We recently connected with Chevonne Ariss and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Chevonne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

There’s 2 actually. Before I moved into stained glass full time and ultimately started Cracked, I was a hairdresser and makeup artist for about 15 yrs. I use so much of what I learned from being in the salon or on set in my glass work. Beauty is in balance, regardless of where you find it. A face, canvas, head of hair etc. My job doing hair and makeup was all about color theory, texture, movement and pattern. Every single one of these things translated directly into glass work.

The other takeaway from working one on one with a hair client is people need to be heard and understood about what they want, what is happening in their lives, and they need to have a time even if it’s scheduled where they are the focus.
Now as the host of Cracked, I’m still able to step into that role and utilize that same blueprint for interviewing my guests.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Chevonne Ariss, and my business’s name is Rüna Glassworks and I host a podcast called “Cracked with Chevonne Ariss”. I started stained glass as a hobby in 2015 after being taught by my mother-in-law and I completely fell madly and deeply in love with it from day one. By 2017 I was selling my work at a handful of high end home decor stores and had my first gallery show. By 2018 I started seeing it as less of a hobby and side hustle to a legitimate business. To start that professional transition 1/2 my week I dedicated to glass, and the other 1/2 to hair. I also began teaching beginner workshops out of my studio.

The more I dove into my craft I began to make real connections with the other artists in the glass community on instagram. I started to notice the differences in their back stories and also had really big questions about the industry as a whole. It was becoming clear just how disjointed the glass world was. Physically we are all separated and working alone in our studios and that solitary focus allows people to dig into such unique and original expression, however, that loss of sharing a workspace adds an element that I feel is not so helpful as well. There’s a lack of communication between small studios and virtually zero communication between the small and large studios. There’s also an immense amount of gatekeeping. Stained glass has a wild spectrum of artists, some with back stories that include a formal art degree but most without. The majority of stained glass artists that I’ve spoken too learned either generationally or from a local community class. This is a craft that is both completely unregulated and conflictingly also the most strict and structured of all the arts in process. It’s an interesting place rich with treasure and characters and history, but often overlooked as a medium. The divisiveness, the mystery, the lack of visibility in the mainstream art scene… my goal is for Cracked to continue to improve our community’s strength, unity & presence on every level.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Capturing light in glass to invoke deeply felt emotions of comfort and joy has been effective for thousands of years. Today glass is so much more than ecclesiastical stories depicted in churches or other sacred spaces. Those places can’t be discounted in any way, but the things people are making today, the inventive way they’re recharting stained glass’s course is what I’ve become deeply invested in sharing with the world.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Cracked was the pivot. With the pandemic rolling into it’s second year we were all struggling with connection. And like many other artists, Covid was also forcing me to look for ways to pivot. How can I shake things up but stay within my skill set? How can I explore expanding those connections I’ve made on instagram and contribute something new to this niche community? One day I did a search for stained glass podcasts to listen to while in the studio and it all came together in this crazy idea. Hosting a podcast pulled all the best of what I knew how to do into one project.

Contact Info:

• Website: runaglassworks.com
• Instagram: @runaglassworks
• Facebook: RUNAglassworks
• Twitter: @runaglassworks
• Tiktok: @runaglassworks

Image Credits
Photographer Sam Backhaus