I hope that everyone will join me in welcoming Greg and Deanna Chase to the Glass Addiction's interviews. I felt that it would be very interesting to hear
from a married couple of glass artists and learn what if any problems they face working in the same art form. Greg and Deanna did a fabulous job answering my
questions and I hope if anyone has follow up questions that they'll go ahead and ask them. Thanks and enjoy!!!
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1. Please tell us a little about yourselves.
Deanna: California native, transplanted in South East Louisiana. Is a free spirit, loves travel, adventure and off the wall things and people. Plans to live in Europe, South America, and on a tropical Island at some point.
Greg: Long hair old VW lovin hippy. Here are two quotes that probably best sum up my view of life. From the 1950 movie Harvey: "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant." And from Albert Einstein "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." Well I don't have the patience to be a watchmaker, but I'm sure I'm much happier in the realm of the creative arts than I'd ever have been with my scientific creations. As for Elwood, well, I'm constantly striving.
2. How and when did you begin working with glass?
Deanna: Greg starting working glass before I did, way back in 2000 I think. At one point he tried to teach me and it was a disaster. That whole having your spouse teach you something just didn't work for us. I was frustrated and I think he was too. I don't remember exactly when that was, but it was before we started RVing and that was in Feb of 2003. At that point I was running his glass business and working a 60 hr a week job. I didn't really have the time or motivation to learn.
After we hit the road we started meeting up with other bead artists. In Sept of 2003 we were invited to spend some time with Anne Scherm Baldwin in Virginia Beach. I got a quick refresher lesson from Greg right before we went. It involved, this is how you make a round bead and this is how you place dots on it. Real challenging stuff. While we were visiting Anne, who is a lampworking teacher, she gave me some personal instruction, and Greg showed her how to make marbles. She was totally freaked out by his methods. :-) Anne was making floral beads, and using dichroic and different colors than Greg uses. I was much more interested in what she was doing, than what Greg was doing. That is how it began. I torched on and off between campground gigs (that is how we were making a living at the time, working at campgrounds) and it wasn't until January of 2005 when I started torching full time. That is when we decided we were going to make a living with just our art. Been at it ever since.
Greg: I took a glass blowing class in college as part of my ceramics major back in the early '80s. It was really wild scary fun, yet also way too expensive to even consider as a possible art form for me to pursue. Sometime around the late '80s I was working for a company that started making those crystal figurines. I was called on to make the swan necks, pegasus wings, stuff like that. It was lampwork, but really before there was any real good info on it. I did work with stained glass for quite a few years before I officially got into true lampwork. D and I saw a lampworker sell at a local art show and I just knew what I had to do. I think it was only like a week or two later and I had my studio set up and was teaching myself how to torch. Though D and I have visited a number of wonderful glass workers over the years, I do still consider myself self-taught. Kind of a funny term don't you think? I mean everyone's self-taught, no body actually learns this stuff for you, just presents it or exposes you too it. Probably why I'm a better artist than teacher.
3. Have you had any interesting jobs before becoming fulltime artists?
Deanna: Humm, interesting? Not really, unless you count working at campgrounds. I managed a Jamba Juice (smoothie bar) before we hit the road. yummm, smoothies.
Greg: Well the most interesting was my 2 years in the Peace Corps. I was stationed in Ghana west Africa working with a local college ceramics program as well as getting out to the local traditional pottery villages. The job making swan necks doesn't really count as interesting. Making 100s of necks a day isn't really artistically fulfilling. May well have been the cause of my dislike of production work.
4. Do you work in any medias other than glass?
Deanna: Nope. I have taken a class in metal smithing and I have wanted to get into that, I just don't have time. I am also interested in pottery.
Greg: My degree is in ceramics, though I haven't worked with clay since I left Africa. I did work with stained glass for about 7 years just before I got into hot glass. It was fun but frustrating and painful, my hands were always sliced up. Over the years I've worked with wood, acrylic, metal, really just a smattering of a lot of stuff. None of it profitable enough to justify my keeping with it.
