We were lucky to catch up with Cathy Gonzales recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cathy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

My view of success as a glass artist is being able to create beautiful art and have people loving my work enough to buy it. After 30 years in the education system, I’m retired now and spend my days creating and promoting my art. I am fortunate that I don’t have to rely on this income, I mostly use income from my artwork to buy glass or other supplies.

Cathy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began my journey as an artist almost fifty years ago as a teenager. I received a oil painting set and easel for my 16th birthday. I bought a book about learning to oil paint and taught myself how to paint. Over the years I have evolved as a artist learning a variety of mediums, watercolors and acrylic paint, creating polymer clay beads for jewelry and have found my passion with glass.
On a trip to Iceland in 2019 where I have family, a cousin who is a glass artist, taught me how to do stained glass. I fell in love with the craft! Using YouTube and other online sources I have learned various techniques. I now have a kiln and have learned about glass fusing. I opened a Etsy store and began selling my work online to support my “habit”.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Social media has allowed me to reach potential customers from around the world.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell my glass art in Etsy. The pro’s of this are Etsy is widely known and there is a lot of traffic. The con’s are many fees which reduce actual income from sales considerably.

Contact Info:

• Website: Https://artcglasscreations.etsy.com
• Instagram: Https://www.instagram.com/artcglasscreations
• Facebook: Https://www.facebook.com/artcglasscreations

Image Credits

@artcglasscreations