November 27, 2023 • 20 mins
The World's Tallest Glass Tree is going up right now at Yerkes Observatory along Highway 67 in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Under the inspirational guidance of Rob Elliott and glass maker Jason Mack, this endeavor is in its second year. They take donated glass from all over, spin it onto a pole, and create a 31-foot tree that will get topped with a huge star on December 17th in an event that you MUST see - especially if you want to see a world record happen!
In this episode, head State Trunk Tour Guide Eric Paulsen sits down in the studios of WLKG raido in Lake Geneva to discuss how this whole thing and the public events that include tree construction (which you can participate in) and a vendor market with over 20 artisans and others that can help you get your holiday shopping done while getting inspired. Learn how glass gets made, how it's recycled, and how it is spun into a 31-foot tall Christmas Tree, right there in the front yard of Yerkes Observatory!
This tree is constructed with donated glass from around the area. People are welcome to come and bring their empty glass bottles, jars, and they'll melt that glass down right on site with a portable furnace and spin it into the tree's construction. You can even help - and learn.
Tree construction is underway, and these next few Friday-Sunday weekends (December 1-3, 8-10, and 15-17, 2023) you can join in. The BIG event is the topping of the tree on Sunday, December 17th!
If you've ever wanted to learn about glass blowing, get your own custom glass-blown ornament, or contribute to a world record being set - all while checking out the beautiful Yerkes Observatory abutting Geneva Lake - THIS is the time. They'll even have a specialty beer made by nearby Deusterbeck's Brewing that specifically commemorates the tree! They're also working with Enlightened Brewing out of Milwaukee and the classic Seipp's Beer out of Chicago, which offers their beer at Black Point Estate nearby for some special releases, too. We cover all of this, plus stories and even the challenges of trying to make it a Guinness World Record. Hit Highway 67 between U.S. 14 and Highway 50 in Walworth County, you'll find Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The events you can attend run Dec. 1-3, 8-10, and 15-17 - and on Sunday, December 17th they have their MAIN event, when they present the finished tree and top it off with the beautiful star. Find out more on StateTrunkTour.com and directly at WorldsTallestGlassTree.com!
In this episode, head State Trunk Tour Guide Eric Paulsen sits down in the studios of WLKG raido in Lake Geneva to discuss how this whole thing and the public events that include tree construction (which you can participate in) and a vendor market with over 20 artisans and others that can help you get your holiday shopping done while getting inspired. Learn how glass gets made, how it's recycled, and how it is spun into a 31-foot tall Christmas Tree, right there in the front yard of Yerkes Observatory!
This tree is constructed with donated glass from around the area. People are welcome to come and bring their empty glass bottles, jars, and they'll melt that glass down right on site with a portable furnace and spin it into the tree's construction. You can even help - and learn.
Tree construction is underway, and these next few Friday-Sunday weekends (December 1-3, 8-10, and 15-17, 2023) you can join in. The BIG event is the topping of the tree on Sunday, December 17th!
If you've ever wanted to learn about glass blowing, get your own custom glass-blown ornament, or contribute to a world record being set - all while checking out the beautiful Yerkes Observatory abutting Geneva Lake - THIS is the time. They'll even have a specialty beer made by nearby Deusterbeck's Brewing that specifically commemorates the tree! They're also working with Enlightened Brewing out of Milwaukee and the classic Seipp's Beer out of Chicago, which offers their beer at Black Point Estate nearby for some special releases, too. We cover all of this, plus stories and even the challenges of trying to make it a Guinness World Record. Hit Highway 67 between U.S. 14 and Highway 50 in Walworth County, you'll find Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay. The events you can attend run Dec. 1-3, 8-10, and 15-17 - and on Sunday, December 17th they have their MAIN event, when they present the finished tree and top it off with the beautiful star. Find out more on StateTrunkTour.com and directly at WorldsTallestGlassTree.com!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And welcome to this episode of theState Trunk Tour podcast. I'm Eric Paulson.
So there's so many great reasons toroad trip around the holiday season to
see some really cool things. Youmay have seen the holiday lights piece on
State trunk Tour dot com. Weshow you like twenty five or thirty different
places you can go for huge holidaylight walkthroughs and drive through displays. There's
so many other great events, butsome of them are unique where you have
(00:22):
to go to one specific place tosee this. And we're talking about that
today here on the podcast because theworld's tallest glass tree is once again rising
in the Lake Geneva area at Yurkey'sObservatory in Williams Bay, which is an
amazing place in its own right.It's right along Highway sixty seven, so
if you're doing a sixty seven roadtrip, you'll be right there. And
(00:43):
so i'd like to welcome Rob andJason into the studio here. It's Rob
Elliott and Jason Mack and they arethe creators of this world's tallest glass tree.
Welcome into the studio, guys,Thanks so much, Yeah, thank
you for having us. So youdid this already once before last year.
