We recently connected with Corey Silverman and have shared our conversation below.
Corey, appreciate you joining us today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?
I don’t have a hero. Sure my parents are great people. Yes, I had a few good teachers in school. But I always find myself looking for people to inspire me. People to drive me to be a better version of myself. People who make me feel like I don’t work hard enough. They’re hard to come by.
Over all the time I’ve spent looking for a mentor, an idol, a “hero”, I haven’t found one. So I‘ve decided to be my own hero. I take on all kinds of challenges. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. And I don’t mind asking people I know (or want to know) for help–it’s a great way to get to a solution faster than me doing it all on my own. I strive to inspire people in what I do but I don’t expect anybody to put me on a pedestal just because I’m good at some things that I’ve spent decades doing.
So I’m going to keep influencing myself and pushing myself to be a better hero for me.
Corey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a professional artist, business owner and glass blower. I got into glass blowing at a small school in upstate New York called Alfred University. I was exposed to a wide variety of mediums in art school but was primarily drawn to glass: it spoke to me more than the others.
My wife Leanne and I have a public-access hot glass studio and glass gallery located in Lakewood, CO. The studio is running 7 days a week, with gallery hours Thursday-Monday. When we’re not making our own work, we offer classes and workshops interested in trying their hand at making something in hot glass. We also offer one-off workshops in fusing and slumping, torch space rental and event space rental for private parties and corporate events. A large part of our business is providing top tier products from our catalog to over 100 galleries, boutiques, catalogs, corporate gift buyers, and more. These clients are based all around the USA. Last time we checked we were represented in over 36 states.
We’re so proud to be the largest glass studio and gallery in the metro Denver area. We recently acquired the building for our studio and gallery and built it out to our own specifications. This is an incredible opportunity to share our love of glass and glass art with the general public. There hasn’t been a “glass only” gallery in the Denver area for several years. We want to showcase what glass art is about for any and all people that are inspired by the beauty of glass.
Our business has been in operation since 2007 and has weathered many financial storms. But now we have an incredible gallery and a fantastic location to share with everyone that wants to see it. We can’t wait to get more customers in the door to see what we can offer.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Art school isn’t necessary to become an artist. I went to art school. I have a BFA with a focus on glass blowing and glass art. But in all honesty, had I known that it was an option for a career path, I probably could have saved a lot of time and money by just diving into the industry head first by taking as many classes as I could and renting time to make my own work. If I had taken all of the money spent for my degree and put it into highly focused workshops and classes around the country, I probably would have gotten further in a shorter amount of time and come out with much more money in my pocket. However, that’s not what I ended up doing. College was a great experience but much of it was wasted time.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
I’m probably a little more patient with people’s learning process than I should be if I’m just looking at it from a business perspective. But I also understand that being mean and lacking compassion for someone working on their skills is just a setup for failure all around. Patience is key in learning a craft. If you screw up a piece, just move on and make it again and again and again until you get it right. Glass is unforgiving. The business of art is hard. Don’t get into it if you can’t take repetition and rejection.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.furnaceglassworks.com
- Instagram: @furnaceglassworks
- Facebook: @furnaceglasswork