh oily coffee beans, releasing an aroma of warm and earthy chocolate, citrus, cheese and java. Breaking up a bowl for a bong hit adds a sour-fermented-diesel note combined with a bitter, soy, rose petal zing that’s complex, funky and delicious.
The first hits from our clean bong send the mind floating into a blissful trance, slowing time and thought as a heavy bodily relaxation takes hold. Within several minutes — and multiple bowls of this clean, smooth and delicious flower — we find ourselves couch locked, sedated and ready for coffee to power our stoney adventure to the kitchen and TV, in that order.
Matters
This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults twenty-one and older. Keep out of the reach of children.
glass collaborations
For this year’s annual Glass Issue, the Leaf team decided to deep dive into collaborations. These amazing works of art come to fruition when multiple artists combine their different techniques to create something out of this world. Whether crafted by a couple of shop mates or 12 people at a national event, the outcomes show that the best things come from working together. Join us in celebrating these collaborations. Some of them are the latest, and some of them are legends. Turn the pages slowly and enjoy.
Nate Dizzle @swissperc Snic Barnes @snicbarnesglass (FB) swissperc
Gold-plated medium classic with quartz crystal on the base and fluorite on the swoop
Ram’s classic gun style complemented with hearts by JOP
Joshua Opdenaker
J_opdenaker_jop
Ram Mickelsen @ramickelsen
COLLABS
Abracadevi
25 years of combined excellence join forces for the first time
contrabasso x eusheen
Basso’s “Singularity” recycler design adorned with Eusheen’s reticello pattern
COLLABS
COLLABS
@banjoglass / @justincarterglass / @pipemaker / @blackfireglassworks / @chacha_chainz / @philsiegelglass @frompy / @lilbearglass / @hardcore_toke / @pogoglass / @co_liicutz / @karmaglass420 Mega
Devi 12 artist UV-reactive masterpiece created for the greater good at the Michigan Glass Project
mothership glass x dustin brandon
Professional athlete. Comedian. Civil rights advocate. Musician. Dustin Brandon has held many titles throughout his life. For the past nine years, he has worked tirelessly to establish himself as an irrefutable pillar of the Cannabis community.
“I CAME INTO this community as a medical patient,” Brandon explained. “This plant saved my life. My disability is brittle bones, called osteogenesis imperfecta, from birth. I'm 42 years old, and I've broken and fractured over 850 bones throughout my life. I've had close to 75 surgeries.”
Brandon’s story is one of strength and resilience. Despite trauma, tragedy and a recent bout with COVID that nearly took his life, Brandon has consistently faced adversity and bounced back with unyielding perseverance.
That’s where Mothership Glass comes into the story.
Forged in fire, crafted with care and annealed with meticulous effort and dedication, Mothership produces some of the highest quality functional glass art in the entire world. Captained by innovative artist Scott Deppe, the enterprise is a collective of some of the most prodigious glassblowers in their field.
“I approached Mothership, and I said, ‘I think there’s an area we can fill here in regards to the disabled community.’”
“I grew up in a tough upbringing, from foster care to state-run facilities, and a school for kids with disabilities,” Brandon said. “My sister and I got split up. Her name was Felicia, a year younger than me. In 2018, she lost her life to suicide. When I lost her, it took a while to figure out if I could even come back from that. But eventually I figured out how to develop myself all over again, through her, for her. She's my reason for everything.”
-Dustin Brandon
“I approached Mothership, and I said, ‘I think there’s an area we can fill here in regards to the disabled community, not just making glass more accessible for people with disabilities, but as a whole, around the entire community… How can we have disability inclusion?’” Brandon recalled.
Mothership invited Brandon to their base of operations in Bellingham, Washington. He tested their entire range of products and took measurements, all with a goal of designing the perfect consumption experience.
individual functional needs. They sketched out a plan for a special one-of-one design inspired by his sister, known as “Felicia’s Gift.”
The rig is a Torus/Fab Torus recycler with a sunflower motif and “Felicia’s Gift” engraved at the base. It features a wider base for stability, slightly longer drains for hand grip and a ground-out, interchangeable neck equipped with attachments of different angles, including a hookah hose for increased ergonomic versatility.
“This piece means a lot to me, not only to be a voice for the disabled community, throughout accessibility, through glass and in which ways we consume our medicine, but in how we heal ourselves,” Brandon explained.
Deppe showed care and consideration during the visit. He personally set up the rigs, altered table heights and dialed in water levels to provide the perfect experience. He even surprised Brandon with an accessory — a topper for a Slurper-style banger — still warm out of the kiln.
“We want to help everyone out and lift everyone up,” Johnson stated. “It's a lot for us to be able to make a piece like this. And I'm happy we're going to be the ones doing it.”
“It’s an honor,” Deppe added. “We just want everybody to have the best smoking experience possible. That's what Mothership is about. So, if we can do something to make it more comfortable or more fun for somebody, we're going to do it.”