We did do it last year atEurki's Observatory, so this will be the
(01:04):
second year there and yeah, greatevent. We had huge, huge attendance
last year as well as awesome publicitybehind it, and we're really excited to
bring it back again this year andgo even a little bit taller. It's
very cool that you're doing that,Yeah, for a second year. You're
outdoing yourselves for a year two.That's pretty sweet. So if you've seen
(01:25):
the graphic, it talks about theworld's tallest glass tree. There's a star
topping event and everything. So what'sgoing on is people are dropping off glass
e raw materials. People are donatingvery very smart by the way, so
all from people from all over thearea around Lake Geneva and Walworth County and
you know wherever they want to drivefrom can drop off glass now through December
(01:47):
first or even beyond or yeah,we'll collect glass up until the fifteenth of
December. And the two locations areone is in Williams Bay at the corner
of sixty seven in Geneva Street,across from Pravado and Harpoon Willie's and the
other is in the parking lot ofFontana Home outdoor at one twenty seven Valley
View Drive in Fontana, right acrossfrom the gas station. So bring your
(02:08):
bottles, bring your glass, Bringthat big giant pickle jar you've been staring
at for twenty years. We'll crushit up, melt it, and we'll
add it to the world's tallest glasstree. So yeah, all kinds of
glass are welcome, right. Itcan be soda bottles, beer bottles,
water well glass water bottles like theTopo Chico which is kind of my favorite
water now. And then yeah,like you mentioned glass, jars and all
(02:29):
kinds of different glass products. Yeah, anything that's a container glass. So
we can take anything that's you know, they call it post consumer glass,
which is jars, bottles, anythinglike that. The only thing we don't
take is flat glass, so windows, beers, anything like that. So
you're like Apple, no windows,Yeah, yeah, right, exactly,
very good. So you take thisglass. I mean when you look at
(02:51):
the pictures, it's pretty amazing becauseit looks like spun stringy glass, which
is exactly what it is, rightright, it's spun glass, right,
right. So we have that thirtyone foot tall spinning steel structure. So
what we do with the glass.After we collect it is we sort it
into green and clear bins, crushit, and then we'll shovel it into
a mobile glass furnace that I builtespecially for doing large on site installations.
(03:13):
So we'll melt the glass at twothousand degrees about two thousand to two two
hundred degrees, and then after thatwe'll gather it up on steel irons and
then then spin it and kind ofdrip it around the tree, and the
tree spins it up and it's yeah, it's a it's like spun glass that
is really cool. So, yeah, it's kind of strings of green.
It all turns out to be alittle green in the quartera. I try
(03:37):
to use a fifty to fifty mixof green and clear glass. So if
you use all green glass, itwould the tree would be really dark,
dark green, which looks nice.But then we lighten it up with about
fifty percent clear and you get thisreally beautiful transparent green color. And then
once we get a good layer glasson there, we we shine bright lights
up through the middle of it,and it just really looks beautiful, glowing
(03:58):
at night. Very cool. Youknow a lot of bottle especially beer bottles,
are brown, but that doesn't matterit does it. We'll use some
brown because it gives it this kindof nice kind of olive green tone to
it, and I'll kind of changeup the color and the ratio of green
to clear throw some brown in there, so you get this kind of nice
undulations of olive brown, green,light green. So you get a lot
(04:20):
of different different colors. So upto December first, you're collecting the glass.
You're going to start building the treeDecember first, and then you've got
these three day events every weekend leadingup to the star topping event, which
is December seventeenth, and so peoplecan come donate glass, watch it get
built, and then they also havesome other cool options when they go to
(04:43):
Yerkei's Observatory during these weekends. Yes, so there's a giant maker Market,
a huge heated tent, think likea giant circus tent, but it's heated
and it's full of vendors who makeawesome handmade products. A lot of Jason's
glassware will be in there as well. There's wood products, leather, steel
workers, all kinds of really funcool things in there to shop for for
(05:06):
the holidays. And then there's kidsactivities on site. Yrkis is going to
be doing condensed mini tours of theobservatory as well throughout the weekends during the
event, So there's just all kindsof fun things to do on site,
and we encourage you to come everyweekend, you know, Friday, Saturday,
(05:26):
Sunday for the first three weekends inDecember, and if you come each
weekend, you can actually watch thetree grow and progress throughout the throughout the
month. It's it's pretty exciting.So you spin it from the bottom to
the top. Yeah, that's right. So that first weekend, so we
can melt with the furnace three hundredpounds of glass per day, so that
first Friday will get a layer ofglass about halfway up that that so December
(05:49):
first, we'll have one layer glassabout halfway up December second, That Saturday
we'll get to the top of thetree with the first layer. Then Sunday
Tomber third, we'll start back downat the bottom and then wrap as high
as we can go up to thetop. So after that first weekend we'll
have about nine hundred pounds of glasson it. So if you have even
(06:10):
more glass than that, you're stilltopping it out at about thirty one feet
regardless, right, that's right.Yeah, you can only go as high
as the spinning steel frame. Okay, so that's its base, is that
steel frame. That's right. Spinthe glass around it, and this is
again the glass that people can bringin from around the community. You make
sure it gets recycled. Glass kindof is the ultimate recyclable material. It
is. Yeah, glass is endlesslyrecyclable, yeap and so, and then
(06:32):
after that the structures thirty one feettall, and then on December seventeenth,
we put a five foot blown glassstar on it, so it'll be just
over thirty six feet after we're done. So that's the climactic part. It
is December seventeenth event. It's happeningat two o'clock and December seventeenth is a
Sunday right there at Rokeys Observatory,So people will see the thirty one foot
(06:53):
tree and then they can see thestar topping. And while you're building the
tree, people can continue to contributeglass and see it go essentially right into
it. That's right. Yeah,So we'll collect glass up through the fifteenth
of December, and we'll continue tocrush and crush and ad glass into the
furnace throughout those first three weeks,and then any glass that we don't use
(07:14):
afterwards will actually get donated to aplace called Strategic Materials Incorporated and Delevant,
and their sole purpose is sorting,crushing, and cleaning glass and putting it
right back into the manufacturing worlds whereit can get turned back into pickle jars
and beer bottles and Topo Chico bottlesand all that fun stuff instead of going
into a landfill. So it's areally really cool thing. Last year we
collected over eight tons of glass bottlesfrom the community. Wow. So glass
(07:40):
starts as sand, which is kindof amazing. Then you just add some
materials and somehow it becomes glass.I know, you know that inside.
