We recently connected with Gail Allard and have shared our conversation below.
Gail, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I would imagine that the biggest risk I have taken was to step off the cliff of faith and quit the “regular” job to pursue the life of earning a living as a creative. I was an art kid growing up, my mother was a painter and my father was a musician, and I loved the creative aspect in just about any medium I could get my hands on. After high school, I went to college to study for a Bachelors in Studio Art and made it two years before taking a break. Things got expensive out on my own and I wasn’t paying much attention to the core classes, anyway. I realized that I needed a job that was going to pay decent and so I was taken in as a welder at a hydraulics factory. It wasn’t an ideal environment, but I enjoyed learning the trade. After a year in the shop, the company paid for me to enroll in a Drafting program and I was moved into the Engineering department. After a month or so of classes, I noticed that there was a glassblowing studio across the street from campus. While going to college the first time around, I had a buddy I knew that worked in a “hot shop” (glass studio) part time, and I couldn’t imagine working in such a hot place. I was curious enough to walk in and check things out and the owner was absolutely cool and gave me a demonstration. I found myself hanging out at the studio in between work and class nearly every day. So much that the owner invited me to come in and help out when I had free time. I was immediately blown away from the very first gather of glass, the smell of burning paper, the music, and the whole vibe. I continued to work in the engineering department for about a year and a half when I made the crazy decision to quit and pursue glass art full time.
At 22, I was leaving a great paying gig with insurance, weekends off and a retirement plan. My family thought I was crazy, my friends didn’t know what to think and I was hanging off the back of a rocket ship that was taking off with an unknown destination. From that point, glass became my life. I was its student and it taught me everything I ever wanted to know. The fiery heat I have come to love and the material’s unforgiving nature became my passion. My apprenticeship lasted around 8 years until the studio closed its doors due to the 2008-9 recession. I was destroyed that I wasn’t going to be able to continue to my career in glass, but I was fortunate enough to sign on with a company the studio had a product relationship with, and I became the lead developer of architectural glass panels using blown glass. The contract was for a year and a potential to continue the research and development if I had created a safety rated product. The team fell inches short of our goal and after that year, I was facing another possibility of losing my glass career. A non-profit aimed at art therapy had contacted me, just before the end of the contract and said they were looking for a glassblower to join their organization. Boom! I was back in.
After six months of being the lead glass artist, being taken advantage of was taking its toll. The company was mismanaged and I was generating all of its revenue while being a one man show. It was no longer working out for me.
I made the choice of taking things into my own hands and opening up my own studio and gallery. Before quitting, I had set up my business, secured some cash funding and took out a business loan to get started. November 11, 2011 was my first register sale, and everything I had learned, suffered through and fought for was all mine. I went from a renter of my space to being able to purchase my building and property. I have had great employees, some that needed to spread their wings and some that are still with me. I’ve had close calls in losing it all with bad deals, nearly destroying my marriage, bad economy and a pandemic with lingering effects. Through hard work and a little bit of luck, I have managed to survive and come out stronger. Times are getting tougher again, but the lessons learned in life will get me through it all, I’m sure. November 11, 2022 will be my 11th anniversary in business as Salado Glassworks.
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?
I celebrated my career as a glass artist for 20 years this past May. Growing up an a very creative home nurtured my curiosity in music and art so I feel a great connection to all types of art. I enjoy creating art for clients on a custom base or allowing them into my gallery to see the ready to purchase work we have available. If the fire is going in the studio, you are more than welcome to grab a seat and watch. I understand that every artist has their own unique voice, and I am proud that I have a great following with my artwork.
There are several styles that I enjoy producing, and my favorite is the Signature line of work. I use different-sized pebbles of glass, called frit, and layer (overlay) several large chunks of bar glass on top creating an inner and outer design. With the overlay, I pinch and drag the intersecting colors across each other, blending and creating beautiful patterns. This is my first real connection to the finished piece as the gestures of my hand create the design with color. I let my intuition flow as I am drawing the thin bands of color over each other, creating layers of ribbons and depth in complex swirls that I call “moments”. From the initial setup of each piece, I am free to chose what shape I wish to create.
The Signature name is just that: I sign my name on the outside surface of each piece with a band of hot, silvered glass that is mirrored. The mirroring, or reduction, is a chemical reaction that happens when the surface is hit with lots of heat in a low oxygen environment. Sometimes it’s barely legible, other times it’s beautiful wisps or motion and texture. Often, they are organic vessels that I control to the final moment, where I allow the glass and color to freely dictate its own final shape. Other times they are controlled sculptures that can be as tall as 30″. I have also integrated the same color technique in my line of lighting that we make for commercial and residential spaces.
I also have an affinity for the beauty in ancient forms of pictorial communication, primarily from the Egyptians. I create a series called Hieroglyphs, that pays homage to storytelling by simple drawings. A river, a bird’s wing, a snake, are all drawn on solid jewel-toned vessels and vases with a hot bit of silver black glass. By moving my hand quickly and deliberately, I am able to bring the essence of stories that were once carved in stone.
Blown glass is one of few materials that you physically cannot touch when you are working with it. It’s over 2000 degrees hot, it’s sexy, it speaks to people when they watch it move. It pulls curiosity out of your soul and makes you wish you could feel it living and breathing, because it is alive. I would love for you to stop by my studio and visit.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Not long after I had opened my studio and gallery, I was faced with the need to hire help. I had always planned that I was going to keep my shop very small. I was afraid of the extra overhead, training someone new and ‘will we even get along?’ When you allow other creatives in your working space, it can either go well or it can turn to mush, very quickly. I had been a solo artist for a few years with an assistant and was working so much with no free time that I decided to add to my staff. As close as we have to work with each other, glassblowers must be able to have a very tight relationship. We have to sense when something is needed and be able to read each others body language in an instant. If you don’t have that built up, it’s not going to work. I am fortunate enough to have a staff of five employees now. My workload has decreased which opened up more opportunity for me to work on my line of personal work. Had I not switched my thought of hiring, I’d probably be out of business.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I don’t know much about NFT’s, but if anyone out there is reading this and you know how to make one-of-a-kind, hand made glass art as an NFT, let me know!
Contact Info:
- Website: saladoglassworks.com
- Instagram: @saladoglassworks
- Facebook: @saladoglassworks
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe46bRNhcsfS8jL36NhRD_g/videos
Image Credits
Gail Allard/ Salado Glassworks