Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Balestri.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Suzanne. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After graduating San Diego State University in Marketing with a minor in Advertising, I moved to San Francisco and began working in the Ad Agency world. I ended up on the business being the liaison between the Clients and the “Creatives”. I hated it. I am not a very good “suck up”, and all I wanted to do was what the Creatives were doing – either writing copy or working with art direction and layout.
After a few years of that, my husband’s job took us to San Diego which allowed me to break from the ad agency world. Here was my opportunity to figure out what I really wanted to do. After reading What Color Is Your Parachute and going through the exercises of helping narrow down what I would be good at and what I would like, I decided Interior Design was the path! I got a Fine Arts degree at the Design Institute of San Diego while assisting a local interior designer and becoming a mother of two boys.
With two little ones, I began my residential interior design business on a part-time basis. But after only short time, I was quite disillusioned. At design school we had pretend clients, pretend budgets, and everything got approved! But in real life, clients are indecisive, they have color-blind spouses that literally can’t see your vision, and the clients expect much more than their budgets can allow. I came to realize that I could not get behind designing something that did not resonate with me.
In 2006 I was strolling through a craft fair in San Francisco and was mesmerized by a fused glass necklace from an exhibiting artist, and I bought it. I had never heard of fused glass. About 6 months later, a brochure of art workshops at the local Community College came in the mail. Upon flipping through it, I saw a one day workshop for fused glass jewelry! I was so excited! I took the workshop, had a blast, and wanted more. I waited 6 months until it was offered again, and I was hooked. I bought a small jewelry kiln and began experimenting. One thing led to another and soon I said goodbye to the interior design path and hello to the glass.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No! Once I realized that I was addicted to glass and wanted to make a business of it. I began doing local retail craft fairs and art shows. These outdoor events are pretty grueling – just the setting up and breaking down alone are physically challenging (99% of the time it was just me). And glass isn’t light! Although I am in San Diego where the weather is ideal, there were plenty of rainy and/or blustery events that made me want to say “No more!” And of course, there are always show goers who try to bargain down the price of your art, which never feels good.
In 2014 I began exhibiting in the Handmade sections of wholesale gift shows where buyers came to place orders for their stores. It was so much easier in the sense that the shows were inside, orders were placed based on the samples shown in the booth, and then I went home and produced what was ordered to ship to the stores by their requested receive date. BUT, now my items needed to be sold at WHOLESALE prices so the stores could mark it up. Totally different ball game. I learned quickly what items I could not sell wholesale because it just didn’t pencil out to be worth it for me.
Also, in most cases, the buyer doesn’t pay for the order until it is time to ship, so the artist floats the cost – not always a comfortable position. And then there are the expenses of doing the shows – exhibitor cost can be between $1,000-$5,000 depending on the show and duration. When you add in hotel, airfare, meals, etc. it can set you back for some time. The wholesale gift show industry has been experiencing huge changes in the last several years – more and more shows are being added which dilutes all the shows – the buyers and exhibitors now have more options which decrease overall attendance by both parties at every show.
I picked up a lot of stores, but for a one-person business, I found that all of my time was spent fulfilling orders of my most popular items – Wall Vases and Mini Trays. – for 60+ stores nationwide. From time to time I would hire someone to help with phone calls to stores or to help with putting chains on vases or packing orders, but other than that, I did everything. I was burning out physically and feeling that my creativity was shriveling up.
Although I took a few glass workshops over those years to learn new techniques and processes in the glass, I had no time to explore this new knowledge. I was saddened by this and truly frustrated, so I made the decision at the end of last year to move away from wholesale shows and from actively pursuing new wholesale accounts so I can free up time to explore the techniques I’ve learned and to experiment with ideas I’ve had tucked away in my brain.
I am very fortunate that I have a wonderful, supportive husband who makes a good living – so I am not in a position that I need my business to be extremely profitable to survive. I will continue to produce for my solid store base under the Cocoon brand, and will also launch my new business: Design Balestri (www.designbalestri.com) which will focus on new endeavors! I am currently looking into renting an industrial space so I can think bigger and do bigger, all in a bigger space!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Design Balestri & Cocoon by Suzanne Balestri story. Tell us more about the business.
I am, what you call, a “Warm Glass” artist which means the glass is worked by heating it in a kiln. (Examples of “cold” glass would be mosaic or stained glass; “hot” glass is that which is worked under a flame – such as blown glass.) I create my art by cutting and layering glass into the desired design and then putting it in a kiln where it is heated anywhere between 1300-1600 degrees (depending on the desired outcome).
The layers soften, slump, or melt (fuse) into each other. Because of the many segments in a firing schedule (which includes many holds to allow the glass to anneal), the time in the kiln can range from 10 hours to 2 days depending on the thickness of the glass and complexities of the design. Once out of the kiln the pieces can be “cold” worked – sanded, grinded, sand-blasted, drilled, etc. to finish the piece.
My huge passion for yoga and personal growth inspired my Chakra Necklace series – but because that is such a niche market (although not in San Diego!), I needed to move away from that when I started down the wholesale path. That path made it necessary to narrow down my focus to items that had more mass appeal, the most popular and profitable pieces being the wall vases and the mini trays. So I guess you could say I am “known” for that.
I believe what sets me apart from others is the powerful, yet elegant designs that I achieve with the bold use of color and clean lines. I love for the glass to do most of the talking – I am not one to use a lot of blingy elements in my designs. I think that my pieces are successful in communicating a quiet, yet strong, resonance.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I am very fortunate to have a husband who is very supportive of my creative endeavors and passions, and who makes a good living. He laughingly tells me that if I had to support myself, I would approach my business much differently, and he is right. But I do believe that, as I step away from the wholesale focus to start really exploring what touches my soul, the profitability part will grow because I will be more authentically expressing myself. I am stepping out of my Cocoon!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.designbalestri.com
- Phone: 619-871-6788
- Email: info@designbalestri.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/designbalestri
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/designbalestri
Image Credit:
Alicia Marie Massie, Alec Miller, Suzanne Balestri
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