I have no idea how that works, but it's pretty cool. Yeah,
it's amazing. Really just only threemain ingredients, just sand, soda ash,
and limes kind of stabilize soda ashfluxes. The sand makes it lord
of the melting temperature, and thenthe lime stabilizes it. And before I
(08:03):
forget, just so people know theydon't have to peel the labels off the
glass. Oh yeah, they reallydon't have to do anything. Maybe just
a quick rinse is all, butyou don't want it full of spaghetti sauce.
Yeah, that burns off. Theywant to bring us full full bottles
of beer and Ryan, well,we'll take it, but but yeah,
they'll empty those manually. Yeah.But Eddie, you know all the the
(08:24):
labels, paper, labels just burnoff. You know, two thousand degrees,
paper just vaporizes. So no needto spendle any time peeling the labels
off. That's cool. That's easierthan recycling it into a like the city's
stuff. Right, that's about thesame. Yeah, that's about the same
process. And then all the sothe glass to the tree takes about three
thousand pounds of glass, and lastyear, like Rob said, we collected
(08:46):
over fifteen thousand pounds. And wework with a local glass recycler, SMI
and Delevan, and so they providethe recycle bins, the drop off bins,
and then all the excess glass goesstraight to their processing facility where they
process it and then sell it backto glass bottle manufacturers. Okay, and
then there are some nonprofits that benefitfrom this as well. Yeah. Each
(09:09):
year we we donate a portion ofthe parking proceeds and the bar proceeds to
local charities. This year, we'reworking with the Lioness Group working with Williams
Bay High School as well as CampOne Step with the Children's Oncology Camp over
at Conference Point. So yeah,each year we try to you know,
(09:30):
create a charitable aspect to the eventand be able to get back into the
community that's helping us create this awesomeevent. That's very cool. What gave
you the idea to do this?The so Rob and I started working together.
I mean Rob and I went tocollege together at Illinois State University and
then opened that We opened a studioin a big abandoned warehouse, and I've
(09:52):
been working on developing different large scaleon site sculptures. Glass boiling is typically
done in a studio, either byyourself or you know, then you create
something and then bring it out intothe public or try to get in a
gallery. And I kind of wantedto flip that whole idea on its head
and create glass out in the publicin front of people and kind of work
on turning it into a performance art. And Rob's got a lot of background
(10:16):
and theater and performance, so it'skind of a good a good uh a
good partnership. And originally we weretalking about you know, we used to
in the factory. We had youknow, sculptures all over the place,
and kind of the idea came about. It was like, we should do
a glass forest one day cool andhave hundreds of these trees and rivers and
(10:37):
you know gnomes and mushrooms and flowersand all kinds of cool stuff in a
space that you know, like aticket to attraction people could come and see
and enjoy. And it had,you know, kind of an ever evolving
type of type of environment. Andto clean it you just need a lot
of wind decks, you know,exactly pose it off. So but yeah,
I think you know, like Jaysaid, you know, he kind
(10:58):
of had to start somewhere, andso like why not start with a giant
holiday tree and make it, youknow, something that everybody can see and
be aware of and be a partof and help create. Yeah, so
if you want to build a glassforest, you got to kind of prove
the concept. And so people arelike, you know, what are you
talking about. Well, you know, show them one. If you're gonna
make one one tree, might aswell make it as big as you can.
(11:20):
Well, and that's what's funny theidea of having it be the world's
tallest. I mean you had tolook up to see if there was already
a record for that, right,Yeah, so I did that. Yeah
when I when I was first designingthis, this tree, uh in twenty
twenty is when I built the framefor this and you know, designed to
build the structure, and I justgot on Google. Google. Googled the
world's tallest glass tree, world's tallestglass Christmas tree, And there's only one
(11:41):
other guy that claimed the title.It was made on the island of Borano
in Venice, Italy. Oh wow, and there you know, it's a
famous island for glass blowing, andof course, yeah we all know that.
Yeah, a lot of people do. But it he built one that
was twenty seven point five feet tall, and it was totally different design.
(12:01):
Its steel center structure like mine,but his was blown glass kind of attached
to it. So they made allthe pieces in a studio, blown glass
pieces, and then assembled it outside. And so I was like, all
right, you know, that's twentyseven point five. And then I made
mine thirty one, which was kindof a I used three ten foot sticks
(12:22):
of pipe in the center, whichis why we ended up at thirty.
And the base is one foot tall. The spinning you know, bearing with
the base on its one foot sothat's kind of how it determined it.
