“Fast Glass” is a term coined by Susie Plasciencia, founder of Latinas in Cannabis and co-founder of MOTA Glass. She is referring to the inferior functional glass products that are mass produced and pushed on consumers to make a quick buck.
Plasciencia is an entrepreneur who went to USC and had to break away from her double life as a suit that hid her stoner identity from her professional persona. In a heavily male-dominated industry, MOTA Glass manufactures craft functional glass intended for the consumption of cannabis that doubles as beautiful art worthy of display on a tabletop or mantel.
“It’s elevating that cannabis experience,” explained Plasciencia.
The Team Behind the Torches
Susie Plasciencia and Bobby Lady founded their company in 2020 as artisanal glass manufacturers. They brought integrity and ingenuity to the market, utilizing laboratory-grade German Schott glass and local Latino glass blowers. Plasciencia and Lady wanted to help their community and the consumer in kind. Encouraging people to support women and veteran-owned companies with intentionality, prompting consumers to be their authentic self.
“We launched in 2020 with this mission of supporting a collective of Latino glass blowers, [many of whom] themselves don’t even smoke because of the stigma,” said Plasciencia.
Consultation among their peers showed that production glass coming from Los Angeles was produced by Latino glass blowers who took up the trade and helped prop it up, only to be displaced. Companies would start off employing these glass blowers to produce glass locally, then transition to importing once they built a name for themselves selling American made glass. This cost cutting effort sacrificed quality and tricked consumers into thinking the products were still American made.
Community-Driven Consumption Tools
A product that started out high-quality would cheapen over time in a race to lower costs on the glass while often raising the price to consumers. Plasciencia and Lady were hung up on the ethical dilemmas in this ancillary cannabis industry, and MOTA Glass was a response to that. MOTA hoped to buck the trend in representation, holding space for the recognition the Latino community deserved in the glass blowing world. It even invites other glass companies to make the industry more accessible to their community.
“We saw some pretty significant ethical issues with that practice, and started MOTA to prop up a local manufacturing base and produce high quality glass with integrity,” according to Lady.
Similar to the fast fashion industry, there is an entire city in China dedicated to the production of functional glass products. Glass that is also produced under questionable circumstances at a small fraction of the cost it is produced for in America. MOTA Glass addressed this disparity.
“I think the line is intentionality, [how] glass allows and facilitates that gratitude and ritual,” said Plasciencia.
The glass is a higher quality (no pun intended), consisting entirely of lab-grade tubings and components with specifically American-made color rods. There are less defects present because the joints and components are made for laboratory equipment and fit together seamlessly. As far as the beauty it invokes, the German Schott elicits a water-like clarity while the machine-made imports have air bubbles and cloudiness. The difference extends to cleaning too, where light cleaning with warm water and rock salt can be as effective as cleaning agents.
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Normalizing a Niche
The idea is to make functional glass part of a home’s aesthetic, like crystal glasses on a dinner table. MOTA Glass transcends this niche market, making it an item that could live in a cupboard or cabinet along with any other household object to use for food or drink consumption.
“There is a component of normalization and acceptance of cannabis as part of a daily or occasional consumption ritual,” said Lady.
MOTA Glass is primed for innovation and eager to expand their line. There are ash catchers and different styles of flower-focused pieces in the works. The plan is to extend into dabbing, prototyping recyclers and quartz bangers which will be produced locally. They have the right people to handle the different gases used to work with quartz. The goal: Keep functionality on point and continue to grow, while offering the proper accessories.
Operations recently moved to a larger production facility alongside the fulfillment space to house all of their glass blowers. Plasciencia and Lady intend to give their team consistent work, enabling them to positively contribute to society without the risk of bureaucracy and red tape, providing their community with its everyday consumption needs.
