Artist a glass act | Texas

STANDARD TIMES
March 18, 2011

TEXAS -- Eleven years ago, Mary Valva took a class through a local business to learn how to make stained glass pieces. A year later, she bought the business from her teacher. "It was a difficult year because of 9/11," said Valva, who had worked as a legal secretary before. "I was open for four months, and it was dead. It was a scary time, but I hung in there, and we're still here." Valva's downtown business, which she renamed The Glass Prism, functions as her studio and gallery. She makes some glass art for herself but primarily for her customers, who typically are searching for custom pieces. "A lot of the custom pieces I make are stories in themselves. A lady came in here and wanted to make a piece for her husband as a Christmas present. He was from UT so I made a longhorn, (and was) a Christian man so there was a cross incorporated. It was very personal — nobody else would get it — but to him it was everything that would encompass him." It's difficult to make a successful business out of art, Valva said, but offering classes, retail supplies for other artists and repair work keeps it afloat. [link]