With this significant push forward for the accessibility conversation, Brandon’s story has come full circle. After nine years of grinding hard in the Cannabis industry, he finds himself serving as an advocate not just for himself, but for the greater Cannabis and disability communities as a whole.
“It’s not only about accessibility, but about encouraging people with disabilities to be part of the journey,” Brandon explained.
“I hope this gets the conversation going in the glass community and even in the Cannabis community — from grows to work stations and everything in between.”
Over this last year, he diligently rebuilt his health and dove headfirst back into the Cannabis and glass communities.
Deppe, Justin Johnson and Colin Taylor of Mothership joined Brandon to discuss accessibility in functional glass and creating a piece tailored to his
A huge amount of appreciation to Dustin and and Mothership for inviting Leaf Magazines into this important conversation on accessibility in Cannabis, and a special shoutout to Crystal Hoffman (@hashinit_) and Jeff Hooten (@casedgod) for coming along for the ride.
Dustin Brandon, left, and Mothership Glass Founder Scott Deppe, dabbing it up in Bellingham, Wash.
pinky brewtz
According to Aaron Gutierrez, even his grandmother calls him “Pinky.”
What began as a childhood nickname has evolved into his professional moniker. And while Gutierrez is better known as “Pinky Brewtz” in the world of glassblowing, Pinky Brewtz is better known as “the Jaguar Man.”
MUCH OF GUTIERREZ’S WORK portrays the image of an Aztec warrior wearing a jaguar helmet, his face inside the gaping mouth, head wreathed in feathers. His rigs seem almost ceremonial and have become high-priced items in the world of glass.
Reached at his home in San Diego, Gutierrez told Leaf Magazines, “From the beginning, I knew I wanted to represent the culture I’m from. To not just be a Hispanic glassblower, but to try and carry forward some of that traditional art from Mexico.”
Obsessed with the artistic styles of Mayan and Aztec history, he said he wanted to use glass to create art much like how artisans from regions like Sinaloa, Jalisco and Oaxaca have done for generations.
Pinky x Quasar Collab
Pinky x Darby x Luna Collab
Pinky x Darby Collab
“There’s an aesthetic I’m trying to put out, and that’s one that represents Mexican culture.”
Gutierrez became Pinky when he got into a fight as a kid and needed something to hold his pants up. The only thing he could borrow — which would become the makeshift weapon that won him the fight — was a friend’s pink belt. He said he hated the nickname, but by the time he was in high school, even his family called him Pinky. So when he was thinking about what to call his brand, he said, “I just wanted to keep it simple with something people already know me as.”
He was working as part owner of a clothing company back in 2014 when he first discovered glassblowing. Visiting a friend in San Luis Obispo, Gutierrez said they smoked DMT, and his buddy showed him a pendant he had just finished making. He said looking at the universe of colors and patterns, knowing they were all produced by human hands, blew his mind.
Before that, Gutierrez said he imagined bongs and pipes were made by machines. Finding out it was a craft lit a fire within him, and he jumped onto eBay to order his first torch.
At first, he said he was making more generalized imagery, like feathered serpents and alebrijes. But his whole trajectory changed the day Gutierrez proposed to his wife, Ruth Gutierrez, at the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. To celebrate, they smoked a bowl from the only thing they had: a traditional clay whistle in the shape of a jaguar’s head. Ruth Gutierrez remarked how cool it would be if he could make pipes and dab rigs like that.
On their way down the pyramid, Gutierrez said his wife’s ring dropped in between the stones. At the time, they saw it as a tragedy, but he said they’re now convinced that “it was the sacrifice the gods required to put us on the path we’re on now. It changed my life forever; that moment shaped me as a married man, a father and an artist.”
Since then, Pinky Brewtz has solidified an artistic style and gone on to collaborate with prominent names in glassblowing, including Elbo, Darby Holm and Banjo. Gutierrez said he has a group of collectors who seek out his art and has been able to meet fans from all over the world.
With so much of his inspiration coming from traditional Mexican artisans, Gutierrez feels a responsibility to support the community and the heritage that his work springs from.
He told the Leaf he donates portions of his U.S. sales to charities in Mexico and collaborates to showcase the work of traditional artisans, like his collaboration with third-generation wood-carver Efraín Fuentes. Gutierrez said he’s always looking for ways to work with these artists to create modernized versions of traditional craft.
“There’s an aesthetic I’m trying to put out, and that’s one that represents Mexican culture,” he said. “The culture is what’s important. AI is going to eat us up. Our history will be deleted if we don’t carry these things forward, and in some small way, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
@PINKYBREWTZ
Pinky x Quasar Collab
Pinky x Darby Collab
Pinky x Cowboy Collab
Pinky x Darby x Luna Collab
inside the corning museum of glass
The Corning Museum of Glass in New York has stood as the repository for the most important contributions to the art of glassblowing since 1951. The museum holds thousands of pieces, dating from ancient civilizations to the work of contemporary artists pushing the field in new directions. However, it wasn’t until 2019 that CMoG acquired its first piece of smokable glassware.