5. Am I correct in assuming that Greg makes the marbles and Deanna makes the beads? Do you ever switch?
Deanna: That is pretty much true. Greg did teach me how to make marbles and I make them on and off. Since the first of the year I have been doing them more regularly, but my primary business is beads. Greg started out making beads, and still makes some every now and then when a good customer asks.
Greg: I did start out making beads. Even when we decided to go full time as glass artists I was mostly focused on beads. I'd make marbles for the first few months of the year, once the shows started and the ebay buyers were too busy elsewhere I'd switch back to beads. Thanks in part to some of the members here on GA my marbles finally developed enough of a following to keep me away from D's mandrels. Somehow I still ended up keeping the job of coating the mandrels and cleaning the beads however.
6. Flowers seem to be a theme for much of your work. Is there a reason?
Deanna: Uh, cause they sell well? Actually I love flowers. A good friend Kaye Husko taught me how to make them in 2004 and I have been doing it ever since. I also love Greg's floral bouquet marbles. I own exactly one Greg Chase marble. It is a Sunflower bouquet.
Greg: There is such a rich history of flowers in murrini, and the shape of flowers are so conducive to murrini, that it was just natural to start my murrini adventure with flowers. In my marbles I'm constantly finding areas I can easily fill in with flowers. And of course when I pull a marble out of the kiln and D just goes gaga over it and HAS to have it, well positive reinforcement goes a long way with me.
7. I know that you used to travel full time. Was that a help or a hindrance to your creativity?
Deanna: I would say a little of both actually. I use to find a lot of creative inspiration from the different parts of the country we visited. Often I wasn't able to translate what I wanted to into glass, but it sure was fun trying. It sometimes was a little bit of a problem when inspiration hit, but the studio wasn't set up.
Greg: Yea it was both for me as well. There are still images of sunsets across the gulf of Mexico, desert sunsets, flowers and bugs and architecture all still wondering around in my creativity waiting for the right moment. At times it was inspiration overload and all I wanted to do was make something easy so we'd have something for ebay the next day.
8. Was there any big pitfalls from working from a 'mobile studio'?
Deanna: SPACE! Also there is the issue of when one person walks around the RV rocks a bit. Not fun for the person torching. The electric also. We only had so much power to use and with the concentrators running, that didn't leave much for anything else, like cooking. I need to eat often otherwise I get grumpy. I'm sure Greg doesn't miss that.
Greg: Um, well it sounds like D covered it. Although setting up and taking down was also kind of a drag. Even so it was an amazing blessing to be able to spend so much time as full time traveling artist. Often the people we'd meet would know us as much for our traveling studio as for our work. I'm not sure we ever could have become full time professional artists if it hadn't been for that time on the road. Our expenses were low, our inspiration was high, and we were constantly traveling to meet other artists, some of whom are very dear friends now.
9. Am I right that you're back to a fulltime address now? What prompted that change?
Deanna: Correct. When we started RVing one of the goals was to find a place we both wanted to settle down. We lived in the Bay area of California and while it will always be home, it wasn't the life style we wanted. Too hurried and expensive. After four years we found ourselves always coming back to New Orleans and the surrounding area. When we realized we were spending more time surfing real estate than we were exploring, we knew it was time.
Greg: Our life together seems to be progressing in 4 to 5 year increments. We spend 5 years at regular jobs, we spend 7 years in a condo (too long), 4 1/2 years on the road, actually if we're here in this house for 5 years I'll be pleased. We're just restless wonderers.
10. Is there any problems in being a married couple creating the same form of art?
Deanna: No, not for me. I love it. Our stuff is very different, so it isn't like we are competing. More like complimenting. Of course, Greg is more skilled than I am, so I have a built in teacher. Turns out now that I understand what I am doing while torching, I don't have a problem with Greg teaching me. Of course it has to be something I want to know, otherwise I just want him to leave me alone.
