Check out our stock of stained glass ducks here.
Last week, I had the chance to have a conversation with Sukadev Mugnolo and business partner Cayden Lahmann, to discuss their stained glass distribution company: DGE Distribution. Sukadev took over the business from his father Gary in Fall of 2021. Growing up Sukadev traveled the west with his father distributing hand-made stained glass from Mexico via RV. Now Sukadev and Cayden are carrying on the DGE legacy by making their own road trips up and down the coast. Here is more on the past, present, and future of DGE.
Give me some background on your journey with stained glass and what it means to you.
Sukadev: Growing up I would make trips down to Mexico with my dad to pick up the pieces that he was selling. He partnered with Mexican artists who would hand make these pieces. My dad acted as the distributor for these artists, and made connections with small businesses who were interested in selling their products.
When I took over the business and brought Cayden on to help me, we switched to shipping our products since we were both in school and couldn’t drive to our clients. But, we have been making some of our own road trips down the coast to pick up boxes of stained glass pieces.
Have you ever done glass art?
Sukadev: Yeah, I did some torched glass, mosaics, and stained glass during my time in high school. I’ve always been really attached to the art form itself.
What is your connection to Eugene and The University of Oregon?
Cayden: I’m from Eugene originally and met Sukadev here while we were in high school.
Sukadev: I’ve been around the University of Oregon my whole life. I participated in the SAIL program and have been a fan of the ducks for a while.
You took over this business from your father Sukadev, how do you continue to uphold his legacy?
Sukadev: He didn’t want the business to end so when I agreed to take it over from him he was really emotional and proud of me. I love talking to old clients whose stores I would go into with my dad when I was a kid. They help bring back a lot of great memories for me and remind me that I just really love what I do.
Can you take me through the steps of designing and producing a stained glass piece?
Sukadev: It all starts with an idea. We spew out tons of ideas throughout the day until we land on something that we think would work well.
Cayden: We also still use a lot of the designs that Sukadev’s father created, since these are many of our bestsellers.
Sukadev: Something that we have to think about a lot when we are creating a design is how the pieces of glass will fit together. We want to avoid designs that contain a lot of big, fragile pieces of glass. We have to design the pieces in a way that will make sense for the artists who are hand cutting the glass. We don’t want to create extra waste during this process.
What does the future of this business look like to you?
Cayden: We would love to go to other colleges with this mascot idea now that we have proof that this is something that works.
Sukadev: Right now we are only selling in stores in Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona. We would like to take a road trip or two outside of the west to see if there’s interest in these products elsewhere.
Check out Sukadev and Cayden’s website, dgedist.com, and click here to shop their stained glass Duck.