“The CMoG Flame Collab has proven to be a resounding success in its first four years, with incredible works brought to life by a few of the top artists in the field.”
MANY SUPERHUMANS of pipe making have visited CMoG to share the finer points of their craft at the now-annual CMoG Flame Collab. Museum manager of hot glass operations Eric Goldschmidt told the Leaf that the Flame Collab came about as a way “to celebrate the artistry and innovation of the flameworking community.” He mentioned how the last 15 years have seen a rapid acceleration of the craft, especially through the collaborative pieces, adding, “much of which has been stirred by artists creating innovative objects for Cannabis consumption."
Goldschmidt added that “the CMoG Flame Collab has proven to be a resounding success in its first four years, with incredible works brought to life by a few of the top artists in the field.”
/// CMOG FLAME COLLAB LINEUPS ///
2022 - Dan Coyle (Coyle Creations), Adam Whobrey (Hoobs) and Ryan O’Keefe
The event will return for its fifth year in May 2026, inviting a team of artists to spend a week at the museum’s Amphitheater Hot Shop. During that time, the group is challenged to melt their respective styles and visions together, creating one cohesive, sculptural piece. When asked how they choose their artists, Goldschmidt said the team at CMoG works each year to identify an individual with a strong portfolio of collaboration work, and then, like a heist movie, asks them to name their two- to three-person dream team to pull off one epic job. That first year, Dan Coyle called in Adam Whobrey (Hoobs) and Ryan O’Keefe (Ryno) to create a futuristic piece dubbed “D-XG 2052.” Since then, artists like Phil Seigel, Solfire, HicDogg, Darby and AKM have been invited to share their world-renowned techniques at CMoG. For 2026, CMoG is complementing its major exhibition on Women in the American Glass Studio with a team that Goldschmidt called “some of the strongest women in contemporary flameworking” to illustrate how this legacy remains alive and well. Goldschmidt excitedly revealed to the Leaf that the 2026 lineup includes host Sibelle “Sibelley” Yuksek, along with Adrienne “Babedrienne” DiSalvo and Nicole “Coldberger” Berger. Glass fans who know DiSalvo’s intricate carvings or remember Yusek and Berger’s fire-spouting collaboration from Oregon’s 2023 DFO glass exhibition know that this will be one for the books.
(Ryno)
2023 - Lacey Walton (Laceface Glass), Chris Vickers (Hickory Glass) and Phil Seigel
2024 - Saiyan Glass, Solfire Glass, HicDogg and Windstar Glass
2025 - Darby Holm, Andrew “AKM” Morris and David Colton
2026 - Sibelle Yuksek, Adrienne DiSalvo and Nicole Berger
Laceface Glass, Hickory Glass and Phil Siegel
HicDogg, Solfire Glass, Saiyan Glass and Windstar Glass
Sibelley, Babedrienne and Coldberger
Sibelley x Babedrienne
Andrew “AKM” Morris Darby Holm and David Colton
Third annual CMoG Flame Collab final piece: “Cathedral” by HicDogg, Solfire Glass, Saiyan Glass and Windstar Glass.
“It’s
- Mike R., Co-Owner of Green Lady, Olympia & Lacey
northstar glassworks
As a steep decline in the artisan-driven glass pipe business co ntinues, one captain of the industry promises to keep navigating himself and his team through rocky tides. “There’s been times in the last few years where we’ve had to have some hard conversations,” Abe Fleishman, owner of Northstar Glassworks, said. “But I have this amazing staff I’ve worked with for so lo ng — most of them more than 10 years. And they always say, ‘Let’s keep rocking and rolling.’”
THE 49-YEAR-OLD native of Santa Cruz, California, has been a pioneer in the borosilicate glass color industry for a quarter century. How’d he do it?
Fleishman took a firm understanding of “basic chemistry” in high school and married it with an upbringing in the “Hard Knocks School of Life” that included underground sales of Cannabis throughout the 1990s. That science-savvy, street-smart hustle drove him to discover stable color formulas that have dominated a national market since the early 2000s.
His first splash into the mainstream was with Unobtainium: a steel blue sparkle created after hours of experimentation.
“At the time, I had a dream about the chemicals I was buying and using,” he said, likening it to a moment of sudden inspiration. “I was so excited, I told a couple of my employees, and we just thought it was the craziest, coolest color.”
Fleishman began with a small production shop, but he leapt at the chance to become general manager of Northstar Glassworks in 2004, eventually buying the company outright in 2006. He has developed hundreds of compatible color formulas, guiding the business as the industry emerged from the shadows and pushed toward legitimacy.
Along the way, his work has inspired artists around the world to infuse high-end glass pieces with color. That community gathers each year at the Degenerate Flame Off, widely considered the Super Bowl of the functional glass world.