Greg: Really can't think of any problems. When D and I first got together we were both working at the same window covering shop. Working together at that time was good and bad. Then we both worked totally different jobs and that was a problem. We had stuff to talk about, but we were spending our days in different worlds. Now we're both in the same world, but still see our world from very different perspectives. D spends a lot of time on the forums, talking to our customers, running the business and focusing on beads. I, well, um, I make marbles and try to be creative.
11. Do you have scheduled work times or is it first come, first serve at the torch?
Deanna: Yes. Greg works in the morning and I work at night. We always take Saturday off and one day a week. Greg gets Thursday and I get Friday. We had to schedule days off or we will never take them. The pitfalls of loving your work. Right now we are sharing one torch, but have two others not set up. I'm not sure if we had the others set up if we would torch at the same time or not. I kind of like being in the studio by myself.
12. Do you ask each other to critique your work or can that lead to problems?
Deanna: Not really. Sometimes I will ask Greg to help me with a design I am having trouble with. He is better at conceptualizing than I am. Greg doesn't often ask me what I think. I am far too blunt and almost never think about what I am about to say before I say it. He knows when I really like something, because I tend to go on and on about how much I like it.
Greg: As time has passed we've both become better and better at listening to each other's input. I'd say early on we were each a little defensive about our work. As our skills have improved it's become easier to hear gentle criticism. D's critiques are of the "oh, nice" and puts the marble down and goes back to the computer. Ok, won't make that one again. Or "OOOOH I just have to have that one, putting it up for mucho bucks cause I don't want to let it go!" Ok, what else can I do with that idea.
Deanna: Ya, The ones Greg makes that I really love I never get to keep, even when I list them for what I think is the higher range, they end up flying out the door. It's all good though.
13. Greg, you seem to enjoy experimenting with a wide range of subject matter in your marbles, where do get most of your ideas?
Inspiration ADD haha. I don't mind making the same idea twice, but most of my buyers seem to enjoy the mass diversity of my work. Lately I've been working a lot with New Orleans themes, easy enough to see where that comes from I guess. D and I will just go spend a day in a book store picking up idea books: photography, gardening, art books, fantasy, pets, etc. We have quite the library of idea books for when there's just no ideas in the head.
14. Greg, do like to completely explore a subject and then move on, or do you return from time to time with fresh ideas?
I never really feel that I ever completely satisfy my curiosity about any idea. Usually I hit the wall of my own abilities and find that my marbles, or my ideas, are suffering from my clumsiness. For example I've tried to do houses repeatedly over the years and have always been frustrated by the results. With my New Orleans marbles I finally feel like the house murrini is starting to express the image I have in my head. And as they get close to what I'm looking for the little bugger muse in my head starts to ask "hey, what about an interior with people and furniture and......" There's always something else to challenge me.
15. Deanna, can you give us an idea of what percentage of your beads goes into jewelry compared to collected as art?
Deanna: Well, I don't really know to tell you the truth. 95% of my work, I make specifically to be used in jewelry designs. That doesn't mean they always get used that way. I have seen some of those beads in other peoples display cases. Though they are usually glass artists of some kind as well.
16. Deanna, do you ever get to see the completed work of others that your beads are used in? Ever see any that you wished your beads weren't in?
Deanna: Very rarely. I do have a designer friend and everything she buys from me, I get to see completed, so that is cool. I have had a few designers email me pictures of what they have done. I love that. Also sometimes I will google my name just to see if I can find pieces with my work. Quite a few jewelry designers will credit the bead artist, so that is always cool. I never ask what people are doing with my beads. Early on Greg use to make unusual fish and birds and just off the wall stuff and we had a lady that was buying like crazy. Once I asked out of sheer curiosity what she was doing with them and the answer was nothing. She just liked them. She stopped buying shortly after that. Since then we have never asked. I have never seen something with my beads that I was ashamed of. Though I am sure there are some very early works out there I'd be happy to never see again. But I don't worry about that. The only way to get better is to keep on working at it and I wouldn't be where I am now if I hadn't made those earlier pieces.
