Thomas then invited Bragdon to move to California in 1915, where Bragdon began teaching at the California School of Arts and Crafts (CSAC) in Oakland. Bragdon moved his family to Berkeley from St. Louis in the summer of 1915. Thomas and Bragdon together focused on producing pottery and tiles for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE) in San Francisco. A verbal partnership agreement was made on November 9, 1915 and a formal written partnership agreement was signed on May 30, 1917.