We recently connected with Gillian Preston and have shared our conversation below.

Gillian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

In February 2020, while exhibiting at NYNOW, a trade show in New York City, I met the buyer for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She was searching for an artist to repurpose the 1930s Venetian Gold Leaf Glass tiles that had been removed from the museum’s iconic Los Angeles building during its restoration. These 1-inch x 1-inch tiles, often damaged and encrusted with building materials, were once part of the building’s golden exterior, and the museum wanted to give them a new life as pieces of jewelry to sell in their gift shop.
They commissioned me to create a series of sample designs, giving me full creative freedom and financial backing to explore the unique properties of this historic glass. This project became a lifeline for my creativity during the pandemic, allowing me to experiment with the tiles as a building block for sculptural, wearable pieces resulting in 46 unique designs. From that collection, the museum selected a series of designs to be sold in their gift shop and online store—a collection that remains available today. The final pieces serve as a tribute to the history of the building and the city of Los Angeles, preserving a fragment of its past in a way that can be worn, admired, and carried forward.
One of the most meaningful aspects of this project was our decision to embrace the imperfections of the tiles. Rather than polishing away their age and history, we made the near 80 years of wear and exposure to the elements a celebrated feature of the designs. I am incredibly proud to have been trusted with this historically significant material and to have created a collection that not only honors its storied past but also continues to resonate with visitors to the museum years later.

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 studied glass at the Cleveland Institute of Art with a strong emphasis on drawing, earning my BFA in glass. As a result of these dual interests, my art combined the intimate qualities of hand-drawn imagery with contemporary and traditional glass practices to bring light and character to my ideas and narratives. Over the years, my work has transitioned from large-scale installation art to wearable glass objects as I founded my company, Broken Plates in 2013.

Broken Plates is a line of contemporary glass jewelry that combines traditional blown glass techniques with modern CNC technologies. Initially, we created our line of jewelry exclusively from blown glass plates (hence the name Broken Plates), but we have grown to incorporate a variety of glass forms to achieve our sculptural designs. We design our glass wearables digitally and use modern tools like waterjet cutting and metal 3D printing to translate these designs into glass, allowing our work to transcend what could be accomplished with traditional methods alone. With these techniques, we have built a full, ever-evolving line of colorful glass jewelry, ranging from minimalist studs to our viral Kinetic Glass Necklaces and sculptural Glass Cuffs—each piece designed to reflect and manipulate light in a mesmerizing way.

Most recently, we decided to lean into the implications of our company’s name and expand our services to include something deeply personal and sentimental. We now offer “Broken Plates: Glass Memorables”, a service where we repurpose cherished, broken glass objects from our clients into wearable heirlooms. Whether it’s a damaged family heirloom, a meaningful glass object that has cracked, or simply a piece with deep emotional significance, we transform it into jewelry that allows our clients to carry those memories with them in a new, contemporary form.

Our jewelry is bold, sculptural, and visually striking, designed to catch light and attention while still being timeless and wearable. We push the technical and aesthetic boundaries of glass jewelry, ensuring that each piece—whether part of our main collection or a custom commission—feels like a small sculpture of light that interacts with its environment in a captivating way.

For those who commission a Glass Memorables piece, they can expect a collaborative experience where we work together to honor the sentimental value of their glass while creating a modern, wearable piece that preserves its history in a stunning new form.

We are most proud of our ability to redefine what people think glass jewelry can be—both technically and conceptually. We merge traditional glass craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, allowing us to make unexpected, impossible-seeming designs a reality.

We want potential clients and followers to know that Broken Plates is about more than aesthetics—it’s about storytelling, innovation, and transformation. Whether it’s in the vivid color play of our kinetic necklaces or the deep sentiment embedded in a Glass Memorables piece, our work is made for bold individuals who want to carry art, light, and history with them every day.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I spent many years posting organically—sharing only when I felt compelled, in the moment, to show what I was working on. Over time, I built a solid community of fellow artists, but my follower count plateaued around 2,000 on Instagram, and I saw little connection between my posts and online sales.

When the pandemic hit, I finally had the time to rethink how I presented my work online. My jewelry had always had a strong impact when experienced in person at trade shows and art fairs, but I needed to translate that effect into an entirely digital space. I invested in a marketing consultant who encouraged me to post about my process and products more consistently on Instagram, use a social media planning app, and most importantly, try TikTok. I couldn’t afford to keep the consultant long-term, but the habit of prioritizing my social media presence made my posts more intentional and consistent.

I finally tried TikTok in the summer of 2021, and my first few posts instantly reached thousands of views—a dramatic difference from the hundreds I was used to on Instagram. Seeing that engagement motivated me to post more, and I started analyzing the types of videos that drew me in as a consumer. This helped refine my own filming and editing style, and soon, my content began going viral.

My TikTok following grew rapidly, reaching 60k before it plateaued. Fortunately, because I had developed the habit of cross-posting my videos to Instagram, I started going viral there as well. I noticed that one product in particular always sparked reactions, confusion, surprise, or even outrage, which drove even more engagement. Going viral gives you real-time access to how people react to your products in the comment section, which presents an opportunity to continue the conversation and build more content around their curiosity.

By leaning into what was working and piggybacking off of my already viral content, I created a cycle of engagement that led to multiple viral videos. At one point, an audio clip of me humorously responding to the public’s interest in my Kinetic Glass Necklaces became a trending sound, with other small businesses using it in their own marketing, further boosting my content’s reach. In just a few weeks, my following jumped from 10k to 80k.

Two years later, I now have 108k followers on Instagram and 69k on TikTok. I credit this growth to consistency, finding a voice that feels both genuine and engaging, and continuously refining my approach.

For those just starting out, don’t wait for perfection. Just start. You’ll naturally improve as you go, developing sustainable systems for capturing, editing, and posting content. The more you create, the better you’ll get at telling your story in a way that resonates, and that’s what ultimately draws people in.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest motivator is discovering new ways to build on the techniques we’ve developed in our practice. Every new skill or breakthrough opens up countless creative possibilities, and I have a natural tendency to explore every angle until I’ve established a strong foothold in the resulting aesthetic.

Sharing these explorations on social media also keeps me pushing forward. It’s a way to document the process, engage with our audience, and challenge myself to step into new and unexpected creative territories. The successes we find along the way shape our jewelry line, while the failures push us to pivot, refine, and approach things from a fresh perspective.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brokenplatesglasswearables.com/
• Instagram: @broken_plates
• Other: pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/BrokenPlatesglasswearables/