17. Do you think that more people are starting to collect handmade glass beads as works of art?
Greg: Well we do. We have some wonderful pieces from fellow artists we know and finally have a small display cabinet to show them in. We've also noticed most, if not all, of the bead artists we've met have their own little display of works they've collected. There is truly some amazing stuff out there. One of my frustration with beads was that most ebay buyers wanted production stuff for jewelry not the really amazing stuff. A lot of the bead shows however seem to focus on the art end of bead making. We could never make the bead shows work for us as a money maker however. I think marbles are still some ways ahead of beads for their artistic appreciation.
18. Can you explain what Self-representing artists (SRA) are and how it helps you?
Deanna: SRA is a group some lampwork bead artists put together to help educate buyers. Mainly because on ebay there are a few mass producers who import from China. Many artists banded together to try to get ebay to add a self representing artist section to the lampwork section, but that fell on deaf ears. So someone created the group and checks out every seller who applies to be sure they really are a self representing artist. To be honest I have no idea if it helps sales or not and I really don't pay much attention to the mass produced sellers either. Mostly I just do my thing and try not to worry about the rest.
19. Ebay seems to have serious ups and downs. Do you notice that with your sales? Have any explanation for it?
Deanna: After eight years of ebay, I have no explanations. It is up and down and all over the place. When the beads are selling well the marbles aren't and vice versa. Holidays are always tough for both usually. It pays to just stick it out and keep putting new product out there. It could get real easy to get discouraged sometimes, but when we think about throwing in the towel and having to get "real" jobs, we shudder at the thought and just go make something new. It never fails, always when we get real depressed about sales, things pick up and suddenly everything is crazy. When sales are lagging, we just tell ourselves it is temporary and keep moving.
20. Which seems to give you your most consistent sales; your website, eBay or Etsy?
Deanna: Ebay by far. First off that is the main place we sell Greg's marbles. I did just open up an etsy shop for him, so we will see how that goes. I would say it is pretty even from the website and my etsy bead store. I think Ebay gives us the most business because I put the most effort into that venue. We have repeat customers look for us there and you just can't beat the exposure. I know some people have serious concerns about ebay and how they handle things, but really ebay has been a true blessing for us. I don't think we would be doing this full time if ebay didn't exist. It is where we got started and what made it possible for us to make living off of glass. I also sell on Justbeads too, but it has never been the success that ebay has.
21. Deanna, I try to learn as much as I can about artists before I write their questions and I've enjoyed reading your blog. Do you enjoy writing it and do you have any advice for people thinking about starting one?
Deanna: Yes, I do like writing and the blog got me started doing that again. I have a secret desire to be an author. Though if anyone has been reading my blog, they probably know that already. I am about 30,000 words into a fiction novel. I can remember being about 6 years old telling my mom I wanted to write books and sitting down at the coffee table and writing one. I think it was called, "the bear that lived in the city". Real exciting stuff. lol I don't know what happened, but over the years that dream sort of went into the someday category. After I started writing the blog, I started thinking about it more and more and now I am actually making an attempt. As far as advice for a blog, I think if one is going to start one, the best thing to do is to decide why they want one and go from there. Is it just for online journaling, business, looking for an audience? I think the most successful bloggers are people who pick topics and stick to it. For instance one of my friends has a bead blog. She uses it to blog about all things related to running a bead business. It's very useful. I also read a lot of agent blogs who devote their blogs to all about the business of publishing, writer's blogs with tips on writing. That kind of stuff. I do mine just because I like to. It is more like online journaling, with a little business mixed in. I think it is nice for the customers to get a little bit of a peak into who we are and what we are really like. However, I don't really care if anyone reads it or not. I am not obsessed with checking stats daily or anything like that (I do have friends who are). Also I would say if one is going to start one, try to make it at least a weekly thing. Personally I just hate it when I find a blog I enjoy, only to find the author doesn't really keep up or only blogs once every two months. That is a good way to get kicked off my blog reader. No updates.