Yeah, exactly taller. Yeah,those was taller. And then is this
you know, I contact a Guinnessabout the tree and if you're doing an
(12:43):
event with sponsors where when you havea market and you're selling your glass wear
and you're it's actually really expensive tobe able to use the name and likeness
of the Guinness Book of World Recordsfor ah yeah uh. And then there's
also the issue that it's a veryspecific record because there's not necessarily a category
(13:05):
for a glass and steel tree,So there's the issue of getting the category
made, and then the issue ofokay, if you want to use their
name and likeness in your advertising,you got to pay big bucks. So
yeah, we talked about the GuinnessBook of World Records not too long ago
because it was like World Guinness WorldRecord Day or something, and it was
from the Guinness Beer people and theywere just arguing over like some large animal
(13:28):
in Europe and who was the biggestand they couldn't find it. So they
made a book about all these they'reover sixty thousand Guinness records, so it
wouldn't surprise me if that will bein there one day. But yeah,
it is paid to play, sono need because you're doing this kind of
as a nonprofit. Now the market, the vendors would love to make some
money and everything, and it reallyis how many vendors are going to be
(13:50):
there. We'll have about twenty vendorseach weekend in the tent. Fun thing
to note, though, Yerki's Observatoryis actually in the Guinness World Record for
the largest refract Yeah, worlds arejust refracting telescope. Yeah, Stephanie Kletz
told us that, yeah, multipletimes. And it was closed to the
public for so long. So thefact that it still recently has reopened and
(14:11):
you can take a tour of thatobservatory and at the same time watch the
world's tallest glass tree get built,contribute glass to it. Check out the
market. It's gonna be a funtime there, man, no doubt,
no doubt. It's a truly inspirationalplace, and you know, everybody should
have a chance. We have aspecial collector's brew coming out from Yeah,
We've got a beer coming out fromDoosterbecks. We did especially commember to four
(14:35):
packs, so you'll be able toget those at the winter market as well.
What's the beer going to be called? It is Glass Galaxy Blonde aale
n Yeah, so did the Sunof the owners. The brewery designed a
really cool label with the tree onit and the dome Yerkey's dome in the
background, and yeah, really cool. So we'll become a collector four packs.
(14:56):
Wow, there'll be collector's items toofor the ones people drink. But
it sounds like it's going to bea delicious beer. So you'll have to
get two pecks then one for theshelf and one for the one for the
fridge to be able to get thatat Doosterbacks Brewing and also at the market.
Just at the market, just atthe market. Yeah, okay,
so if you want that limited editionDoosterbacks beer, and they're really good.
(15:16):
They're they're in the middle of nowhere. They're like kind of west and northwest
of Elkhorn and north of Delavan.They're not even out a state high whare.
They're on a county road. Ithink, oh right, yep.
So but it's great once you getthere. Oh, it's phenomenal. Once
you get there. Yeah. Soyeah, a lot of great breweries in
this whole area. But yeah,I'm glad you partnered up with Doosterbacks for
that. Yeah, we're also workingwith Enlightened Brewing out of out of Milwaukee
(15:37):
and also Sipes Sypes Brewing. Ohfrom the Point, Yeah, black Point
Mansion. Wow, that's very cool. How did you work with Sipes then?
So it's an old brand that they'rekind of re trying to reinvigorate,
that's right. Yeah, they relaunchedthe brewery. They're based out of Chicago,
but yeah, they're they're up andrunning. And you can actually get
(16:00):
Spear at Blackpoint if you do toursat Blackpoint as well. They have it
in the gift shop there. Butyeah, great stuff. We're going to
be offering a couple of their productsas well, and Enlightened is doing a
release of their Cosmic Nihilism at thisevent as well, So we've got some
fun products available this year. Isit right to be skeptical of the cosmic
Niholism beer? Exactly? Of course? Awesome. Well, this is all
(16:25):
happening at Yerki's Observatory in Earnest startingDecember first, Friday Saturday, Sunday that
week, the following week, andthen it all culminates with the star topping
event. December seventeenth, two o'clockis when they're doing the star and how
much longer will the tree be up? After that? We'll take it down
on January fifth, And when wetake it down, we actually take the
glass off the tree and we putit in tots and Jays brings it back
(16:47):
to the studio and makes about athousand commemorative ornaments and miniature trees out of
that same glass, because like yousaid earlier, it's infinitely recyclable. And
then the frame gets packed up ona trailer and put in store origin until
next year, and in a wayit goes. So you're looking to do
this in the coming years. Eventually, are you going to add another ten
(17:07):
foot poll and go for a fortyone foot tree? Yeah? Definitely.
Yeah, at some point you gotto keep topping your so we do.
Yeah, you can only make thestars so big before get too top would
tumble. Yeah, that's kind ofhow we've been making it bigger every year.
But the making it, yeah,we'd have to redesign and rebuild the
whole tree, which I just haven'thad the time to do yet, so
uh, but we are definitely gonnahave to grow it next year, so
(17:32):
need some taller equipment next year.Yeah, there's logistics when you hoist that
furnace up on that skyjack thing,right, So yeah, getting that forty
feet in the air would be alittle of course, thirty feet is a
little nerve wrecking. Yeah. Yeah, it's basically an equipment issue. So
we and you know, you startrunning into some some more bigger engineering issues
too when you go forty feet.You know, when you're bearing and stabilizing
(17:53):
it and making sure it's you know, when you have a you know,
it's a tabletop bearing that weighs fortyfive, but when you put a thirty
foot or a forty foot lever onit and the wind starts picking up,
you know, you got some somereal issues with the strength that you're you
know bearing at that point, someserious physics lessons coming into Yeah. You
(18:14):
know, actually I had called thebearing company that that that produces the bearing
out of North Carolina and uh,because nor you know, the rate bearings
for how much you know, staticpressure you can just put on it.
It's a machine bearing, And Iwas like, you know, I see
what the specs are, but whatif I'm putting a thirty foot lever on
it? You know, we gottwenty miles a wain. He's like,
(18:34):
you know, he was like,well, you're doing what with this bearing?
So you're testing some limits? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it's yeah,
it's fully rated for it and we'regood. But uh but yeah,
you do, you know, haveto there's some real engineering issues aring nice
engineering solutions. Yeah issue, yeahtoo. And this is part your you're
a glass maker all the time.Mac glass is the name of your company.
