Daily Inspiration: Meet Barry Stevens

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barry Stevens

Hi Barry, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Fresh off the 1 month college try, I went to a career councilor who ended up finding me a glassblowing studio in my area. I apprenticed for about a year, and then got my own tools and equipment and started working in my garage. Been doing it for almost 20 years now, and at this point its a huge part of who I am.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Art is rarely a smooth road. Glass has been a struggle from day one. Its a rewarding medium, but I work full time as a glass artist, which means I do a lot of repetitive production work. Getting to do something I consider truly beautiful and creative is unfortunately a rarity. However, more than anything I enjoy the act of working with glass regardless of the end product. The last couple years have been especially rough as the economy has gone down and the art industry tanked. Branching out and using every skill available to me to produce as many different products as possible has been the key to staying afloat. Diversification of income is particularly important in the art world.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a glassblower I specialize in high quality production pipe work for my main source of income. The key to making money in that field is the ability to work quickly and efficiently and efficiency is one of my strongest attributes as a glass artist. In the more art world, I specialize in Marbles and marble games. Chinese Checkers and Tic Tac Toe ect. Marbles are magical to me, because with proper technique you can create a depth that seems impossible. Its a lot of art in a small package.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up a couple separate times. When I was very young, I was gregarious and outgoing. Not great as a student, or honestly all that creative, but charismatic and well liked. In my teenage years I suffered from clinical depression brought on as a side effect to a medication for acne. After a couple years in and out of mental hospitals, I eventually overcame my illness. I then grew up a second time. This time, I was much more reserved and introverted. However, glass was like therapy to me, and so it became the driving factor in my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vulcanglassart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vulcanglassart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057363291675

Image Credits
Photographer: Sarah Stringer