Anyone that would like to see more of Greg and Deanna's beautiful glass art work should visit their website, their ebay store and the etsy store.
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1. Please tell us a little about yourselves.
Deanna: California native, transplanted in South East Louisiana. Is a free spirit, loves travel, adventure and off the wall things and people. Plans to live in Europe, South America, and on a tropical Island at some point.
Greg: Long hair old VW lovin hippy. Here are two quotes that probably best sum up my view of life. From the 1950 movie Harvey: "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant." And from Albert Einstein "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." Well I don't have the patience to be a watchmaker, but I'm sure I'm much happier in the realm of the creative arts than I'd ever have been with my scientific creations. As for Elwood, well, I'm constantly striving.
2. How and when did you begin working with glass?
Deanna: Greg starting working glass before I did, way back in 2000 I think. At one point he tried to teach me and it was a disaster. That whole having your spouse teach you something just didn't work for us. I was frustrated and I think he was too. I don't remember exactly when that was, but it was before we started RVing and that was in Feb of 2003. At that point I was running his glass business and working a 60 hr a week job. I didn't really have the time or motivation to learn.
After we hit the road we started meeting up with other bead artists. In Sept of 2003 we were invited to spend some time with Anne Scherm Baldwin in Virginia Beach. I got a quick refresher lesson from Greg right before we went. It involved, this is how you make a round bead and this is how you place dots on it. Real challenging stuff. While we were visiting Anne, who is a lampworking teacher, she gave me some personal instruction, and Greg showed her how to make marbles. She was totally freaked out by his methods. :-) Anne was making floral beads, and using dichroic and different colors than Greg uses. I was much more interested in what she was doing, than what Greg was doing. That is how it began. I torched on and off between campground gigs (that is how we were making a living at the time, working at campgrounds) and it wasn't until January of 2005 when I started torching full time. That is when we decided we were going to make a living with just our art. Been at it ever since.
Greg: I took a glass blowing class in college as part of my ceramics major back in the early '80s. It was really wild scary fun, yet also way too expensive to even consider as a possible art form for me to pursue. Sometime around the late '80s I was working for a company that started making those crystal figurines. I was called on to make the swan necks, pegasus wings, stuff like that. It was lampwork, but really before there was any real good info on it. I did work with stained glass for quite a few years before I officially got into true lampwork. D and I saw a lampworker sell at a local art show and I just knew what I had to do. I think it was only like a week or two later and I had my studio set up and was teaching myself how to torch. Though D and I have visited a number of wonderful glass workers over the years, I do still consider myself self-taught. Kind of a funny term don't you think? I mean everyone's self-taught, no body actually learns this stuff for you, just presents it or exposes you too it. Probably why I'm a better artist than teacher.
3. Have you had any interesting jobs before becoming fulltime artists?
Deanna: Humm, interesting? Not really, unless you count working at campgrounds. I managed a Jamba Juice (smoothie bar) before we hit the road. yummm, smoothies.
Greg: Well the most interesting was my 2 years in the Peace Corps. I was stationed in Ghana west Africa working with a local college ceramics program as well as getting out to the local traditional pottery villages. The job making swan necks doesn't really count as interesting. Making 100s of necks a day isn't really artistically fulfilling. May well have been the cause of my dislike of production work.
4. Do you work in any medias other than glass?
Deanna: Nope. I have taken a class in metal smithing and I have wanted to get into that, I just don't have time. I am also interested in pottery.
Greg: My degree is in ceramics, though I haven't worked with clay since I left Africa. I did work with stained glass for about 7 years just before I got into hot glass. It was fun but frustrating and painful, my hands were always sliced up. Over the years I've worked with wood, acrylic, metal, really just a smattering of a lot of stuff. None of it profitable enough to justify my keeping with it.