(18:56):
Yep, m A c K Glass. Yeah, find me a M
a c K Glass dot com.And World's Tallest Glasstree dot com is the
url to find out more all theevent details yep, World's Tallest Glasstree dot
com. More about the tree,more about the event, more about the
market and everything. So should bea great time, anything else you want
to cover. If you check outthe website this year, you can actually
sign up to make a hand blownglass ornament with one of our artists or
(19:19):
take a bead making class as well. So there's a few opportunities for visitors
and guests to actually get to experiencehot glass themselves this year and you can
find all that info at World's TallestGlasstree dot com. All right, yeah,
glass blowing kind of popular indoor countytoo, it is. Yeah,
it's a really cool, popular studiothat's been there a long time. And
yeah, there's not a lot inthis area, so yeah, a lot
(19:41):
of people have I've wanted to experienceglass blowing or you know, make your
own ornament or you know, atthe torches you can make your own bead
or pendant. So we'll have we'llhave a couple of different options for people
to take a workshop or a classand all those details are on the website.
And your studio is is in doesn'tChampagne a little? Okay? So
(20:02):
central Illinois. But you're back herea lot for yeah things and yeah,
Rob you're based out of here,right, that's correct. Yeah, my
family and I live in the Bay. Okay, well, excellent. So
it's the world's Tallest glass tree,World's Tallest Glasstree dot com in front of
Yerkie's Observatory December one through the seventeenthon Friday Saturday Sundays, they've got the
market. You can contribute glass tohelp the tree get built. And watch
(20:25):
that star topping event December seventeenth.We'll also post details on State trunk tour
dot com. But if you're goingto road trip, Highway sixty sevens the
road you need to get to thisamazing glass tree and it's all what maybe
five minutes west of downtown Lake Geneva. That's right, so perfect. All
right, Rob Jason, thanks alot for joining me today. Thanks so
much. Yeah, thank you.All right, happy road tripping and go
(20:47):
see that world's largest glass tree
And welcome to this episode of theState Trunk Tour podcast. I'm Eric Paulson.
So there's so many great reasons toroad trip around the holiday season to
see some really cool things. Youmay have seen the holiday lights piece on
State trunk Tour dot com. Weshow you like twenty five or thirty different
places you can go for huge holidaylight walkthroughs and drive through displays. There's
so many other great events, butsome of them are unique where you have
(00:22):
to go to one specific place tosee this. And we're talking about that
today here on the podcast because theworld's tallest glass tree is once again rising
in the Lake Geneva area at Yurkey'sObservatory in Williams Bay, which is an
amazing place in its own right.It's right along Highway sixty seven, so
if you're doing a sixty seven roadtrip, you'll be right there. And
(00:43):
so i'd like to welcome Rob andJason into the studio here. It's Rob
Elliott and Jason Mack and they arethe creators of this world's tallest glass tree.
Welcome into the studio, guys,Thanks so much, Yeah, thank
you for having us. So youdid this already once before last year.
We did do it last year atEurki's Observatory, so this will be the
(01:04):
second year there and yeah, greatevent. We had huge, huge attendance
last year as well as awesome publicitybehind it, and we're really excited to
bring it back again this year andgo even a little bit taller. It's
very cool that you're doing that,Yeah, for a second year. You're
outdoing yourselves for a year two.That's pretty sweet. So if you've seen
(01:25):
the graphic, it talks about theworld's tallest glass tree. There's a star
topping event and everything. So what'sgoing on is people are dropping off glass
e raw materials. People are donatingvery very smart by the way, so
all from people from all over thearea around Lake Geneva and Walworth County and
you know wherever they want to drivefrom can drop off glass now through December
(01:47):
first or even beyond or yeah,we'll collect glass up until the fifteenth of
December. And the two locations areone is in Williams Bay at the corner
of sixty seven in Geneva Street,across from Pravado and Harpoon Willie's and the
other is in the parking lot ofFontana Home outdoor at one twenty seven Valley
View Drive in Fontana, right acrossfrom the gas station. So bring your
(02:08):
bottles, bring your glass, Bringthat big giant pickle jar you've been staring
at for twenty years. We'll crushit up, melt it, and we'll
add it to the world's tallest glasstree. So yeah, all kinds of
glass are welcome, right. Itcan be soda bottles, beer bottles,
water well glass water bottles like theTopo Chico which is kind of my favorite
water now. And then yeah,like you mentioned glass, jars and all
(02:29):
kinds of different glass products. Yeah, anything that's a container glass. So
we can take anything that's you know, they call it post consumer glass,
which is jars, bottles, anythinglike that. The only thing we don't
take is flat glass, so windows, beers, anything like that. So
you're like Apple, no windows,Yeah, yeah, right, exactly,
very good. So you take thisglass. I mean when you look at
(02:51):
the pictures, it's pretty amazing becauseit looks like spun stringy glass, which
is exactly what it is, rightright, it's spun glass, right,
right. So we have that thirtyone foot tall spinning steel structure. So
what we do with the glass.After we collect it is we sort it
into green and clear bins, crushit, and then we'll shovel it into
a mobile glass furnace that I builtespecially for doing large on site installations.
(03:13):
So we'll melt the glass at twothousand degrees about two thousand to two two
hundred degrees, and then after thatwe'll gather it up on steel irons and
then then spin it and kind ofdrip it around the tree, and the
tree spins it up and it's yeah, it's a it's like spun glass that
is really cool. So, yeah, it's kind of strings of green.
