{"id":35730,"date":"2019-06-02T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/06\/02\/mothership-or-bust-inside-the-world-of-top-shelf-glass-collecting\/"},"modified":"2019-06-02T12:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T20:43:00","slug":"mothership-or-bust-inside-the-world-of-top-shelf-glass-collecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/06\/02\/mothership-or-bust-inside-the-world-of-top-shelf-glass-collecting\/","title":{"rendered":"Mothership or Bust: Inside the World of Top-Shelf Glass Collecting"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Few names have captured the imagination of scientific glass
\nenthusiasts in recent years like the team of glassblowers at Mothership Glass.<\/p>\n

Be it the beauty of their cutting-edge designs or the rips of such high quality they touch your soul every time, Mothership <\/a>has been hitting home runs since they opened up shop in Washington state<\/a> in 2013. Today, Mothership is the main force behind an entire glass subculture focused on purchasing and reselling pieces valued at as much as $200,000.<\/p>\n

To get an idea of how the hype percolated since the first designs made shockwaves in the scientific glass<\/a> community, we asked one of the top wholesale buyers of Motherships in the country what collectors are trying to get their hands on and discovered the origins of one of Mothership\u2019s most iconic pieces from the main collaborator.<\/p>\n

Ships at the Cave<\/h4>\n

Blake Hoffmann is a manager at The Cave<\/a> in San Mateo, California, which, along with its newer sister location on the opposite side of the San Francisco Bay, is among the most famed high-end headshops in the galaxy. The Cave\u2019s shelves are regularly lined with the absolute best wares from the top of the functional glass art food chain. The Cave was among the earliest places you could find Motherships on shelves \u2014 after their closest inner circle of shop buyers got first dibs.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Scott Deppe and eventual Mothership co-owner Jake Colito produced the first Fab Egg<\/a>. The Egg was essentially a 3D version of the Swiss Perc originally designed by glass blower Nate Dizzle. Hoffmann believes one of the biggest things that set Mothership off in the early days was the quality control Deppe already brought to his game. Even before kicking off the project, he was deeply respected for his past works, which tended to run for top dollar. At the time, Mothership worked with clear glass and whatever was produced using that glass had to meet Deppe\u2019s high expectations.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Mothership\u2019s Fab Egg design uses several percolation channels to diffuse the smoke. The scientifically styled piece is the flagship design of Mothership Glass. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAs a result of the cleanliness of Mothership pieces, even
\nthe very first ones stood out,\u201d Hoffmann said. He also noted that if you put
\nthose early Kleins and Fab Eggs against the newest generations, those from the
\nlatter batch are a bit thicker and cleaner, but the originals remain
\nexceptional.<\/p>\n

Hoffmann has heard a Fab Egg is a 30-hour piece, and
\nMothership artists discard pieces that don\u2019t make the quality control check
\nevery step of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of this 30-hour construction, you have ten different
\nphases that are ten different pieces and each of those pieces could be one of
\nthree or five that made the grading to go into a first quality piece,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What artists look for includes seal integrity, symmetry and
\ndesign-quality consistency. Every piece of a Mothership is instrumental to the
\nentire work\u2019s unique visual appeal, everything from the look and feel of the
\nfeet or base to the way the lips on the mouthpiece appear holds critical.<\/p>\n

Functional Art<\/h4>\n

Another primary point of the hype is simply the way a
\nMothership rips. Hoffmann has owned four Motherships and, currently, his daily
\ndriver is an 8.4-inch Four Seed of Life perc system Egg. He said most elite
\ndesigns in the glass game today are \u201ca stemlessly designed piece that feeds
\ninto a direct diffuser or to a chamber that goes through some sort of
\ndiffusion.\u201d The Fab Egg, Swiss Perc and Peyote Pillar all have a diffuser, and
\nthe design style creates a high- end, intense diffusion with thousands of
\nlittle bubbles. Those bubbles get sent immediately into a natural diffusion
\ndesign of some sort.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like taking a breath in,\u201d Hoffmann said of the experience of dabbing<\/a> off a Mothership piece. \u201cI don\u2019t feel as much like I have to milk it and clear it on a dab or flower rip. It\u2019s more like hooking up a filter to your mouth and smoking through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And The Cave has been plugged into the Mothership trend for
\nquite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been carrying them since 2012 or 2013,\u201d said Hoffmann. Back in those days, the original sticker price on the first Ships at The Cave ran between $1,000 and $1,500. Hoffmann noted some of the earliest stuff in Canadian shops was selling for as low as $600 or $700. Those first-generation models have tended to triple in value since first being made, according to Hoffmann, an increase driven by demand. This has sent their best work north of $200,000, with the cheapest first quality versions of their most famous models running a few thousand dollars.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
This Mothership Collaboration with Sagan Glass reportedly sold for over $100,000 in a private auction. The piece contains a glass marble moon that was launched into space. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Due to time restraints on what the glass artists could
\nproduce monthly, the secondhand market for their pieces quickly caught fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flip market really flipped them at an exceptionally
\nhigh price,\u201d Hoffmann said, adding that the glass also appealed to other types
\nof cultural collectors. \u201cYou had sneakerheads getting into this that had
\nexperience in how to deal with exclusivity and maximize money on that.
\nMothership, of course, saw what the items were getting flipped for and they
\nadjusted their retail prices over the years to kind of close that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoffmann recalled prospective buyers camping out for
\nmultiple nights at the shop prior to Mothership drops.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have a split between people that were intense fans of
\nthe brand\u2026 people in the culture that really wanted them for their personal
\ncollections and you had people that maybe wanted that, but also wanted a return
\non their investment when they heard they were selling for more on the flip than
\nthey were retail,\u201d Hoffmann said.<\/p>\n