5. Am I correct in assuming that Greg makes the marbles and Deanna makes the beads? Do you ever switch?
Deanna: That is pretty much true. Greg did teach me how to make marbles and I make them on and off. Since the first of the year I have been doing them more regularly, but my primary business is beads. Greg started out making beads, and still makes some every now and then when a good customer asks.
Greg: I did start out making beads. Even when we decided to go full time as glass artists I was mostly focused on beads. I'd make marbles for the first few months of the year, once the shows started and the ebay buyers were too busy elsewhere I'd switch back to beads. Thanks in part to some of the members here on GA my marbles finally developed enough of a following to keep me away from D's mandrels. Somehow I still ended up keeping the job of coating the mandrels and cleaning the beads however.
6. Flowers seem to be a theme for much of your work. Is there a reason?
Deanna: Uh, cause they sell well? Actually I love flowers. A good friend Kaye Husko taught me how to make them in 2004 and I have been doing it ever since. I also love Greg's floral bouquet marbles. I own exactly one Greg Chase marble. It is a Sunflower bouquet.
Greg: There is such a rich history of flowers in murrini, and the shape of flowers are so conducive to murrini, that it was just natural to start my murrini adventure with flowers. In my marbles I'm constantly finding areas I can easily fill in with flowers. And of course when I pull a marble out of the kiln and D just goes gaga over it and HAS to have it, well positive reinforcement goes a long way with me.
7. I know that you used to travel full time. Was that a help or a hindrance to your creativity?
Deanna: I would say a little of both actually. I use to find a lot of creative inspiration from the different parts of the country we visited. Often I wasn't able to translate what I wanted to into glass, but it sure was fun trying. It sometimes was a little bit of a problem when inspiration hit, but the studio wasn't set up.
Greg: Yea it was both for me as well. There are still images of sunsets across the gulf of Mexico, desert sunsets, flowers and bugs and architecture all still wondering around in my creativity waiting for the right moment. At times it was inspiration overload and all I wanted to do was make something easy so we'd have something for ebay the next day.
8. Was there any big pitfalls from working from a 'mobile studio'?
Deanna: SPACE! Also there is the issue of when one person walks around the RV rocks a bit. Not fun for the person torching. The electric also. We only had so much power to use and with the concentrators running, that didn't leave much for anything else, like cooking. I need to eat often otherwise I get grumpy. I'm sure Greg doesn't miss that.
Greg: Um, well it sounds like D covered it. Although setting up and taking down was also kind of a drag. Even so it was an amazing blessing to be able to spend so much time as full time traveling artist. Often the people we'd meet would know us as much for our traveling studio as for our work. I'm not sure we ever could have become full time professional artists if it hadn't been for that time on the road. Our expenses were low, our inspiration was high, and we were constantly traveling to meet other artists, some of whom are very dear friends now.
9. Am I right that you're back to a fulltime address now? What prompted that change?
Deanna: Correct. When we started RVing one of the goals was to find a place we both wanted to settle down. We lived in the Bay area of California and while it will always be home, it wasn't the life style we wanted. Too hurried and expensive. After four years we found ourselves always coming back to New Orleans and the surrounding area. When we realized we were spending more time surfing real estate than we were exploring, we knew it was time.
Greg: Our life together seems to be progressing in 4 to 5 year increments. We spend 5 years at regular jobs, we spend 7 years in a condo (too long), 4 1/2 years on the road, actually if we're here in this house for 5 years I'll be pleased. We're just restless wonderers.
10. Is there any problems in being a married couple creating the same form of art?
Deanna: No, not for me. I love it. Our stuff is very different, so it isn't like we are competing. More like complimenting. Of course, Greg is more skilled than I am, so I have a built in teacher. Turns out now that I understand what I am doing while torching, I don't have a problem with Greg teaching me. Of course it has to be something I want to know, otherwise I just want him to leave me alone.
Greg: Really can't think of any problems. When D and I first got together we were both working at the same window covering shop. Working together at that time was good and bad. Then we both worked totally different jobs and that was a problem. We had stuff to talk about, but we were spending our days in different worlds. Now we're both in the same world, but still see our world from very different perspectives. D spends a lot of time on the forums, talking to our customers, running the business and focusing on beads. I, well, um, I make marbles and try to be creative.
