Women of the Northwest

Ann Schwartz - From Poverty to Successful Business Woman

• Ann Schwartz • Episode 20

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Ann Schwartz raised two kids, coming from poverty to build a successful glass etching business. She resides in Eugene, Oregon.

This interview with my younger sister tells a tale of her shooting me through the legs when we were young.

We grew up with parents who were artists. Being creative is a huge part of who we are.
Our mother went to school at the John Dewey University of Chicago Lab School.

It chronicles the steps she had to take to become the successful artistic business creative that she is.

jaguarartglass.com


Subscribe to the Women of the Northwest podcast for inspiring stories and adventures.
Find me on my website: jan-johnson.com

#annschwartz,#glassartist,#etchedglass,#jaguarartglass,#womenofthenorthwest,#janjohnson,#eugenesaturdaymarket#electricvwbus,#juriedartshows,#arcitecturalglass


A youtube version can be found here which shows photos of all her work.
https://youtu.be/75hOaA_zH0M

SPEAKERS

Ann Schwartz Jan Johnson

 

Jan Johnson  00:01

Welcome everybody to women of the Northwest. Thank you for joining us today, I have a really fun person to interview this time. I've known her since she was born. And we're doing this interview on the phone because we tried to zoom and that just didn't work out so hot. So I hope the sound is good. And you're going to enjoy, Ann Schwartz likes to garden in her spare time and bake. And she's an amazing artist who does painting with acrylic that has just gotten all kinds of flowers and just really, really beautiful things. And she's a grandma with a little girls Gilly, that is just the cutest thing that you've ever seen. 

 

Jan    Johnson  00:47

So let's get started. And Ann how are you today? 

 

Ann  00:52

Wonderful. 

 

Jan Johnson  00:54

I'm glad you could join us here today. I wanted to talk about well, let's see now that you brought it up earlier before we got started. Ann is my sister, my little sister by three years. And our biggest memorable event in our life was when she shot me in the leg. We were out target shooting with my mom and some friends. I was getting ready to shoot a 30 Odd six. So I was kneeling down and she was next to me with a pistol and of course neither of us knew what we were doing. And why would a nine year old have a pistol anyway. And it went off through my legs, both legs out in the desert in Arizona. But I have lived to survive. And I may have gotten a few extra chores out of her. You know, just guilt chores. At the time. All right.

 

Ann  01:58

My sister in the leg?

 

Jan Johnson  02:01

Well, you know, it's one of those that I can use all the time when there's like two truths and a lie. I can always throw that one in there because who would believe that?

 

Ann  02:10

Who would believe that?

 

Jan Johnson  02:13

Nobody. Alright, so let's see, after you graduated from high school, where did what kind of journey did you go on with your life?

 

Ann  02:23

I was I just wanted to be able to take care of myself. That was my biggest thing. I wanted to live without family rules. And so I moved out had roommates and just worked at Jack in the Box for a few months. And then I worked at the city of Scottsdale as a water meter reader, which was quite fun. I worked as a reserve firefighter, the first one in Scottsdale, Arizona. Oh,

 

Jan Johnson  02:56

I didn't remember that.

 

Ann  02:57

 Yeah, that was that I was had a lot of pride in that. And I really enjoyed it. And then I went to Arkansas to stay with mom for about six months. She was teaching at Arkansas State University in Jonesborough. And I stayed with her for six months. And I took one semester of only art classes. And it was fantastic. It really opened my eyes to what I really wanted to do with my life. And one of my passions was to make art.

 

Jan Johnson  03:37

So you came by that naturally growing up with artists and being the culture that we grew up in,

 

Ann  03:47

well, and we went to more art museums, art display, Sculpture Garden, things like that then most people who've studied art all their life and you have more exposure and you know, when we were girls we went to the Louvre in Paris and I remember standing in front of a painting and it just brought tears in my eyes it's so beautiful. Amazing. Going to see the David in Italy is like even believe a person can create such amazing beauty so yeah, I was always been moved by by beautiful artwork.

 

Jan Johnson  04:38

Well and don't you think that just growing up with I don't remember too much our dad doing that but I remember mom always just having us notice things. You know noticing the texture in the sand or noticing the the colors that are in the bark of the tree or you know, the way the sky looked or the colors that were melded together and stuff. So I think we were taught to look at things.

 

Ann  05:08

And she always had something going on. She was always making something. She was always getting ready for the next exhibition, which is going to enter, you know, and do you remember going to Saturday morning, classes that she taught on the State University, and I remember, you know, darkening the room and she tells some wonderful story, you know, monsters or creatures or something. And then she turned the lights on, and we can draw paint or do anything we wanted. After touring the story. We were all excited about what it was what it looked like. Yeah, yeah, it was. That was her way.

 

Jan Johnson  05:54

Well, we were taught to use our imagination.

 

Ann  05:58

Well, and did you know that she went to the  school in Indiana. It was a school where imagination was the whole method of teaching. Rote learning, right? She told the story about how she, one of her assignments was to make a diorama of a entrance to a  storefront. And so she went to the storefront she measured everything about it. And then she went back and made a little one to scale. That's amazing. That was a class for her. You know, in high school? 

