Jason Harris based Jerome Baker Designs Inc. (JBD) in Eugene, Oregon, in 1991. As a dyed-in-the-wool deadhead with THC pumping by way of his veins, he selected Jerry Garcia’s first identify, Jerome, and a final identify, Baker, to indicate “baked” as his pseudonym, fearing repercussions from cops.
Via the years, he elevated the type of useful glass artwork, incorporating improvements alongside the way in which, equivalent to fuming glass with effective silver to create a mirror impact and manipulating blown glass into advanced artwork. The JBD seal turned an emblem of high quality. However, regardless of his efforts to remain off the radar of police, he caught the eye of the federal authorities.
“I used to be arrested for manufacturing drug paraphernalia in 2003,” Harris says, referring to Operation Pipe Goals, a George W. Bush administration-era DEA hunt that additionally concerned Tommy Chong and 54 different defendants.
Pipe sellers who by no means touched the plant initially confronted drug paraphernalia trafficking prices, and the feds pinned most of it on Chong. Scarred from that trauma, Harris laid low, first transferring from Oregon to Maui, Hawaii, to make non-functional glass artwork for some time, and later New York.
“I form of went underground for some time, and we have been based mostly in New York on Lengthy Island,” he says. “We had a warehouse on the market that we functioned out of—a small, nickel-and-dime enterprise. When leisure hashish occurs, we type of come out of the closet. And after I noticed the cash and power and every part happening within the Las Vegas market, I known as that dwelling base.”
After seeing Colorado and Washington approve adult-use pot and studying that leisure hashish legalization was doable, Harris gained confidence and re-launched Jerome Baker Designs in 2012, re-focusing on high-end artwork. Jerome Baker established the Las Vegas Dream Manufacturing unit at its headquarters in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.
Picture by Dabsel Adams
The Dream Manufacturing unit
Situated downtown within the Arts District, a number of blocks from Fremont Avenue, the Dream Manufacturing unit is a spot the place folks can actually recognize the sheer quantity of hours it takes an artist to make a bit. In spite of everything, JBD was behind achievements like “Bongzilla,” the world’s largest bong in 2018, and is the model accountable for customized bongs made for celebrities equivalent to George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, B-Actual, Xzibit, 311, Barely Stoopid, Chic, Instrument, Phil Lesh (Grateful Lifeless), Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down), Individuals Beneath The Stairs, and Limp Bizkit.
Las Vegas is a main place to draw folks from all elements of the world, so Harris’s Dream Manufacturing unit adapts to those particular wants.
“We get those who are available on pilgrimages from totally different locations on the West Coast, and a few are driving very far,” Harris says. “They usually come for birthdays, weddings, totally different stuff like that. We’ve finished quite a lot of weddings in our facility, quite a lot of birthdays, events for some manufacturers, they’ve been taken to the manufacturing facility, and we get a p.c of our shoppers coming in who’re vacationers.”
Teamwork makes the dream work, and Operations Supervisor Jennifer Krause is a giant issue within the success of the Dream Manufacturing unit.
“I principally deal with every part from A-Z—you identify it—accounts payable, accounts receivable, transport, and [the operations] of the Dream Manufacturing unit on daily basis,” says Krause.
Krause says that the Dream Manufacturing unit is at the moment showcasing glass artwork by Omar Rosales, Dina Kalahar, aka “Sol Fire Glass,” Donnie Alves, aka “Mente 45K,” and Allan Clement, aka “Cowboy.”
“And let’s not neglect Jason Harris, often known as Jerome Baker!” Krause laughs. “Throughout the final 5 years, it’s simply utterly blown up, and it’s just about some of the outstanding places that folks would need to go to. It’s the place the artist all-stars are at. We’re proper within the coronary heart of the humanities district.”
Krause explains how many individuals wander in, considering it’s a primary smoke store promoting papers and low-cost pipes, however what they’re providing is high-quality artwork that fetches prime greenback. It’s a shock “to the commoner eager to stroll away with a bit, after which they discover out what we’re providing and what we’re transport across the nation,” Krause says.
Picture by Dabsel Adams
Smoking Lounges & Hashish Commerce Reveals
Each the state of Nevada and the town of Las Vegas have slowly rolled out consumption lounge laws, although it’s taken years to materialize. NuWu’s Tasting Room opened in 2019, then rebranded as Sky High Lounge, opening in July 2023, and the town’s first non-tribal consumption lounges are scheduled to open by early 2024. (NuWu might open earlier as a result of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, a sovereign jurisdiction, owns its land.)
Many hashish consumption lounges, equivalent to ones in California, let patrons lease bongs or pipes to eat weed. An enormous issue is that vacationers—not locals who can smoke at dwelling cheaper—are going to them as smoking stealthily in a lodge will get tiring. Harris says consumption lounges are key to the complete expertise of authorized weed.
“I feel that’s completely important,” Harris says. “Individuals have alternative ways to smoke and eat hashish. So, by with the ability to get everybody to have expertise and make an enduring reminiscence. I imply, look, once we have been children, we went to Amsterdam, leaving sure recollections of sure coffeeshops in my life. Having the ability to lease the bongs and clear the bongs with a correct scrub, that was enjoyable and a part of the ritual.”
Harris explains how bongs slowly got here out of the closet by way of the years, together with how Vegas occasions have modified.
“We’ve been going to Las Vegas for therefore a few years. It’s bought so many commerce reveals. We have been on the first CHAMPS trade show ever. And we purchased probably the most cubicles—eight—and largely we closed all of them in so no one might see our stuff inside,” Harris says, explaining how a lot issues have modified since 1999. “Lo and behold, CHAMPS is that this mega present everyone desires to attend.”
Krause defined that MJBizCon is even larger than CHAMPS, and Las Vegas will get fairly busy and wild throughout these instances.
Picture by Fred Morledge, @dabseladams
Elevating Useful Glass Artwork
Harris is the protégé of legendary glass artist Bob Snodgrass and apprenticed for Hans-Joachim Ittig of Wertheimer Glaskunst, a seventh-generation glassblower based mostly in Wertheim, Germany. He additionally discovered or apprenticed below Cesare Toffolo, Dick Marquis, Robert Mickelson, Karen Willinbrink, and Charles Lowrie.
“I’ve all the time revered artists which have come earlier than me and paved the way in which in what I take into account now a Pop Artwork style,” Harris says. “That’s one thing that I’ve all the time dreamt about, being in artwork college. I’m a graduate of the College of Oregon. I’ve all the time been concerned about artwork, artwork historical past, and what goes on in that house. And I really feel honored and privileged to be part of it now by way of the bongs. I by no means actually thought that I might get there.”
The Dream Manufacturing unit is a superb cease in Las Vegas that holds numerous historical past for glass artwork.
“Hashish has unfolded recreationally and turn out to be increasingly more mainstream,” says Harris. “And it’s allowed us to promote costly items, which provides us time to place into the art work. All that’s form of , excellent storm. The Dream Manufacturing unit itself, by way of visiting vacationers, is a superb vacation spot proper close to Fremont Avenue.”
This text was initially Up to date within the March 2024 challenge of Excessive Instances Journal.