Meet Sally Moore of Three Dimensional Visions – Glass Blowing Houston in Tomball

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sally Moore.

Three Dimensional Visions came to life when wife and husband, Sally and Michael, decided to meld their creative talents and share their passion for glass with their community. Like their relationship, their studio is the perfect marriage of science and art (Sally’s a geoscientist, and Michael’s a sculptor), and that’s why they’re so passionate about showing others the art of glass blowing.

Sally spent her professional life as a geoscientist working with one of the major oil companies, ExxonMobil. When she decided that 35 years was enough Michael said he was going to retire from teaching Art at LoneStar College in The Woodlands. He then said, “I have always wanted to have a glass blowing studio”. Michael had been tremendously supportive of Sally’s career allowing her to travel the world and pursue opportunities as they were offered with the knowledge that he was always home available to their son. So when he said that was his dream, they decided to pursue it.

Sally searched for properties with the idea of building a studio from the ground up, they made some offers, her realtor advised her to look at already built facilities to cut down on their start up time. She finally gave in to that idea, made several more offers and then found what is the perfect place for their evolving dream. The property has 6.5 acres, a warehouse building that makes a great hot shop, a large home which has gallery space, additional studio space for kiln forming, and room to live. Then there is a separate additional building which they have set up as a fabrication shop. This houses metal fabrication a small ceramics/raku studio and their cold working shop.

While they were searching for the property they traveled around to several studios in Washington, Colorado, and Texas, trying to learn just what they were getting into.

They found a one week school at Coastal Bend State College that offered two sessions for beginning glass blowers. Sally & Michael then asked their son Patrick who was on his last summer break before completing a double major in Business Management and Marketing if he had any interest in attending. So he went for one week and they went to the other. Patrick then became addicted to glass just like his parents.

It’s the strengths of all three combined that are making this business work. Michael’s background and design knowledge which he shares so freely, Sally’s expertise in business development, leadership, problem solving, and knowledge sharing that she uses to develop the business, and Patrick’s business management & marketing, musical creativity, and youthful exuberance that combine as an unbeatable force. The team also includes Eric Vargas who began his glass career by taking one of the studios glass blowing experiences, followed by a Six Week Session on the Intro to Glass Blowing Class, and then participation in an internship program which earned his position as part of the Three Dimensional Visions team. The most recent member is Jacqui Chavez Brown, Patrick’s wife, who has also started assisting in the studio. A third generation artist is being nurtured, Silas, who loves making red glass paperweights and drawings of his Mom, Dad & Grandparents assisting him in the studio. This all comes out in the studio slogan “Enriching lives through artistic self-expression”.

Three Dimensional Visions – Glass Blowing Houston’s classes, workshops, and demos are perfect for families (ages 8 and up), field trips, or even corporate team-building.

Visit their studio, experience the magic of glass, and take home a piece of art you’ll cherish for a lifetime.

Has it been a smooth road?
Developing a small business is not for the faint of heart, the timid, or someone who wants a 9-5 job. We are lucky that we can work together as well as a family to make our dream into a reality. Sometimes reality gets in the way of the dream and each of us feels like we work too much and have to do too much of the “dirty work” whether it is book keeping, fabrication, teaching, or cleaning. Our initial business development efforts were restrained by our lack of expertise in the business we were starting. We had to reach into our previous experiences and find ways to link into concepts that were similar but very different. We were lucky to meet some great people who were able & willing to share their knowledge and provide guidance. These mentors continue to help us grow our knowledge, skills and network and be a part of the greater glass community.

Developing a business is all about taking your belief and continuing to have faith that it will work. It’s about finding the money and understanding the costs of that money. It is about being a leader and a manager. It’s about finding an opportunity and making your way through it so it is advantageous for the business and then closing on the deal or the sale. It’s wading into what is a constant fray and then maneuvering through it.

Wow! There are challenges and obstacles involved in all of that.

We believe that we have a great idea. We believe that offering people the opportunity to experience the magic of glass by watching it being made or making it themselves will feed their creativity. We believe that educating people about the process of glass making will make them have a better feel for the process and the technical details involved in creating a piece of glass art from a gather of molten glass. We believe that through the understanding of the formation of glass art that our customers will grow to love glass and become collectors of our art.

Like many small niche businesses our current biggest obstacle is successful marketing.