It all turns out to be alittle green in the quartera. I try
(03:37):
to use a fifty to fifty mixof green and clear glass. So if
you use all green glass, itwould the tree would be really dark,
dark green, which looks nice.But then we lighten it up with about
fifty percent clear and you get thisreally beautiful transparent green color. And then
once we get a good layer glasson there, we we shine bright lights
up through the middle of it,and it just really looks beautiful, glowing
(03:58):
at night. Very cool. Youknow a lot of bottle especially beer bottles,
are brown, but that doesn't matterit does it. We'll use some
brown because it gives it this kindof nice kind of olive green tone to
it, and I'll kind of changeup the color and the ratio of green
to clear throw some brown in there, so you get this kind of nice
undulations of olive brown, green,light green. So you get a lot
(04:20):
of different different colors. So upto December first, you're collecting the glass.
You're going to start building the treeDecember first, and then you've got
these three day events every weekend leadingup to the star topping event, which
is December seventeenth, and so peoplecan come donate glass, watch it get
built, and then they also havesome other cool options when they go to
(04:43):
Yerkei's Observatory during these weekends. Yes, so there's a giant maker Market,
a huge heated tent, think likea giant circus tent, but it's heated
and it's full of vendors who makeawesome handmade products. A lot of Jason's
glassware will be in there as well. There's wood products, leather, steel
workers, all kinds of really funcool things in there to shop for for
(05:06):
the holidays. And then there's kidsactivities on site. Yrkis is going to
be doing condensed mini tours of theobservatory as well throughout the weekends during the
event, So there's just all kindsof fun things to do on site,
and we encourage you to come everyweekend, you know, Friday, Saturday,
(05:26):
Sunday for the first three weekends inDecember, and if you come each
weekend, you can actually watch thetree grow and progress throughout the throughout the
month. It's it's pretty exciting.So you spin it from the bottom to
the top. Yeah, that's right. So that first weekend, so we
can melt with the furnace three hundredpounds of glass per day, so that
first Friday will get a layer ofglass about halfway up that that so December
(05:49):
first, we'll have one layer glassabout halfway up December second, That Saturday
we'll get to the top of thetree with the first layer. Then Sunday
Tomber third, we'll start back downat the bottom and then wrap as high
as we can go up to thetop. So after that first weekend we'll
have about nine hundred pounds of glasson it. So if you have even
(06:10):
more glass than that, you're stilltopping it out at about thirty one feet
regardless, right, that's right.Yeah, you can only go as high
as the spinning steel frame. Okay, so that's its base, is that
steel frame. That's right. Spinthe glass around it, and this is
again the glass that people can bringin from around the community. You make
sure it gets recycled. Glass kindof is the ultimate recyclable material. It
is. Yeah, glass is endlesslyrecyclable, yeap and so, and then
(06:32):
after that the structures thirty one feettall, and then on December seventeenth,
we put a five foot blown glassstar on it, so it'll be just
over thirty six feet after we're done. So that's the climactic part. It
is December seventeenth event. It's happeningat two o'clock and December seventeenth is a
Sunday right there at Rokeys Observatory,So people will see the thirty one foot
(06:53):
tree and then they can see thestar topping. And while you're building the
tree, people can continue to contributeglass and see it go essentially right into
it. That's right. Yeah,So we'll collect glass up through the fifteenth
of December, and we'll continue tocrush and crush and ad glass into the
furnace throughout those first three weeks,and then any glass that we don't use
(07:14):
afterwards will actually get donated to aplace called Strategic Materials Incorporated and Delevant,
and their sole purpose is sorting,crushing, and cleaning glass and putting it
right back into the manufacturing worlds whereit can get turned back into pickle jars
and beer bottles and Topo Chico bottlesand all that fun stuff instead of going
into a landfill. So it's areally really cool thing. Last year we
collected over eight tons of glass bottlesfrom the community. Wow. So glass
(07:40):
starts as sand, which is kindof amazing. Then you just add some
materials and somehow it becomes glass.I know, you know that inside.
I have no idea how that works, but it's pretty cool. Yeah,
it's amazing. Really just only threemain ingredients, just sand, soda ash,
and limes kind of stabilize soda ashfluxes. The sand makes it lord
of the melting temperature, and thenthe lime stabilizes it. And before I
(08:03):
forget, just so people know theydon't have to peel the labels off the
glass. Oh yeah, they reallydon't have to do anything. Maybe just
a quick rinse is all, butyou don't want it full of spaghetti sauce.
Yeah, that burns off. Theywant to bring us full full bottles
of beer and Ryan, well,we'll take it, but but yeah,
they'll empty those manually. Yeah.But Eddie, you know all the the
(08:24):
labels, paper, labels just burnoff. You know, two thousand degrees,
paper just vaporizes. So no needto spendle any time peeling the labels
off. That's cool. That's easierthan recycling it into a like the city's
stuff. Right, that's about thesame. Yeah, that's about the same
process. And then all the sothe glass to the tree takes about three
thousand pounds of glass, and lastyear, like Rob said, we collected
(08:46):
over fifteen thousand pounds. And wework with a local glass recycler, SMI
and Delevan, and so they providethe recycle bins, the drop off bins,
and then all the excess glass goesstraight to their processing facility where they
process it and then sell it backto glass bottle manufacturers. Okay, and
then there are some nonprofits that benefitfrom this as well. Yeah. Each
(09:09):
year we we donate a portion ofthe parking proceeds and the bar proceeds to
local charities. This year, we'reworking with the Lioness Group working with Williams
Bay High School as well as CampOne Step with the Children's Oncology Camp over
at Conference Point. So yeah,each year we try to you know,
(09:30):
create a charitable aspect to the eventand be able to get back into the
community that's helping us create this awesomeevent. That's very cool. What gave
you the idea to do this?The so Rob and I started working together.