Founded in 2009, the DFO is a multiday glassblowing competition that blends art, counterculture and community. Long rooted underground, the craft has found a public stage through the event, which Northstar has consistently supported throughout the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s not a trade show,” Fleishman said, who was honored for his technical innovations at the 2013 International Flameworking Contest. “We’ve never once paid these artists to compete. They come here to be a part of something special. It’s like a glass camp or a family reunion where people come to see their friends or people they've heard of or seen online and want to see their work.”
The 14th year of the event will be held at the Northstar factory in Portland, with Fleishman planning to shut down operations for a month to host it — a notable commitment for an event that has struggled to retain venues despite drawing crowds of more than 4,000.
The DFO was canceled in 2020 and 2025. When it returned in 2021, it did so at the height of the industry’s boom.
“When COVID hit, for whatever reason, the market went like wildfire,” Fleishman said, recalling pieces doubling in price from $3,000 to $6,000.
Owner Abe Fleishman gives a demo at DFO 2023.
“We’ve never once paid these artists to compete. They come here to be a part of something special.”
-Abe Fleishman
“It might have had something to do with the stimulus checks.
People had extra money to spend. So many people were buying glass pipes that we couldn’t keep up with distribution efforts.”
By 2022, the surge had reversed. The high-end American glass pipe market began to contract, squeezed by cheaper imports and shifting consumer habits.
“The same pipe that an artist here will make for 20 bucks, the Chinese are making something similar, but not as good, for five,” Fleishman said. “And then there’s for convenience sake. If you’re traveling or flying somewhere, you want to bring a little vape, not some smelly pipe.”
Changes in federal law also raised the legal age for purchasing tobacco products to 21, cutting off a key entry point for younger consumers.
“It used to be a rite of passage here in the States that when you turn 18 years old, maybe you’re finally out of your parents’ house, perhaps going to college, you go buy a bong for your dorm room or something to that effect. But that’s no longer happening because you gotta be 21 or over. And by that time, that experience or desire for it is gone.”
Industry estimates suggest sales have declined by more than 50 percent, forcing layoffs and price increases across the board. Northstar, Fleishman said, was no exception, downsizing to a team of just 10 employees.
“A lot of these artists, having accumulated this type of talent, would be making a half a million per year in other specialist fields,” he said. “The saddest part is a lot of these guys are my friends, and they’re being forced to leave the field and work a regular job because they can’t afford to stay in it anymore.”
Still, there are signs of life.
The DFO returns July 24-26, driven by demand from the community itself.
“Last year, when we reached out, so many people said they couldn’t afford it,” Fleishman said. “But over the fall and winter, so many people would call or message me saying they wanted the event to come back. They were starving for something like this. It’s just a great time.”
The three-day event will feature glassblowing competitions and collaborations, live DJs and vendors from around the world — all with the hope of reigniting momentum in a struggling industry.
“I hope I’m always going to be involved in this,” Fleishman said. “I just love this industry. There’s so much talent here.”
Tickets for the 2026 Degenerative Flame Off can be purchased at Humanitix.com under DFO Family Reunion.
DFO 2023
Collab is the name of the game
Chopsticks Sets
Emily Marie Glass @emilymarieglass
BEYOND the bong
While glass is often the backbone of the sesh, this art form can go far beyond functional smoking pieces. Check out our roundup redefining the unique uses of modern glassblowing.
diamond of the woods
Middleton Glassworks x Mr. Facet @middleton_glassworks @mr.facet
Cropel and Cucumber
Latticino Honey
Dichro Latte slide mugs
Renzo Ferruzo Glass @renzoferruzoglass
the marble capital of the world
The Mile High City felt a little headier in March as the most passionate collectors and celebrated makers in contemporary glassmaking converged for the second annual Marble Conference. What began last year as a promising debut returned to Denver in 2026, with nearly twice as many attending artists and a huge outpouring of support from the broader glass community.
KNOWN AFFECTIONATELY as “MIBCON,” the two-day gathering at Void Studios featured a dynamic lineup of events celebrating modern glass culture. At the heart of it all was the Marble Market: a lively, farmers-market-style bazaar where avid collectors and curious newcomers alike could browse work from some of the most sought-after names in the scene. There were also tons of different ways to engage with artists beyond their booths, from a charity auction to high-energy marble races and even a hidden marble hunt around the venue and surrounding areas.
The artist roster truly showed out. Colorado standouts like Eusheen and N8 Miers, who operate out of Everdream Studio up in the mountains of Evergreen, were joined by an impressive lineup of visiting talent. Among them was Mike Gong, a past Oregon Leaf Glass Issue cover artist, and Kaj Beck, a murrine master from Humboldt County who has been crafting marbles since 1996.
Hanging out behind his table, covered with intricate millie slices and vividly patterned marbles of all sizes, Beck reflected on his first MIBCON experience.
