(glass rattling) - Coca-Cola.

- [Jason] Rob and I met in eighth grade, when he was the new kid in school.

(gentle music) - [Rob] Yeah, kinda started working together right after that.

His parents had a house in Downers Grove with a cool basement that was unfinished, and we decided to kinda like set that up as our hangout.

- Yeah, (laughing) so yeah, our first project was decking out a hangout area in my parents' basement in junior high.

(both laughing) (glass rattling) (gentle music) So I've always been creating things and creating art, but I really took off when I discovered glass blowing.

(glass rattling) Got into glass when my mom asked me to take a glass bead-making class with her and her friends when I was 17 years old.

- When you came back after that, and like, you're like, "Now, let's show," you know, you showed me everything on the torch, and were showing it around, and like, again, we (laughing) helped build a studio in the basement, and you started making stuff right after that, and it wasn't, you know.

And every time I'd swing by, it would be like, "Hey dude, I made a figurine," or, "check it out, I made," you know, "I tried this thing out," and it was just like always kind of evolving and growing.

(glass rattling) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Rob] It's funny, they came with like a trailer of like 100 of those things all stacked way up.

(Jason laughing) And delivered 'em, they were like sitting out, down actually where the dumpsters for a while.

I was like, "That's a lot of receptacles."

(laughing) When we went to college, we went to Illinois State, we lived together there.

- Our first big projects really came about after we graduated Illinois State University in 2007.

And you know, we were looking for a space to build our first glass blowing studio.

And everything was too expensive as far as, you know, commercial rents.

And we were talking to this one guy about his building that we couldn't afford to rent.

And he's like, "You know, I think I have something that'll work for you guys."

And there was a old dilapidated brick building across the street, and the roof was leaking, and it didn't have any running water.

And you know, he said, you know, we walked in, and I was like, "This is perfect, you know, this is exactly what we need."

- "I'll take it."

(laughing) - It was like 100 foot by 100 foot, and oh, it was built in the 1880s.

It was right next to the railroad tracks.

And that was one of the ways we got our start, and actually raised money to do things and survive was to throw events.

- [Rob] We would have art and music events.

We would have a bluegrass band come and set up and play music, and Jason would be like pouring glass from like through shopping carts hung to the ceiling.

Projects kinda based around bringing people to see this cool thing.

- And that's why really Rob, Rob and I's friendship was really crucial with this is because I would focus on the art, and building the sculptures, and then Rob would organize an entire events around it.

(gentle music) - [Rob] The original tree was back in like 2007 at the original glass factory we were talking about.

And the way it works is we start collecting glass in the community, bottles, wine bottles, jars, pickle jars, all that, and we crush it up in Jason's glass furnace.

We melted it.

(glass rattling) And then extrude it around a 31-foot tall spinning steel structure.

(gentle music) - [Jason] So I was never excited about the idea of creating objects that would sit on a pedestal in a white wall gallery.

I get most excited about creating whole systems that those art objects live within, and then thinking of different ways that your art involves the community, that interfaces in the community, which is one reason I love using recycled bottle glass is I like using local materials that are just free and available, that people can bring to us, and grow sculptures and grow projects by bringing the material to us.

- You know, in order for it to be the world's tallest, the world should be involved in it, you know, it's a community effort.

That's what's unique about our event is that someone can know that they put their glass in that receptacle, and we crushed it up and melted it, and now it's on that world's tallest glass tree, or part of that process or that event.

You know, a bottle in the ground'll last a million years, and you could take the same bottle, crush it up, melt it, and make a bottle again a million times, so without losing any properties of that glass.

So there's no reason to be putting it in the ground.

And through our efforts last year alone, we collected over 17 tons of glass in just less than a month.

And we're able to put that back into the glass recycling system instead of into a landfill.

(gentle music) (playful music) - [Jason] We could just put all the glass on it ourselves, but frankly it's just not as much fun.

So it's just a lot more fun to involve the community.

You know, we have, you know, everyone from three year olds to 93 year olds come to put glass on the tree.

And that's really just what brings life to a project.

Okay, it just broke off perfect, you did a great job.

- [Parent] Good job, baby.

- Yep.

- Congratulations.

- Just knowing that, especially, you know, three year olds, four year olds, five year olds, they're gonna remember this for the rest of their life.

So I love creating the opportunity for kids to do something that's exciting, and that they'll never forget.

- At the end of the day, there's nobody else doing something like this, right?

Like, and we kinda forget that sometimes.

It's a lot of work, but it beats working.

(playful music) - [Announcer] Thanks for watching "The Arts Page."

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