Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erin Glassworks. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Erin, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I learned how to do stained glass in high school, and fell in love with the medium, spending time after school in the studio, working away on weekends. It was something I knew I wanted to do, but without a studio space of my own, I couldn’t continue working after graduating. Despite this, I went out and purchased a box of small sample glass squares, and left it in my parent’s garage as a reminder that one day I would have the space to do stained glass again, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time.

Five years go by and and I was working full time managing a commercial fish house while also working on my Bachelors in Biology, I had let me creative outlets fall by the wayside. I was burned out and very overextended, which lead to me feeling depressed. I knew I needed to do something. I pulled out a long forgotten bit of cross stitch and while I felt like I didn’t have the creativity in me, I told myself I could make a triangle– just 3, 2, 1 X stitches. No pressure. Just a small geometric form. One triangle turned into two, then five and then a whole series of colors and repeating patterns. It reminded me I needed creativity in my life and that it was worth the effort, even when I felt like I had no effort to give. Around this time my parents were cleaning out their garage and the sample box of glass I had stowed away served its purpose in reminding me how much I loved stained glass and the forms and hard lines I found in my cross stitch. I invested in second hand tools, and set up a small work space on my porch. I relearned the craft on the snake design that went on to inspire my logo.

As many hobbies go, I found myself spending more and more time in the studio. I started posting my work online in places like Reddit and Instagram, which lead to a couple sales. Slowly I started being able to pay for my hobby, which allowed me to keep working on new things. A year later, I built a website and my small side hustle was gaining traction. In 2021, I had a heavy trailer door crush me at my day job. It left me with debilitating pain, sleepless nights and a realization that I wasn’t able to continue working at the commercial fish house, which I had put everything into for the past eight years. I didn’t know what I would do next, but I left my job without a plan. I sat down with the book at Erin Glassworks and decided I could give myself one year to see if this was a viable option for me full time. I didn’t know if I could be creative as a job. Putting yourself out there as an artist sharing your work is a lot emotionally. Putting a monetary value on creativity feels very vulnerable. I didn’t know if the demand would scale to meet the needs of this being my full-time income. Two and a half years later, I am proud to say I am a full time artist.

Erin, 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 consider my work to be modern stained glass- fun and whimsical, playing with color, texture and design, but still rooted in the history of this art. Instead of church windows, I am inspired by the natural world around me, Florida wildlife in particular.

I enjoy working with the reflections and refractions of glass, imagining how the colors and textures I am using with will work together within the hard outlines of the solder holding the form. Part of the process is not knowing what my finished piece will look like until I hold it up to the sunlight once it has been soldered. Working within the confines and limitations of glass itself, and translating the natural world into a design that captures an image is a challenge I thoroughly enjoy.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Being able to continue being self employed is a huge driving force in my creative journey. It can be scary at times when my income directly relies on my ability to be creative, but I love the challenge of balancing creating art with everything else it takes to run your own business.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I needed to unlearn that productivity is tied to my self worth. After high school I went right into working full time, while also being a full time student working on my bachelors in biology. All of my time was scheduled. I had to plan days ahead to have time to go to the grocery store. After graduating, I added a part time job working doing data and policy analysis for a non-profit organization in my field, in addition to my growing stained glass small business, because of course I monetized my favorite hobby. Once I left my day job and started working on art full time, I realized that productivity was not a measure of value. The thing about being creative is it cannot come from an empty cup and I had spent too many years overextended. Being a self-employed artist has allowed me to learn the value of taking care of myself, physically, mentally and emotionally and it forced me to go out and start doing things I enjoy for the sake of enjoying it, since now most of my day is spent focused on what used to be just a hobby. I take weekends off. I spend time with friends. I go for walks in the morning. And while this was a very hard lesson to unlearn, it has been extremely rewarding.

Contact Info:

• Website: eringlassworks.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/eringlassworks
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/eringlassworks
• Other: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ErinGlassworks