It’s finding the right way to reach out and entice potential customers to: purchase our art, have a unique event at our studio, or experience the magic of glass in making their own piece, or learning more about glass making in one of our six week classes. We think that we are developing the right approach using a strong web presence, social media, and word of mouth marketing. We hope that as you learn more about us that you will be our advocate, you will want to participate and help grow this community that you will want to help “Enrich lives through artistic self-expression” with us.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Three Dimensional Visions – Glass Blowing Houston story. Tell us more about the business.
Three Dimensional Visions – Glass Blowing Houston came to life when Michael & I, decided to meld our creative talents and share our passion for glass with the community.

Like our relationship, our studio is the perfect marriage of science and art (I’m a geoscientist, and Michael’s a sculptor), and that’s why we’re so passionate about showing others the art of glass blowing. We were lucky that our son, Patrick, decided to become a part of this endeavor because in this case it takes the expertise of the family to grow our business.

We are the Houston area’s only open access glass blowing studio. And we are family owned & operated.

We offer Glass Art for sale, a unique venue for your Events, and Glass Blowing Experiences, Workshops and Classes.

Art. Our unique handmade glass art is for sale in our studio showroom and gallery in Tomball. We also market our glass in the Sawyer Yards Creative District in Houston @ #207 The Silos (1502 Sawyer Street) with formal exhibitions on the 2nd Saturday of each month (12 pm – 5 pm) as well as other annual exhibitions. Our work is also available to be seen at some of the other local galleries. We are available to show our work at either the Tomball or Silos location by appointment.

Events. We hold events for school field trips, seniors, families, social clubs and corporations. These can be a narrated glass blowing demonstration only (for larger groups) or a Demo & Make a Something Event for smaller groups. The demos take 1-1.5 hours and we can help 4-5 people make smaller pieces (flowers, paperweights, ornaments, or implosion bowls) in an hour. If you have something you want to celebrate we can help!

Classes. We offer glass blowing experiences & workshops which last from 30 minutes to 3 hours where each person gets to individually experience the magic of glass. Then for those who are interested in learning the art of glass blowing we offer a series of six week glass classes: Intro to Glass Blowing, Focus on Forms, and Focus on Color.

Additionally we can help with skill development in private lessons. Reservations to participate can be made using our online booking system: www.threedimensionalvisions.com/book-now

Our experiences, classes and demos are perfect for families, field trips, or even corporate team-building. You must be 8 years old to participate in our Make a Something Event and 14 years old to participate in one of the Six Week Class Sessions.

Everyone who makes glass with us must read & sign our safety waiver.

Visit our studio, experience the magic of glass, and take home a piece of art you’ll cherish for a lifetime.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Glass making has been around for over 5000 years and glass blowing for about 2000.

The US Studio Movement in glass began in the 1960’s and began to flourish. However, Art Glass follows the economy, it is more of a luxury or enrichment item than a need.

To find out more about art and the economy please go to the National Endowment for the Art, the Glass Art Society and other organizations that research trends.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is an evolutionary concept for us. Initially it was building all of our equipment and firing up the furnace the first time. Then it was opening our studio and getting our first student and art glass customer. We felt successful when we fabricated the combustion hood and put it the exhaust fans. We feel successful each time we put a piece in the box (annealer) especially if we are doing a live demo. Success is the glimmer in the eye, the smile on the face when one of our customer’s is experiencing glass for the first time. Success is trying something new and learning from it. Success is looking at what we have accomplished individually and collective as a family and a business.

And finally, success is providing something of value to the public, gaining some self gratification, and hopefully ending up with a profit so we can continue to stay in business while “Enriching lives through artistic self-expression”.

Pricing:

• Art Glass: $25 – >$7000
• Events: Narrated Demo for your group – $15/person , we have seating for about 30. Demo & Make a Something Event – start at $70/person, we can guide 4-5 people in a glass blowing experience to make small piece of glass art / hour
• Classes: Glass Blowing Experiences – start at $50/piece for individual experiences. Glass Blowing Classes: Systematic process oriented approach to teaching – Intro to Glass Blowing ($600), Focus on Forms ($600), Focus on Color ($700) with private instruction available to increase competencies ($100/hr)

Contact Info:

• Address: 17442 FM 2920 Rd.,
  Tomball, TX 77377
• Website: www.threedimensionalvisions.com
• Phone: 281-734-0366
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/glassblowinghouston
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Glass3DV/
• Twitter: https://Twitter.com/3_D_V
• Other: https://plus.google.com/+ThreeDimensionalVisionsGlassBlowingHoustonTomball

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