I mean Rob and I went tocollege together at Illinois State University and
then opened that We opened a studioin a big abandoned warehouse, and I've
(09:52):
been working on developing different large scaleon site sculptures. Glass boiling is typically
done in a studio, either byyourself or you know, then you create
something and then bring it out intothe public or try to get in a
gallery. And I kind of wantedto flip that whole idea on its head
and create glass out in the publicin front of people and kind of work
on turning it into a performance art. And Rob's got a lot of background
(10:16):
and theater and performance, so it'skind of a good a good uh a
good partnership. And originally we weretalking about you know, we used to
in the factory. We had youknow, sculptures all over the place,
and kind of the idea came about. It was like, we should do
a glass forest one day cool andhave hundreds of these trees and rivers and
(10:37):
you know gnomes and mushrooms and flowersand all kinds of cool stuff in a
space that you know, like aticket to attraction people could come and see
and enjoy. And it had,you know, kind of an ever evolving
type of type of environment. Andto clean it you just need a lot
of wind decks, you know,exactly pose it off. So but yeah,
I think you know, like Jaysaid, you know, he kind
(10:58):
of had to start somewhere, andso like why not start with a giant
holiday tree and make it, youknow, something that everybody can see and
be aware of and be a partof and help create. Yeah, so
if you want to build a glassforest, you got to kind of prove
the concept. And so people arelike, you know, what are you
talking about. Well, you know, show them one. If you're gonna
make one one tree, might aswell make it as big as you can.
(11:20):
Well, and that's what's funny theidea of having it be the world's
tallest. I mean you had tolook up to see if there was already
a record for that, right,Yeah, so I did that. Yeah
when I when I was first designingthis, this tree, uh in twenty
twenty is when I built the framefor this and you know, designed to
build the structure, and I justgot on Google. Google. Googled the
world's tallest glass tree, world's tallestglass Christmas tree, And there's only one
(11:41):
other guy that claimed the title.It was made on the island of Borano
in Venice, Italy. Oh wow, and there you know, it's a
famous island for glass blowing, andof course, yeah we all know that.
Yeah, a lot of people do. But it he built one that
was twenty seven point five feet tall, and it was totally different design.
(12:01):
Its steel center structure like mine,but his was blown glass kind of attached
to it. So they made allthe pieces in a studio, blown glass
pieces, and then assembled it outside. And so I was like, all
right, you know, that's twentyseven point five. And then I made
mine thirty one, which was kindof a I used three ten foot sticks
(12:22):
of pipe in the center, whichis why we ended up at thirty.
And the base is one foot tall. The spinning you know, bearing with
the base on its one foot sothat's kind of how it determined it.
Yeah, exactly taller. Yeah,those was taller. And then is this
you know, I contact a Guinnessabout the tree and if you're doing an
(12:43):
event with sponsors where when you havea market and you're selling your glass wear
and you're it's actually really expensive tobe able to use the name and likeness
of the Guinness Book of World Recordsfor ah yeah uh. And then there's
also the issue that it's a veryspecific record because there's not necessarily a category
(13:05):
for a glass and steel tree,So there's the issue of getting the category
made, and then the issue ofokay, if you want to use their
name and likeness in your advertising,you got to pay big bucks. So
yeah, we talked about the GuinnessBook of World Records not too long ago
because it was like World Guinness WorldRecord Day or something, and it was
from the Guinness Beer people and theywere just arguing over like some large animal
(13:28):
in Europe and who was the biggestand they couldn't find it. So they
made a book about all these they'reover sixty thousand Guinness records, so it
wouldn't surprise me if that will bein there one day. But yeah,
it is paid to play, sono need because you're doing this kind of
as a nonprofit. Now the market, the vendors would love to make some
money and everything, and it reallyis how many vendors are going to be
(13:50):
there. We'll have about twenty vendorseach weekend in the tent. Fun thing
to note, though, Yerki's Observatoryis actually in the Guinness World Record for
the largest refract Yeah, worlds arejust refracting telescope. Yeah, Stephanie Kletz
told us that, yeah, multipletimes. And it was closed to the
public for so long. So thefact that it still recently has reopened and
(14:11):
you can take a tour of thatobservatory and at the same time watch the
world's tallest glass tree get built,contribute glass to it. Check out the
market. It's gonna be a funtime there, man, no doubt,
no doubt. It's a truly inspirationalplace, and you know, everybody should
have a chance. We have aspecial collector's brew coming out from Yeah,
We've got a beer coming out fromDoosterbecks. We did especially commember to four
(14:35):
packs, so you'll be able toget those at the winter market as well.
What's the beer going to be called? It is Glass Galaxy Blonde aale
n Yeah, so did the Sunof the owners. The brewery designed a
really cool label with the tree onit and the dome Yerkey's dome in the
background, and yeah, really cool. So we'll become a collector four packs.
(14:56):
Wow, there'll be collector's items toofor the ones people drink. But
it sounds like it's going to bea delicious beer. So you'll have to
get two pecks then one for theshelf and one for the one for the
fridge to be able to get thatat Doosterbacks Brewing and also at the market.
Just at the market, just atthe market. Yeah, okay,
so if you want that limited editionDoosterbacks beer, and they're really good.
(15:16):
They're they're in the middle of nowhere. They're like kind of west and northwest
of Elkhorn and north of Delavan.They're not even out a state high whare.
They're on a county road. Ithink, oh right, yep.