But a third category of buyer, who had no interest in owning
\na Mothership, likely had the biggest impact in driving retail prices up: \u201cYou
\nalso had people that were going in saying, \u2018OK, this is a hot item, it might be
\neasy, I\u2019m going to grab one and flip it the same day I buy it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cave was able to paint a pretty clear picture of what
\nhappened after the drops. They would collect the Instagram accounts of the
\nfolks who came out so they could see where the pieces found their final
\ndestination. Hoffmann said Mothership would have seen the resale market
\nhappening in online auctions and didn\u2019t want the end user to have to pay $1,500
\nfor a piece they were only making $500 or $600 on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely an interesting situation where they were
\ntrying to raise prices to narrow the flip margin, so the people that wanted
\nthem would have to fight for them at the stores. The prices would only draw
\npeople that wanted to own them for a while, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elites<\/h4>\n

Mothership\u2019s most coveted works come in the form of their
\nelite line. Elites tend to start in the $10,000 retail value range and offer various
\nadditional aesthetic features, from sandblasting to coldworked (the work that
\ngoes in after the piece has finished cooling) designs that could take longer to
\ncomplete than the original production of the piece. Special lineups of
\nsingle-color drops are also highly coveted. Mothership crafts their own
\nfantastic colors, then offers only one of each model in that shade.<\/p>\n

Among Mothership\u2019s most famous works are their collabo- rations. Their Grateful Dead and Slop Cup efforts with the Japanese collective Team Japan blew minds, and the skull collaboration with Humboldt, California<\/a> artist Mr. Gray is one of the most famous pieces of all time.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
This Mothership piece in the Purple Rain color features 88 re opals. Elements of sacred geometry are a signature style inclusion in Mothership Glass pieces. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt was an idea I had based on some pieces Scott [Deppe] had
\nmade,\u201d Mr. Gray, the main artistic collaborator on the skull, said. \u201cHe had
\nmade a couple of versions, one of which was with Adam G [otherwise known as the
\n\u201csweater kingpin\u201d]\u2026 It was fashioned after that piece, which had more of a
\nSouth American theme or look to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Gray\u2019s idea coincided with the first year of the PipeMasters Flame-Off, a collective event that brought numerous artists together to collaborate in 2013 at Nate Aweida\u2019s 7 Point Studios, which was located in Seattle, Washington until spring 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not normally given the playing field where I would
\nhave the opportunity to collab with Scott Deppe,\u201d Mr. Gray said. \u201cI was only
\nbut acquaintances with him at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Gray ended up with Deppe\u2019s number and decided to give him a call and pitched him on the project he would bring to PipeMasters for the two artists to create together. Deppe agreed. After a week of prep work with his then-assistant Ben David, Mr. Gray traveled to meet Deppe at PipeMasters.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Mothership\u2019s collaboration with Mr. Gray for this skull piece showcases their coveted elite models, which require countless hours of craftsmanship. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

After a five-day stretch of 16-hour work sessions, Mr. Gray
\nand Deppe concluded the piece needed more work \u2014 Deppe apparently insisted on
\nadding 30 more leaves. So, following a two-month hiatus, Mr. Gray headed up to
\nBellingham, Washington to Mothership with extra materials and spent over a week
\nwith Deppe, this time working 12-hour days. Finally, Mr. Gray\u2019s family needed
\nhim back home, so he left the home-stretch to Deppe.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott continued to work on it for another two weeks by
\nhimself,\u201d Mr. Gray said. \u201cI\u2019m sure he had an employee helping him with it. It
\nwas a two-man job at that point. One person to hold the piece and another
\nworking on it. It was so big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today the skull is ranked among the greatest pipes ever
\nmade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s residual, exponentially, trickling down
\nstill,\u201d Mr. Gray said of the skull\u2019s reception. \u201cI got a lot of street credit
\nfrom it, so I\u2019m sure a lot of sales came from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such attention to detail and focus on quality,
\nMotherships aren\u2019t going anywhere. In fact, due to increased demand and faster
\nproduction, there is a strong argument to be made that the epic pieces are more
\nlikely to be in the hands of collectors that love them right off the bat than
\never before.<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, how much would you pay for a piece from Mothership Glass? <\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 36 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Mothership or Bust: Inside the World of Top-Shelf Glass Collecting<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Mothership or Bust: Inside the World of Top-Shelf Glass Collecting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few names have captured the imagination of scientific glass enthusiasts in recent years like the team of glassblowers at Mothership Glass. Be it the beauty of their cutting-edge designs or the rips of such high quality they touch your soul every time, Mothership has been hitting home runs since theyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35731,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,240,99,10153,532,4989,5842,85,9548,10154,10155,998,10156,5843,10157],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35732,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35730\/revisions\/35732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}