“I always like the amount of variety when I come to a marble show like this. You get to see so many different styles on the same canvas. Everybody is working a sphere, but every table has something completely different,” he explained. This sense of range and individuality within a shared medium was definitely a common theme throughout the weekend.
>>CONTINUES NEXT PAGE
Bodor Glass
Mike Gong
Nathan Gorman Treezus Heist
Peter Boyle
Drinking Vessels & Jen Stark
PIPER DAN, a Colorado local and OG of marble making, reflected on his own personal journey and evolution in the craft. Starting on the torch in 1995 and getting into marbles just two years later, he recalls those early days with a fond laugh.
Marbles were simply “easier to sell on lot and bring into shows” than larger functional pieces. What started more as a matter of practicality has since blossomed into a thriving subculture.
Today, these marbles function far beyond just art objects; they’ve become personal talismans that are valued equally for their meaning as they are for their visual appeal.
Some simply carry them in their pocket, or a super heady pouch, because they feel it brings them a bit of luck or intention, similar to a crystal.
“Everybody is working a sphere, but every table has something completely different.”
-Kaj Beck
Avid collectors integrate them into their daily lives, bringing them along to concerts or running them under fresh water on nature adventures.
A few personal standouts from this year’s show were Eusheen and Yoshinori Kondo’s epic marble collab, which sparkled so bright that I nearly needed sunglasses, and Jen Stark’s highly anticipated first release of flameworked glass pieces. I was beyond stoked to score a pill made by ENS Glass out of Texas that features a trippy take on Stark’s signature rainbow patterns. Whether you gravitate toward geometric shapes and nature-inspired patterns or like to get lost in a fully-worked window to another world, there was truly a style for everyone to appreciate.
If this year’s MIBCON turnout (and the palpable excitement among artists and collectors) is any indication, the event reflects a broader shift in the glass scene. It marks a move away from viewing marbles as simple, nostalgic objects and toward recognizing them as an innovative, highly technical art form. And this art form is shaping the future of glassmaking — one sphere at a time.
MARBLECONFERENCE.COM @MARBLECONFERENCE
Alex Ubatuba x Jen Stark x ENS Glass Collab
Enjoying the show
Mike Gong
Kenan Tiemeyer x Swank Collab
N8 Miers
Lilbear x Pogo Collab
Attendee Collection
Newob Glass
To many hardcore heads, their bong is more than just a piece of paraphernalia — it’s a reflection of their personal style — even a symbol of their stoner status. Sure, joints are great, but there’s nothing quite like a fat rip from a baller headpiece to go from sober to slobber in 4.20 seconds flat. So fire it up, fill that chamber and get ready to inhale the totally tubular history of the bong.
Birth of the Bong
AFRICAN ORIGINS
Evidence suggests that bongs originated in Africa sometime in the 12th century. In the late 1800s, archaeologists documented how various tribes in Eastern and Southern Africa would smoke “dagga” or “dakka” out of holes in the ground, using bowls fashioned from mud or clay and inhaling through a hollow reed — a primitive apparatus known as an “earth pipe.”
In an article from a 1910 edition of the German anthropological journal “Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie,” (reprinted in the 1975 book “Cannabis and Culture”), a Dr. Moszcik confirmed that the Ngoni, a tribe near the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, used such an earth pipe that utilized water filtration:
“A hollow tube is stuck into one of the pits to act as a mouthpiece and prevent particles of earth en tering the smoker’s mouth. Hemp is then placed in the bowl and kindled. A little water is poured into the duct and the native lies flat or kneels down and inhales the smoke through the water.”
ETHIOPIAN EXCAVATION
In 1971, Boston University doctoral student J.C. Dombrowski discovered 11 pipes made from animal horns, stone and pottery in the Natchabiet Caves of Lalibela,
Ethiopia. Among these were two ceramic pipe bowl fragments dating from between 1,100 and 1,400 C.E. that tested positive for Cannabis.
In his paper “Cannabis Smoking in 13th-14th Century Ethiopia: Chemical Evidence,” archeologist Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe wrote of the fragments: “Both bowls formed part of waterpipes; an aperture at the bottom of the bowl allows for the attachment of a vertical stem, which presumably descended into a water container.”
Then, in 1945, archaeologist Mary Leakey uncovered a waterpipe crafted from a gourd in Tanzania. This discovery may provide insight into the origin of the word “bong,” as apparently, there lived a tribe in nearby Kenya known as the Bong’om. There’s also a town in Liberia named Bong, which may or may not be connected.
a hole, chamber, or slot; a bamboo waterpipe for smoking kancha, hashish, or the hemp-plant.”
Regardless, the crafting of bamboo bongs is an ancient tradition deeply rooted in Thai culture. As thaibong.com explains: “This is not merely a tool, but a reflection of a way of life, a history, and an art form passed down through generations.”
