The Baltimore Business Journal caught up with our very own Aric Wanveer and Eric Hanson to talk about how Magma Build got its start, how it plans to grow and what’s so special about a glass faucet.
Here are few highlights or you can read the full article here.
“How did Magma Build get started?
Wanveer: We invented a way of structurally fusing glass and metal and that’s kind of what started it all. Tim McFadden, my co-founder, and I came together, we were working as artists and experimenting and looking for original ideas and new ways to do things. And we were able to develop this process of structural fusion and we invented tools and the techniques to do it. Initially it was just for our purposes, but eventually we realized there’s a ton of opportunities here. When we would go to shows, not only would the sales be great, but other glassblowers at the shows would ask if we would sell them tools or sell them the technique or teach them how to do what we do. We realized we should probably try to keep control of this, so we started speaking with lawyers and went through the patenting process and were eventually issued a utility patent for our process. It took about two years. But now we’re through all that, the patents are issued and we’re able to use our technology for things like our blown glass faucet line or our lighting or custom furnishings. We try to integrate glass into things and places that it’s traditionally not been because of technical limitations.”
What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever made?
Hanson: I would say the glass faucets. They’re fundamental. Everybody needs water, everybody uses one, but people take it for granted and don’t really think about a faucet. It’s just something that’s always there and it’s rarely ever a focal point of a bathroom or a kitchen. And we’re trying to shift that paradigm, so that when people walk into those rooms they say ‘Wow, check that out.’”