Tuesday, January 12, 2010

10. and bust




Since I am so busy right now and with this two hours of commuting every day (an hour each way), I have no time to blog and am getting behind on reading.  So if I don’t comment that’s why.


Here’s another installment of how I became a glass artist.  As usual, if you want to read the previous installments, click here .  They are mostly short and remember to read from the bottom up if you want to start at the beginning.



10.  and bust


In the mid 80s, the bottom dropped out of the economy in Houston and our stained glass tenant moved to Colorado so we couldn’t afford to keep the building.  About the same time, our neighbor put her house up for sale and we decided to buy it.  The payments were less than the rent on the studio.  The extra house became studio space for the design part of our work and the old studio (the two car garage) became the fabrication part.  All those contacts I had nurtured for so many years, the big architectural firms, paid off during this time.  As these firms closed their offices in Houston (we actually lost population during this time), they took us with them as a resource to their new locations.  One day I flew into the DC area to give a presentation to the design section where a contact had moved to, and then flew out the same day.  Others went to the west coast and so we got a lot good jobs on both coasts but they were not very creative designwise.  With a few exceptions, it devolved into geometrics or ‘glass wallpaper ’ as Marc called it.

14 comments:

  1. Yeah, but glass wallpaper sounds pretty to me.

    I love your posts about your craft, Ellen. How cool that you were able to purchase your neighbor's house to replace your studio building. Convenient too.

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  2. What a wonderful solution to your studio space. And that you were able to stay afloat!!! I agree with Alix. The sound of "wallpaper in glass" is wonderful!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  3. ellen - "glass wallpaper" does have a good feel to it as a concept but i know what you're describing. there's work and then there's creative work. have a fruitful day. steven

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  4. I'm not sure what glass wallpaper looks like, but it sounds pretty. Any photos of it?

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  5. I took a look at the glass wallpaper, and though the creativity seems limited, that repetition over a large expanse is visually striking.

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  6. I may have mentioned this before - if so, sorry! My cousin who is a potter is VERY resentful of having to do work that sells instead of the stuff she likes. She is, um, interesting inside her head, so her real art is, um, interesting. I actually like a lot of it, but not really what most people want to use in the living room. But of course she does what she has to to pay the bills too...

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  7. This is a fun and interesting explanation of a craft. You have to be focused, resourceful and talented among other things. Does it help to have a partner who does the same thing?

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  8. I need me some glass wallpaper!

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  9. This Ozarks farm chick finds the sound of glass wallpaper quite intriguing. More please? Just askin'.

    Your art is beautiful and I'm lovin' your solution to finding an affordable studio. I love creative people!

    From the hills and hollers of the Missouri Ponderosa, ya'll have a wonderfully blessed day!!!

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  10. i love the term glass wall paper. Chic, modern, edgy.

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  11. You are an amazing artist. I love this glass wallpaper. Very cool, Ellen. Nice solution to the studio space.

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  12. Great story! One of my best friends is a stained glass artist, but lost her studio in Hurricane Rita. Your work is lovely!

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  13. Glass wallpaper is pretty though! ;)

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