SILK ROAD MIGRATION
THAI HIGH
Nevertheless, conventional wisdom holds that the term bong actually originated in Thailand as an anglicized version of the word “baung” — a reasonable presumption, considering that the earliest written record of the word bong appears in a 1944 Thai-English dictionary which defines it as “a cylindrical piece of wood with
Thanks to the legendary Silk Road and the East India Company, tobacco arrived in the Orient during the 16th-century Ming Dynasty, and smoking it from blinged-out metal waterpipes became all the rage among royalty and the upper classes. In fact, Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing dynasty was reportedly so fond of her waterpipes that she was buried with three of them.
It’s also through the Silk Road that bongs eventually made their way to Middle East trading hubs, then on to Europe sometime in the 17th century. With tobacco flowing in from the Americas, some Europeans began using waterpipes to imbibe, but they never became as popular as they were in Asia and Africa. It would take three more centuries (and a countercultural revolution) before the bong would catch on in America.
A bong merchant in Yuanyang, China takes a smoke break.
Wood and bone ceremonial bong of the Lega tribe in Congo, Africa.
DAVE STAMBOULIS / ALAMY
COMING TO AMERICA
During the 1960s and early 1970s, many U.S. soldiers fighting in South Asia started smoking Cannabis to help them sleep and cope with the daily traumas of war. It was these Vietnam vets who brought the bong home to America, where they were soon embraced by the weed-fueled hippie movement.
“During the Vietnam War, American GIs on R&R would come to Thailand to kick back and relax for a while before being sent back to fight in the Vietnamese jungles. It was there that they discovered the bong,” explained Thai writer Nuttawat Attasawat. “[Bongs] were smuggled back to the United States, where they became an integral part of American Cannabis culture.”
With the proliferation of headshops over the next decade, bongs grew ever more accessible and popular — becoming the preferred smoking method for countless stoners and a symbol of the counterculture. To meet this demand, some American artists and entrepreneurs began manufacturing a new style of bongs made from ceramics.
EARTHWORKS
“The bong is not merely a tool, but a reflection of a way of life, a history and an art form passed down through generations.”
The first U.S. ceramic bong manufacturer was a company called Earthworks. Best known for their iconic Old Man Bongs, Earthworks was founded in 1971 by an OG stoner we’ll call Mr. Thomas, since he prefers his real name not be revealed.
“In 1971, newly married and always getting high, I needed to find a way to make some money,” Thomas told World of Cannabis. “So I started Earthworks in a garage I rented, and we began making bongs.”
Within a year, he’d expanded the operation into a 2,000 square foot facility, purchased some used equipment, and hired “30 very friendly stoned hippies” to mass produce his Old Man Bongs. By 1973, Thomas and his team were cranking out about 1,200 a day, which they sold to headshops, sales reps and distributors for $5 each.
Earthworks eventually produced 724,400 of its Old Man pieces, making it the top-selling bong of the decade and a subcultural phenomenon. Old Man Bong clubs began forming all over the country, and the Earthworks factory became a stoner tourist attraction. Thomas even claims he and his crew buried a slew of bongs all around the country.
“There are over 50 burial sites for Old Man Bongs, protected in cypress boxes for future discovery,” he told WOC. “I believed then that we were making something that quite possibly would be found by archaeologists thousands of years later.”
Sadly, Thomas’ bong empire ended in 1983, when he sold the company and quit Cannabis. Now retired and in his 70s, he hasn’t smoked weed in over forty years.
THE SLYME FACTORY
Another popular 1970s ceramic bong maker was a zany artist from Missouri named Jim Rumph.
Inspired as a child by Mad magazine, sci-fi books, and fantasy artists, Rumph became an underground illustrator and graphic artist during the 1960s before switching to ceramics in the ’70s. Operating out of Southern California, his companies, Mind Circus and Slyme Factory, began selling fantasy-themed pottery, drinking vessels, and yes, bongs.
To the mainstream, Rumph was best known for his movie character mugs, such as E.T., King Kong, Superman, and his highly successful Star Wars series. But for the counterculture, it was his cadre of whimsical fantasy-themed bongs for which he’s revered. From skulls and snakes to dragons and demons, Pegasi and unicorns to wizards and topless maidens — Rumph’s sword-andsorcery smokeware were some of the most sought-after stoner collectibles of the era.
G.GRAPHICS V. GRAFFIX
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
In the 1990s, borosilicate glass established the new standard for smokeware thanks largely to “Godfather of Glass” Bob Snodgrass. Snodgrass and his early apprentices — such as Jason Harris (Jerome Baker), Chris Shave of JAH (Just Another Hippie) Creations, Dan K, and Cam Tower — went on to found the functional glass industry as we know it today. In fact, it was allegedly Tower who first crafted what we now consider the classic bong shape — a bubble-like base with a long, straight tube — out of a single, solid fused piece of glass. (See Cannthropology April 2021 and April 2023).
