In 2012, right after high school, Tate stepped into his first hot shop and became immediately fascinated by the heat, movement, and challenge of the craft. He pursued every opportunity to learn—securing unpaid apprenticeships in private studios, working alongside seasoned glassblowers, and taking courses with master artisans. Glassblowing, with all its risk and rhythm, became an instant obsession. Since it’s a craft that relies heavily on at least two people, Tate was determined to rope his younger brother into helping him. By 2015—just after Aaron graduated high school—Tate wrangled, bribed, and convinced him to join in. It didn’t take long before Aaron, too, was hooked.

In 2016, the brothers secured jobs at a large glass manufacturing company in Berkeley, California, where they also met their future business partner, Ash Koss, who was the company’s buyer at the time. The three quickly connected as friends. It didn’t take long for Tate and Aaron to recognize the value Ash could bring to their dream, and she was soon asked to partner in their vision. While working full-time at the factory—refining technical skills, learning high-volume production, and gaining operational insight—they poured every spare hour into building their future. By 2017, they were already on the road in their rainbow-painted E350 mini school bus, exhibiting at up to 44 art shows a year (2017–2021), blowing glass, selling their work, and building equipment by hand—working relentlessly to lay the foundation for what would become 2BGlass.

By April 2018, they decided to take the plunge into self-employment, leaving the factory to focus entirely on their own work. Together, they built their first hot shop on Tate and Aaron’s mom’s property—a home studio that allowed them to bring their designs to life. They fabricated equipment, plumbed and wired the space, built benches and booth displays, planted a massive garden, and converted the 500-square-foot sunroom into a showroom for annual open houses. From the start, the goal was clear: this studio was a stepping stone to opening a public hot shop they could share more widely with the community.

Over the next five years, they poured everything into growing 2BGlass—maintaining that intense 2017–2021 show schedule while steadily building savings and community connections. They secured custom installations for clients including Kaiser Permanente, the Marriott, and luxury apartment complexes. With no budget for outsourcing, they learned photography, web design, event coordination, and online sales. The pandemic accelerated their online pivot, and through it all they discovered which products their customers loved most: pumpkins, ornaments, and drinkware.

After two years of searching for a space that could serve as both a retail store and a commercial hot shop, the team secured the perfect location in 2023. Now operating from a 5,000-square-foot hot shop and showroom in Cameron Park, California, 2BGlass is a destination for collectors, design enthusiasts, and the local community. Visitors can watch the team transform molten glass into heirloom-quality pieces and explore a gallery filled with seasonal collections. They continue to grow their reputation through large-scale community events like the Handblown Glass Pumpkin Patch and the Ornament Extravaganza—now drawing tens of thousands of people each year. Looking ahead, their goals are as bold as their color palettes: to become a household name in handblown glass and to create the largest ornament display in the world.