Please read this!!!!
Hello glass lovers and friends. This is JP from TORO. It has taken a lot of deliberation for me to put this out there, but I finally decided to. Please bear with me through this, though, for it is not easy for me, but comes from my heart.
The reason for me writing to you today, is because a former friend and shopmate who goes by the name of Joe, Joey, Slutty Glass stabbed me in the back.
We were super tight. I let him into my home and my heart. I and my family were super good to him. In short, we considered him to be a part of our family.
Last August, Joey, Hops, and I went on a "family" vacation together. Joey never returned to the shop after it, due to a "personal" crisis. My wife and I called him repeatedly since then to see how he was doing with his situation, but never got a response back.
I taught him everything he knows about lathe working and much more with glass, along with all of my trade techniques. To make a long story short, the one thing that Joey did NOT learn from me were his ethics and morals. He is young, and will have to learn that on his own.
It was brought to my attention that he has started a tube company called Itza. The designs and work are duplicates of Everything he saw and learned in our shop. When I saw them, my mouth hit the floor and my heart was utterly stabbed.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of companies and people out there inspired by my work that I hear of. I won't lie, sometimes it hurts me. I mean come on, I'm an artist with an ego and I put my soul into my creations, but over time I have come to accept that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery." Quite frankly, some of them are doing even a better job than this guy who apprenticed right under me!
I am not threatened by Itza. What I am is hurt, disappointed, and shocked. Joey was fully aware of how I felt about anybody I let into my shop, leaving with trade secrets. He left right before he was supposed to sign a non-compete contract, but in the meantime, we had a "Gentleman's Contract" which he swore up and down to always live by.
After Joey left my shop, handmade specialized tools(that took me a lot of thought to come up with) and my sketch book were missing which have allowed him to duplicate my work--that is..trees, fixed diffusers, etc.
Last week, I made every effort to contact Joey, even threatened to take legal action with our patent(which is currently pending) and for theft. However, I have decided that this forum and one other is the better route to take since I find him to be highly melicious and untrustworthy. There is a LOT more to this, but have been advised not to lay it all out there at this moment. But I will say this, at first he had me fooled, but now I have no problem saying that in my opinion, and many others in this community can back me on this, that he is a con-artist and a GOOD one.
I know that this happens in this business and others all the time. But contrary to popular opinion, we are not some "big" company. Every worked piece is put together by me. I spend 16 hours/7 days a week, working hard to make people happy. The truth is, I will never be able to fill all of my orders. That is a fact.
I get it that it is not fair for us to try to bully the industry with my patent. There is plenty to go around. The only reason for having one is to protect myself from someone else patenting my design and trying to use it against me. This has happened in other cases in this industry, and I was advised that it is best to not repeat other's mistakes.
The bottom line is, decide for yourself if you feel the need to support a character like Joey through Itza. As far as I'm concerned:
ITZA FAKE
I just will not be able to sleep if I do not get this off my chest.
Thanks for listening and for all of your support.
peace,
JP
Originally Posted by m5kid