Around the dawn of the 1980s, a new material for making bongs emerged: acrylic. Compared to waterpipes of the past, acrylic bongs were cheaper and more durable. Pioneers of this plastic paraphernalia included U.S. Bongs from Rockville, Maryland (allegedly the first to feature pull-out downstem carbs) and a Milwaukee-based company called G.Graphics. Founded by a stoner named Todd Galanter, G.Graphics bongs originally consisted of a tin can filled with concrete and a PVC tube with a hole drilled in it for a metal stem. Eventually Galanter shifted production from his basement apartment to a warehouse and upgraded his materials. Though mostly sold only at local headshops in Wisconsin and Illinois, G.Graphics bongs became extremely popular in the greater Midwest. Nevertheless, Galanter appears to have shut the company down in 1990. But by far the most well-known bong manufacturer of that era was a brand whose name sounded suspiciously similar to Galanter’s: Graffix. Any American who was getting high in the 1990s is undoubtedly familiar with Graffix’s iconic jester skull logo and most likely found themselves choking up a hit from one of their long, colorful tubes at some point. Graffix was founded in 1988 in Tucson, Arizona … but beyond that, there’s shockingly little information available about this iconic, enigmatic brand.
KEEP CALM AND BONG ON
These boro bongs have enabled myriad new innovations, such as fuming (aka color-changing glass), cooling ice catchers, smoke-diffusing percolators and multi-chamber recyclers. Over the past three decades, glassblowing has become the art form of choice for many Cannabis lovers who create and collect mind-blowing heady works of functional art worth thousands of dollars.
Despite their artistic value, bongs are still classified as drug paraphernalia by the U.S. government under the Controlled Substances Act, and are therefore federally illegal to import, export, sell or transport across state lines.
To get around this law, headshops have historically posted signs stating that their smokeware was for “tobacco use only,” and forbade use of the word “bong” in their stores. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Justice Department from launching Operation Pipe Dreams in 2003, driving many bong makers and retailers out of business. Luckily, this beleaguered industry has made a triumphant comeback over time. Today, with Cannabis legal in so many states, paraphernalia sales are permitted under state law in much of the country and estimated by several market research firms to be a $73 billion market.
After nearly a millennium, the humble bong has proven itself to be more than just some clever contraption for getting high — it’s an enduring international artifact of humanity’s heritage, and an ever-evolving symbol of Cannabis culture that continues to bring joy to millions of stoners around the world.
Bobby Black is
Jim Rumph at his studio.
U.S. Bongs ad in High Times.
Old Man Bong
Classic Graffix straight tube bong.
“It feels like I’m playing with lava. I’ll go watch the lava flow, then go straight into the shop and work with something similar.”
THE LAVA BENEATH MY FEET THE LAVA BENEATH MY FEET
HOW HAWAIIAN LINEAGE, BREATH, SAND AND FLAME SHAPE THE ART OF JULIUS GUTIERREZ
There is a moment on the Big Island of Hawaii when your breath slows to the tempo of the crashing waves, you notice the salt and ash in the breeze and you are struck by the sense that Earth is a living ancestor.
MAYBE IT’S THE MOLTEN LAVA running through the Earth’s caverns beneath your feet, a reminder that this land is the domain of Tutu Pele, the fire goddess of Hawaii. She is our great-grandmother, an ancestral spirit to be respected, honored and approached with deep humility. The type of humble respect a glassblower embodies when the alchemy of these fragile yet timeless creations begins.
It is in this reverence that Julius Gutierrez steps into a relationship with grandfather fire, not as a tool, but as a living elder, one that echoes the same elemental energy as the lava rivers of Pele herself.
At Moe Hot Glass, guided by master glassblower Daniel Moe, Gutierrez has spent eight years shaping more than glass. He is shaping story, lineage and elemental memory, drawing from a land where fire is both destroyer and creator, where Pele’s breath reshapes the island in real time.
Can you introduce yourself in your own words and share what’s been moving through your world lately?
“I’m a farmer, a father, a psychonaut exploring biology, chemistry and playing with different elements,” Gutierrez said. “Nature moves through my reality daily and inspires my work.”
You carry Peruviano and Braziliano roots while living on the Big Island. How do your bloodlines and the land beneath your feet shape the way you approach the flame?
He speaks of Peru first, of tight-knit Indigenous South American roots bound by the joy of a big familia. It was his familia’s move to Hawaii that awakened his awareness to a deep systemic concern for native sovereignty.
“Seeing what happened here to the Kanaka Maoli tribes lit a fire in me to help represent Indigenous voices,” Gutierrez shared.
His pieces carry that intention: Hawaiian lineage patterns, tribal geometries etched not as decoration, but as protection, remembrance and resistance. In many ways, they mirror the markings of the land itself, lava fissures and flows shaped by Pele’s hand.
Our readers love Pakalolo. Do you have a favorite strain or preferred method of consumption?
“A good homegrown Super Silver Haze,” Gutierrez said. “I prefer to dab uplifting strains because they are simple, clean and quick.”
Have you blown your own smoke chalices?
