Humble pride glass
About You:
Frontman/Frontwoman: Michael Sorenson
Location: Eugene, Oregon; USA
Mornings or evenings: Evenings
Chocolate or Vanille: Chocolate
Your happy place: Oregon Country Fair
About Brand:
Name comes from: It’s a word-play embracing the Humble but Proud duality, while bringing to mind a small lion pride which symbolizes family, strength, independence and courage.
Inspired by: The support of my family while on this journey, and my simple but naturally elegant aesthetic.
Why you started: I saw a color-change glass pipe for the first time at a Grateful Dead show in 1990 when I was 17, and right away I knew I wanted to do that. A few years later I made my way to Eugene, Oregon, the apex of glass pipe innovation in those days. I acquired the tools and supplies I needed and taught myself to the point where I could get a studio job making basic production spoon pipes. I started making nature-inspired pipes in 2002 when Operation Pipe Dreams demolished the burgeoning industry, and no one was willing to buy pipes to sell. I created the Chili and Banana pipes, forging my design niche to help overcome the reluctance of buyers, and continued growing my line over the past 20 years.
Where you are heading: Middle Earth
Explain to your grandma what you do: I use a 5000 degree torch to melt tubes of the kind of glass that your coffee pot is made of, and I add colors that I buy which are made by adding metals and minerals to the glass. I have to attach everything to long glass rods and tubes so I can move it and keep it stable while I melt it to a liquid state and blow and press into it in various ways to shape it into an artistic sculpted pipe that I could have right on my bookshelf when you come over, Grandma, and you wouldn’t even notice it’s a pipe.
About Life:
Bored if: I’m a 2 x 4
Feel like dancing if: My wife and I are being silly
Hungry for: a Cheeseburger
Excited when: Things go right
Quote: No matter where you go, there you are. - Snyder
www.humbleprideglass.com