11. Do you have scheduled work times or is it first come, first serve at the torch?
Deanna: Yes. Greg works in the morning and I work at night. We always take Saturday off and one day a week. Greg gets Thursday and I get Friday. We had to schedule days off or we will never take them. The pitfalls of loving your work. Right now we are sharing one torch, but have two others not set up. I'm not sure if we had the others set up if we would torch at the same time or not. I kind of like being in the studio by myself.
12. Do you ask each other to critique your work or can that lead to problems?
Deanna: Not really. Sometimes I will ask Greg to help me with a design I am having trouble with. He is better at conceptualizing than I am. Greg doesn't often ask me what I think. I am far too blunt and almost never think about what I am about to say before I say it. He knows when I really like something, because I tend to go on and on about how much I like it.
Greg: As time has passed we've both become better and better at listening to each other's input. I'd say early on we were each a little defensive about our work. As our skills have improved it's become easier to hear gentle criticism. D's critiques are of the "oh, nice" and puts the marble down and goes back to the computer. Ok, won't make that one again. Or "OOOOH I just have to have that one, putting it up for mucho bucks cause I don't want to let it go!" Ok, what else can I do with that idea.
Deanna: Ya, The ones Greg makes that I really love I never get to keep, even when I list them for what I think is the higher range, they end up flying out the door. It's all good though.
13. Greg, you seem to enjoy experimenting with a wide range of subject matter in your marbles, where do get most of your ideas?
Inspiration ADD haha. I don't mind making the same idea twice, but most of my buyers seem to enjoy the mass diversity of my work. Lately I've been working a lot with New Orleans themes, easy enough to see where that comes from I guess. D and I will just go spend a day in a book store picking up idea books: photography, gardening, art books, fantasy, pets, etc. We have quite the library of idea books for when there's just no ideas in the head.
14. Greg, do like to completely explore a subject and then move on, or do you return from time to time with fresh ideas?
I never really feel that I ever completely satisfy my curiosity about any idea. Usually I hit the wall of my own abilities and find that my marbles, or my ideas, are suffering from my clumsiness. For example I've tried to do houses repeatedly over the years and have always been frustrated by the results. With my New Orleans marbles I finally feel like the house murrini is starting to express the image I have in my head. And as they get close to what I'm looking for the little bugger muse in my head starts to ask "hey, what about an interior with people and furniture and......" There's always something else to challenge me.
15. Deanna, can you give us an idea of what percentage of your beads goes into jewelry compared to collected as art?
Deanna: Well, I don't really know to tell you the truth. 95% of my work, I make specifically to be used in jewelry designs. That doesn't mean they always get used that way. I have seen some of those beads in other peoples display cases. Though they are usually glass artists of some kind as well.
16. Deanna, do you ever get to see the completed work of others that your beads are used in? Ever see any that you wished your beads weren't in?
Deanna: Very rarely. I do have a designer friend and everything she buys from me, I get to see completed, so that is cool. I have had a few designers email me pictures of what they have done. I love that. Also sometimes I will google my name just to see if I can find pieces with my work. Quite a few jewelry designers will credit the bead artist, so that is always cool. I never ask what people are doing with my beads. Early on Greg use to make unusual fish and birds and just off the wall stuff and we had a lady that was buying like crazy. Once I asked out of sheer curiosity what she was doing with them and the answer was nothing. She just liked them. She stopped buying shortly after that. Since then we have never asked. I have never seen something with my beads that I was ashamed of. Though I am sure there are some very early works out there I'd be happy to never see again. But I don't worry about that. The only way to get better is to keep on working at it and I wouldn't be where I am now if I hadn't made those earlier pieces.