“In my intro to glass class at the university, they told us we can't create bongs. So naturally, I made it a point to create a few of them,” he said with a smirk of rebellion. “Those pieces, once everyday tools, are now cherished artifacts marking the beginning of my collection.”
Many people see glassblowing as a craft, but others feel it is a ceremony. What does it represent to you?
“I feel like the very act of glassblowing is ceremonial,” he said. “When you get into the flow state with the flame, it’s like a trance, everything else falls away.” Here, fire becomes more than heat; it becomes a teacher. The process demands full presence, where breath and flame cocreate form.
Living on an island where lava flows beneath the surface, do you feel a relationship between your work and that living earth energy?
“It feels like I’m playing with lava,” he said. “I’ll go watch the lava flow, then go straight into the shop and work with something similar.”
The connection is visceral. Lava and glass are both born of heat, both carrying the story of transformation.
He dreams of one day creating glass directly from Hawaii’s own silica, allowing Pele’s body to become the medium.
There’s an alchemy to turning sand into glass. What does that transformation teach you?
“It teaches you to stay levelheaded and to let go. Glass breaks. You have to practice nonattachment,” he said.
“There is humility in the flame. No matter the skill, no piece is guaranteed. Beauty can collapse in an instant, just as land can be reshaped overnight by lava’s flow.”
In this way, the practice becomes spiritual, an ongoing lesson in surrender to forces greater than oneself.
Gutierrez works primarily with soft glass, an ancient form known for its fluidity and sensitivity. Unlike more rigid materials, it requires constant attention.
“You’re fully dancing with it,” he explained. “The process is physical, sweat, movement, breath, an orchestration of body and molten elements.”
That intimacy gives his pieces a living qual ity. His lava vessels feel like they’re still flowing, like they could shift at any moment. His ocean forms hold motion within stillness, echoing the meeting place of land and sea.
“In those moments, the boundary between studio and landscape dissolves. The furnace becomes a contained volcano, the blowpipe an extension of breath,” Gutierrez said. “I’ve even joked about blowing glass from the lava herself.”
One sculptural piece — an open, womb-like form lined with crystalline green — was inspired by the place his daughter, Andará, was conceived, merging land, lineage and life into a single form.
What do you hope people feel when they hold your work?
“Childlike wonder,” he said simply. “Curiosity for understanding how these pieces were made.”
Perhaps that is the true medicine of his work, not just the visual representation of the objects themselves, but the feeling they awaken. A return to the youthful essence of awe.
In a world that often forgets its connection to the elements, Gutierrez stands in the fire as both student and storyteller. Through flame and form, he reminds us OGs that creativity is a living ceremony in motion.
HOW CANNABIS INSPIRES ART
RUGSODA NICK FERRARA
NickFerraraonlystartedhiscareerasRUGSODAsixyearsagoafterdiscoveringaYouTubetutorialonhowtocreate customrugswithatuftinggun.Hehassincebuiltaportfoliothathasdrawntheattentionofmillionsofonlineviewers, as well as names like Converse, Warner Brothers, Complex, Welch’s, Market and The Wall Street Journal.
BUILDING ON his success with flat rugs, Ferrara’s creativity expanded into the third dimension with bags shaped like dice, spray cans and miniature dumpsters. Recently, he entered a new space by designing and producing his first vinyl figure.
This leap into limited-edition accessories, especially his controversial workboot-inspired Boot Bag release, propelled his work to go viral. The exposure drew attention from brands like Zig Zag, who then commissioned Ferrara to create a custom bag for an online giveaway.
The name RUGSODA is something Ferrara said came to his mind randomly while thinking of things he loves. He’s even released a line of custom socks that come packed inside soda cans. When asked how Cannabis has influenced his artistic process, Ferrara explained that weaving together fashion, art and Cannabis feels natural, given that he’s been smoking weed since high school.
“Weed’s inspired many of my past projects, like the giant nug rug I made for PAX, my joint pillows or the ashtray full of blunts rug,” Ferrara said. Back in his studio in Florida, Ferrara is listening to “Teacups and Kettles” from BBY Goyard’s “4thwall Pt. 2” on repeat while sketching out new designs. For more, though, the RUGSODA website has a radio link that drops you deeper into Ferrara’s inner soundtrack. He showed me the Zig Zag collaboration, and I asked what it felt like to work on a project like this.
“You never really know where art will take you,” Ferrara remarked. “It’s wild that when I was 17, I
was arrested for hotboxing my car. Now, I’m 27, and weed brands reach out to me for collaborations.”
So, what’s the next big drop for RUGSODA? Ferrara said he couldn’t reveal any details just yet, but confirmed his direction.
“I guarantee weed will continue to inspire many more projects of mine in the future,” Ferrara concluded.
“IT’S WILD THAT WHEN I WAS 17, I WAS ARRESTED FOR HOTBOXING MY CAR. NOW, I’M 27, AND WEED BRANDS REACH OUT TO ME FOR COLLABORATIONS.”
