Pretentious Glass Co

Matthew Cummings is an artist/designer working primarily with glass. He lives and drinks in Knoxville, TN, a place where craft beer flourishes. The PBGC is his answer to boring and under-designed beer glasses.
The PBGC originated from a small drinking club at the Mellwood Arts Center in Louisville, KY. Each friday afternoon, we would take off work early to sit in the courtyard and drink great craft beer. After a couple too many (all good ideas start this way, right?) the club decided that I should make beer glasses for everyone. I designed the Hoppy Beer glass and gave each member a customized version of that glass. After making that first glass, I started to notice a lack of unique beer glasses for craft beer. It was just such an obvious problem that it was invisible…hiding out in the open. I started the Pretentious Beer Glass Company as a remedy for that problem, and spent over 6 months making, testing, and refining designs that highlight different styles. I make all the glasses by hand at the Flame Run Hotshop with the assistance of Alex Rickel. I use techniques that haven’t really changed in several hundred years (except for a few safety features). Molten glass is collected on a hollow blowpipe, and shaped with the use of wet newspaper pads or wooden tools. No machines touch your beer glass from PBGC! After the glasses are finished hot, I take each glass to my coldshop where I engrave and/or grind the bottoms flat. Once finished, I personally hand-sign each glass and package them in branded gift boxes. Despite the volume and breadth of distribution of these products, it is all still a one-man operation with the help of a few friends. I hope that you enjoy drinking out of these glasses as much as I have enjoyed making them for you.