Garibaldi Glass File

The company’s 4,000-square-foot studio (now expanded to a 20,000-square-foot facility in Squamish’s Oceanfront Industrial Park) houses massive programmable kilns, some large enough to accommodate sheets over 10 feet long. Each piece of Garibaldi glass begins as select raw glass—often low-iron “water-clear” or specialized colored fusible glass from Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Yet for all its innovation, the soul of Garibaldi remains unchanged. On a clear day, Eric Pfeiffer—now retired but still a frequent visitor—likes to stand in the annealing bay as a kiln finishes its cycle. He places a palm against the warm steel door. Inside, a new piece of glass—half liquid, half solid—is becoming something that never existed before. Like the mountain outside, it will outlast its makers. garibaldi glass

This is the story of Garibaldi Glass—not just as a manufacturer, but as a guardian of an ancient material transformed by fire, gravity, and vision. The company’s roots trace back to the late 1970s in Squamish, British Columbia. Founder Eric Pfeiffer, a journeyman glazier and self-taught kiln operator, was captivated by the region’s dramatic interplay of light and stone. Watching the morning sun ignite the granite face of Mount Garibaldi, he became obsessed with capturing that transient brilliance in glass. The company’s 4,000-square-foot studio (now expanded to a