Sharing Apple
Bryan Goldfeder
About Bryan Goldfeder
Bryan Goldfeder, known as BGOLD, is an art activist and the owner of BGOLD Glass. Bryan has been working with glass to create intentional art, meaningful installation, and functional Judaica since 2012. Since opening his Boulder hot shop in 2018, Bryan has been reclaiming trash glass from other glass studios around Colorado, and this recycled input fuels the creation and teaching that take place at the studio. Through the dichotomy of melting heavy metals with fossil fuel, BGOLD explores many environmental causes through his work and quest for a sustainable glass practice.Currently, Bryan is bringing the Shmita year directly into the BGOLD Glass Art Farm by letting certain facets of the business rest including: letting the studio lie fallow from primary production and classes; by only “harvesting” or selling from “6th year designs” or perennial lines/crops including these glass apples and wedding smash glass, with trust that it will be enough; and by releasing, resting, and reconnecting to the activism, simcha, and sparks of a Shmita flow. Mindful materialism is BGOLD’s focus, and an embodied Shimita approach is a response to our consumptive and consumerist society. Please join the movement and we can forge a new way together.
About Sharing Apple
A glass apple is an important addition to any festive occasion as a hands-on reminder of the abundance in our lives. From past harvests and gleanings, to current blossoms and seeds of possibility, the glass apple is a sweet opportunity to share. This Apple is designed to be handled and passed around the table during a meal or gathering with the invitation for each person to share about the physical or metaphoric sweetness and fruits of their life. By stepping into a shmita mindset with this talking stick, or “sharing apple,” we create the space of focused active listening to elevate and celebrate these moments from our personal lives.Harvesting the abundance of an apple tree is a visceral spiritual experience of being blessed with the sweet delicious life force that this earth generously offers. During this past harvest season, the 6th year leading into this Shmita, Boulder, Colorado has been an epicenter of urban apple research and harvesting. It has one of the largest populations of heritage or heirloom apple varieties in the country, and as Hashem promised, the 6th year has been an extra-abundant fruit season. These glass apples are one facet of a larger project highlighting apples as a vessel for community. BGOLD Glass has come together with Colorado University’s, Boulder’s Apple Tree Project (BATP), farming communities including the Boulder JCC’s Milk and Honey Farm, and the City of Boulder, all working together to create, through grafting, seven “Heirloom Boulder Apple Trees” in diverse communities throughout the county. By transforming the BGOLD recycled glass blowing studio into an apple pressing and processing plant, we have brought in thousands of pounds of apples and many unique groups from around the greater Boulder community to learn about and contribute to this project in true Shmita spirit.
