glassybaby is a company based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington that produces handmade glass

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

candle holders, called glassybaby, which are sold online and at stores in the Seattle area and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The company donates money from sales to charities helping cancer patients with costs during chemotherapy and other charities "dedicated to healing".

History

While undergoing cancer treatment in 1995, Rhodes's husband Emery produced small glass cups which Lee would light with tea light candles to find solace during treatments. Encouraged by the demand from her friends, Rhodes hired local glassblowers in 1998 to produce more glassybaby, and began selling them out of her garage. The company was officially founded in 2001. In 2003, Rhodes set up a glassblowing studio in Seattle’s old Vitamilk Dairy building, since demolished. In September 2005, Rhodes appeared on

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

's television show, which led to a significant increase in sales. Also in 2009,

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...

purchased a 22 percent stake in glassybaby. A spokeswoman for Bezos suggested that he thought the company, which grossed over $2 million in 2008, could eventually reach the $100 million mark in sales. In 2011, glassybaby hired Greg Huey from the Alliance of Angels as President and COO.

Locations

In 2007, glassybaby moved to a studio and retail shop in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood. Two years later, the company opened additional locations in Seattle’s University District, Bellevue, and New York City. The New York City store closed in 2012. Before closing, it was the subject of a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' case study which detailed the difficulties experienced by the store. In 2013, glassybaby opened a retail outlet in San Francisco's

Presidio Heights San Francisco, in the US state of California, has both major, well-known neighborhoods and districts as well as smaller, specific subsections and developments. While there is considerable fluidity among the sources, one guidebook identifies five m ...

neighborhood. In 2015, the company opened their first California hot shop in Berkeley, a 13,000 square-foot workshop and retail space. glassybaby also opened retail stores in Palo Alto and San Francisco.

Charitable giving

From its inception, glassybaby has donated money from sales to charities that serve the needs of cancer patients. By October, 2017, glassybaby had donated more than $8,000,000 to 400 different charities. Among the supported charities are the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance,

University of Washington Medical Center The University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) is a hospital in the University District of Seattle, Washington. It is one of the teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine.And is located in the War ...

, Gilda's Club New York City,

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

The Humane Society of the United States The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an American nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare and opposes animal-related cruelties of national scope. It uses strategies that are beyond the abilities of local organizations. ...

, and

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and communities. The organ ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.glassybaby.com Companies based in Seattle