On a hot Saturday afternoon in July of 2014 I was alone in the studio
with my beloved old dog Parslow, blowing glass, listening to the radio.
Nothing special, just taking care of some loose ends.

I heard a beautiful, poignant, funny story on The Moth Radio Hour about a woman
picking up lucky pennies and making wishes.
That story was the seed that grew into the Wishing Ball.

My first thought was to make a special piggy bank for lucky pennies.
For a week I made all sorts of prototypes, but each one was more awful
than the last. Then I saw my mistake: the wishes were the point of
the story, not the pennies.

Henrietta Glass officially launched the Wishing Ball at
the New York Gift Fair that August… and what a launch!
From August through Christmas we sold wish balls
FASTER THAN WE COULD MAKE THEM!!
I cannot express how strange this was.
This sort of thing simply does not happen when you make art.

Every day I thought the bubble would burst and instead every day
we got more orders. We were blowing as much glass as physics would allow –
I was in the studio early mornings, late nights and every hour in between.
My mom was helping fold and pack boxes.
My childhood best friend and her partner were bringing take-out dinner then
sticking around to put rubber bands around the wish note pads.

It was more work and more fun and more exciting than words can describe.
And it didn’t stop with Christmas. To this very day the Wish Ball
remains the most popular design I’ve ever created.

Those 5 minutes of radio changed my life.

Through The Moth I was able to connect with the storyteller,
the remarkable artist Flash Rosenberg, to tell her what a profound
effect her story had had on my life and to thank her.

So here’s the story.
Take a listen.
Who knows? It just might change your life!