So but it's great once you getthere. Oh, it's phenomenal. Once
you get there. Yeah. Soyeah, a lot of great breweries in
this whole area. But yeah,I'm glad you partnered up with Doosterbacks for
that. Yeah, we're also workingwith Enlightened Brewing out of out of Milwaukee
(15:37):
and also Sipes Sypes Brewing. Ohfrom the Point, Yeah, black Point
Mansion. Wow, that's very cool. How did you work with Sipes then?
So it's an old brand that they'rekind of re trying to reinvigorate,
that's right. Yeah, they relaunchedthe brewery. They're based out of Chicago,
but yeah, they're they're up andrunning. And you can actually get
(16:00):
Spear at Blackpoint if you do toursat Blackpoint as well. They have it
in the gift shop there. Butyeah, great stuff. We're going to
be offering a couple of their productsas well, and Enlightened is doing a
release of their Cosmic Nihilism at thisevent as well, So we've got some
fun products available this year. Isit right to be skeptical of the cosmic
Niholism beer? Exactly? Of course? Awesome. Well, this is all
(16:25):
happening at Yerki's Observatory in Earnest startingDecember first, Friday Saturday, Sunday that
week, the following week, andthen it all culminates with the star topping
event. December seventeenth, two o'clockis when they're doing the star and how
much longer will the tree be up? After that? We'll take it down
on January fifth, And when wetake it down, we actually take the
glass off the tree and we putit in tots and Jays brings it back
(16:47):
to the studio and makes about athousand commemorative ornaments and miniature trees out of
that same glass, because like yousaid earlier, it's infinitely recyclable. And
then the frame gets packed up ona trailer and put in store origin until
next year, and in a wayit goes. So you're looking to do
this in the coming years. Eventually, are you going to add another ten
(17:07):
foot poll and go for a fortyone foot tree? Yeah? Definitely.
Yeah, at some point you gotto keep topping your so we do.
Yeah, you can only make thestars so big before get too top would
tumble. Yeah, that's kind ofhow we've been making it bigger every year.
But the making it, yeah,we'd have to redesign and rebuild the
whole tree, which I just haven'thad the time to do yet, so
uh, but we are definitely gonnahave to grow it next year, so
(17:32):
need some taller equipment next year.Yeah, there's logistics when you hoist that
furnace up on that skyjack thing,right, So yeah, getting that forty
feet in the air would be alittle of course, thirty feet is a
little nerve wrecking. Yeah. Yeah, it's basically an equipment issue. So
we and you know, you startrunning into some some more bigger engineering issues
too when you go forty feet.You know, when you're bearing and stabilizing
(17:53):
it and making sure it's you know, when you have a you know,
it's a tabletop bearing that weighs fortyfive, but when you put a thirty
foot or a forty foot lever onit and the wind starts picking up,
you know, you got some somereal issues with the strength that you're you
know bearing at that point, someserious physics lessons coming into Yeah. You
(18:14):
know, actually I had called thebearing company that that that produces the bearing
out of North Carolina and uh,because nor you know, the rate bearings
for how much you know, staticpressure you can just put on it.
It's a machine bearing, And Iwas like, you know, I see
what the specs are, but whatif I'm putting a thirty foot lever on
it? You know, we gottwenty miles a wain. He's like,
(18:34):
you know, he was like,well, you're doing what with this bearing?
So you're testing some limits? Yeah? Yeah, I mean it's yeah,
it's fully rated for it and we'regood. But uh but yeah,
you do, you know, haveto there's some real engineering issues aring nice
engineering solutions. Yeah issue, yeahtoo. And this is part your you're
a glass maker all the time.Mac glass is the name of your company.
(18:56):
Yep, m A c K Glass. Yeah, find me a M
a c K Glass dot com.And World's Tallest Glasstree dot com is the
url to find out more all theevent details yep, World's Tallest Glasstree dot
com. More about the tree,more about the event, more about the
market and everything. So should bea great time, anything else you want
to cover. If you check outthe website this year, you can actually
sign up to make a hand blownglass ornament with one of our artists or
(19:19):
take a bead making class as well. So there's a few opportunities for visitors
and guests to actually get to experiencehot glass themselves this year and you can
find all that info at World's TallestGlasstree dot com. All right, yeah,
glass blowing kind of popular indoor countytoo, it is. Yeah,
it's a really cool, popular studiothat's been there a long time. And
yeah, there's not a lot inthis area, so yeah, a lot
(19:41):
of people have I've wanted to experienceglass blowing or you know, make your
own ornament or you know, atthe torches you can make your own bead
or pendant. So we'll have we'llhave a couple of different options for people
to take a workshop or a classand all those details are on the website.
And your studio is is in doesn'tChampagne a little? Okay? So
(20:02):
central Illinois. But you're back herea lot for yeah things and yeah,
Rob you're based out of here,right, that's correct. Yeah, my
family and I live in the Bay. Okay, well, excellent. So
it's the world's Tallest glass tree,World's Tallest Glasstree dot com in front of
Yerkie's Observatory December one through the seventeenthon Friday Saturday Sundays, they've got the
market. You can contribute glass tohelp the tree get built. And watch
(20:25):
that star topping event December seventeenth.We'll also post details on State trunk tour
dot com. But if you're goingto road trip, Highway sixty sevens the
road you need to get to thisamazing glass tree and it's all what maybe
five minutes west of downtown Lake Geneva. That's right, so perfect. All
right, Rob Jason, thanks alot for joining me today. Thanks so
much. Yeah, thank you.All right, happy road tripping and go
(20:47):
see that world's largest glass tree
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