We recently connected with Jordan Duda and Jacob Cochran and have shared our conversation below.

Jordan and Jacob, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

We learned how to make stained glass from our uncle. It was a right of passage, a coming of age of sorts, that on or after your 13th birthday you could learn the art. We learned with him in our grandmother’s garage where he passed on the trade he had learned from those before him. Since then, our spouses have learned, and even our youngest sister has picked up the passion!

We have really learned a lot in these past few years through introducing newer artists to the scene. Getting their perspective and relearning our art through a fresh set of eyes has helped us to expand the how and why we do things. We’re using techniques and creating ideas that we would have never thought of even 5 years ago. So I guess you could say that we were our own barriers standing in the way of growth and learning more.

Believe it or not, being inherently artistic is not the most essential skill for this trade. Jacob has always been the more creative one. Jordan is more analytical. Together, it makes a pretty neat combination. Fleshing out patterns from inspiration takes both pieces! Persistence is also probably a big one on the list. Glass is stubborn, so you have to be even more stubborn to force it to behave the way you need it to.

Jordan and Jacob, 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?

J² Glassworks is a brother-sister co-op located in Southwest Missouri. We originally started as a business making stained glass terrariums and have expanded most into our Plant Friends collection: decorative plant stakes that add an element of fun to your plants! We are partnered with The Plant Room and Hickory Lane Plants in Springfield, MO, and we have a few additional partnerships in the works for the coming year. We have also been expanding our online presence through Etsy this past year as well.

We are probably most proud of our custom pieces. We have been doing more of these as we expand and people get to know us more. Recently, we have been investing quite a bit of elbow grease (and love) into pet portraits.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Honestly, it is exceptionally rewarding to be able to turn someone’s idea into a reality and memorialize it forever with glass. Our pet portraits and custom designs are especially dear to us, and it brings us great joy to see how loved the pieces are when they get to their new homes.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

We really started J² Glassworks as an artistic outlet. We both work full time jobs outside of our art, but stained glass has allowed us opportunities to get our hands dirty and make broken things into beautiful art. It really is a great stress reliever after a long week! So our goal is just to continue this journey that provides a way for us to participate in our passion!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j2glassworks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071151526999&mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/J2Glassworks?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1160929680