17. Do you think that more people are starting to collect handmade glass beads as works of art?
Greg: Well we do. We have some wonderful pieces from fellow artists we know and finally have a small display cabinet to show them in. We've also noticed most, if not all, of the bead artists we've met have their own little display of works they've collected. There is truly some amazing stuff out there. One of my frustration with beads was that most ebay buyers wanted production stuff for jewelry not the really amazing stuff. A lot of the bead shows however seem to focus on the art end of bead making. We could never make the bead shows work for us as a money maker however. I think marbles are still some ways ahead of beads for their artistic appreciation.
18. Can you explain what Self-representing artists (SRA) are and how it helps you?
Deanna: SRA is a group some lampwork bead artists put together to help educate buyers. Mainly because on ebay there are a few mass producers who import from China. Many artists banded together to try to get ebay to add a self representing artist section to the lampwork section, but that fell on deaf ears. So someone created the group and checks out every seller who applies to be sure they really are a self representing artist. To be honest I have no idea if it helps sales or not and I really don't pay much attention to the mass produced sellers either. Mostly I just do my thing and try not to worry about the rest.
19. Ebay seems to have serious ups and downs. Do you notice that with your sales? Have any explanation for it?
Deanna: After eight years of ebay, I have no explanations. It is up and down and all over the place. When the beads are selling well the marbles aren't and vice versa. Holidays are always tough for both usually. It pays to just stick it out and keep putting new product out there. It could get real easy to get discouraged sometimes, but when we think about throwing in the towel and having to get "real" jobs, we shudder at the thought and just go make something new. It never fails, always when we get real depressed about sales, things pick up and suddenly everything is crazy. When sales are lagging, we just tell ourselves it is temporary and keep moving.
20. Which seems to give you your most consistent sales; your website, eBay or Etsy?
Deanna: Ebay by far. First off that is the main place we sell Greg's marbles. I did just open up an etsy shop for him, so we will see how that goes. I would say it is pretty even from the website and my etsy bead store. I think Ebay gives us the most business because I put the most effort into that venue. We have repeat customers look for us there and you just can't beat the exposure. I know some people have serious concerns about ebay and how they handle things, but really ebay has been a true blessing for us. I don't think we would be doing this full time if ebay didn't exist. It is where we got started and what made it possible for us to make living off of glass. I also sell on Justbeads too, but it has never been the success that ebay has.
21. Deanna, I try to learn as much as I can about artists before I write their questions and I've enjoyed reading your blog. Do you enjoy writing it and do you have any advice for people thinking about starting one?
Deanna: Yes, I do like writing and the blog got me started doing that again. I have a secret desire to be an author. Though if anyone has been reading my blog, they probably know that already. I am about 30,000 words into a fiction novel. I can remember being about 6 years old telling my mom I wanted to write books and sitting down at the coffee table and writing one. I think it was called, "the bear that lived in the city". Real exciting stuff. lol I don't know what happened, but over the years that dream sort of went into the someday category. After I started writing the blog, I started thinking about it more and more and now I am actually making an attempt. As far as advice for a blog, I think if one is going to start one, the best thing to do is to decide why they want one and go from there. Is it just for online journaling, business, looking for an audience? I think the most successful bloggers are people who pick topics and stick to it. For instance one of my friends has a bead blog. She uses it to blog about all things related to running a bead business. It's very useful. I also read a lot of agent blogs who devote their blogs to all about the business of publishing, writer's blogs with tips on writing. That kind of stuff. I do mine just because I like to. It is more like online journaling, with a little business mixed in. I think it is nice for the customers to get a little bit of a peak into who we are and what we are really like. However, I don't really care if anyone reads it or not. I am not obsessed with checking stats daily or anything like that (I do have friends who are). Also I would say if one is going to start one, try to make it at least a weekly thing. Personally I just hate it when I find a blog I enjoy, only to find the author doesn't really keep up or only blogs once every two months. That is a good way to get kicked off my blog reader. No updates.
Anyone that would like to see more of Greg and Deanna's beautiful glass art work should visit their website, their ebay store and the etsy store.