 

Jan Johnson  06:50

Wow. Yeah,I never heard that story. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and so but you didn't stay a firefighter or any of that. And now at some point, you rode a motorcycle.

 

Ann  07:06

Yeah. Yeah. That was during that time. Yeah. My boyfriend had a motorcycle, and I didn't want to ride on the back. I wanted to be in control of my whole thing. So I got a motorcycle too

 

Jan Johnson  07:23

That worked for you. Well, I remember. Maybe when I was almost, I don't know whether it was still in college or out of college or whatever. But visiting you and you didn't exactly live in the nicest area of town. I remember gunshots and other kinds of things. How did you get from there to getting to a career,

 

Ann  07:51

I married a blues musician. So that was a turn in my life. And we made a living by buying and selling antiques and collectibles at a swap meet. And then I also had glass on the side. And the way I started etching glass was I went to visit dad up in Prescott. And he was renovating this little house. And there was a transom window over the front door that a friend of his had an etched. And I went that as a way to make art where I can make a living. It was like a light bulb turned on. So I bought a compressor. And I started etching grass. But really, I didn't know about business at all. I know how to get my name out or do that kind of thing. That was that was just beyond what I really knew. So what I would do is in Phoenix, there was so much construction going on. Anytime I saw like a restaurant going in or something I would stop in and I'd say you know I did at your booth dividers.

 

Jan Johnson  09:09

Oh, yeah.

 

Ann  09:12

Things like that. Because I didn't charge all that much. To me it was a lot of money. But to them it wasn't that much. So I picked up some jobs off and on that way and then so bought and sold antiques. And then we had a little house down there and we sold it moved to Eugene, and in Eugene. There wasn't all that construction, but there was the Saturday market. And so I wanted to sell etching at the Saturday market but you can't sell architectural pieces there. So I had to figure out a way to make a profit got to sell it.

 

Jan Johnson  10:02

And so what were some of the obstacles that you faced in order to get this business going then?

 

Ann  10:10

Well, it was, first of all, how to make a product that I could sell. I mean, I was selling, you know, strung beads, basically in earrings and things like that, at the Saturday market. One I wanted to market there was a guy who set up kind of kitty corner from me. And he had painted glassware like he sold decantor sets, sort of wine glasses, and he had one of those tape guns, and I could hear that tape gun going all day long. Every time he boxed up something, he is selling a lot of that glass. I tried a bunch of different ways to be. See, the only way you're gonna make money doing anything is if you can do a consistent job and do it quickly. Two things you have to be able to

 

Jan Johnson  11:14

time is money. Yeah.

 

Ann  11:17

And so I knew that I couldn't can cut a stencil on every piece of glassware and be able to sell it make any money I just wouldn't do. But that's how I did architectural glass. So I knew that would never do it. And I just kept experimenting with different types of materials to find something that I could have cut a stencil with. But then we use it over and over again.

 

Jan Johnson  11:48

So what materials did you use?

 

Ann  11:51

Well, I tried some metal, like thin metal. And that didn't work. And then I tried. I tried like doilies. I tried etching with doilies and doilies held up pretty well. Because they were plastic. You know those old plastic?

 

Jan Johnson  12:15

Oh, yeah.

 

Ann  12:17

Yeah. And that worked. And then our sister Sue was working at the  bicycle trailer company. And they made they had these vinyl windows. And she had some leftover damaged vinyl. And she gave me some pieces of that. And it worked really well.

 

Jan Johnson  12:46

How thick was the vinyl?

 

Ann  12:49

Oh, it was It wasn't as thick as what I use now. But it was

 

Jan Johnson  12:56

like a piece of tagboard or something

 

Ann  12:59

or? Yeah, about that. Yeah, about that thick. And I could cut it out. And I ended because it was clear. I could see through it so I could see where I was placing it. And at first I used spray glue on it to glue it onto the glass so I could hold it in place. But then I figured out that I didn't need to spray glue. If I held it just right while I was sandblast it the sand, the pressure of the sand of the came out it held the stencil into place.

 

Jan Johnson  13:39

 Okay. 

 

Ann  13:41

That's how I developed my technique. And then the way I got glass was one time I was at the swap meet. And there was a guy who had brought a bunch of Mexican glass you know that beautiful, right? And Mexican glass of a little blue? Yeah. Clear? Well, he was he had a storage unit of it. And he had a table full of glass and he was selling it for like a quarter. 

 

Jan Johnson  14:08

Oh my 

 

Ann  14:09

a dime apiece. He was super cheap. And I had I had saved up a couple $100 I know it didn't sound like

 

Jan Johnson  14:20

at the time at the time. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Ann  14:23

So I drove over. I I bought all he had at the table. And then he gave me his card we met at a storage unit and I spent my entire $200 with him. And I came back with just boxes of this stuff just you know a lot and so I could experiment with the designs. I could cut and and that's essentially how I started I went to the Holiday Market and because the glassware was so cheap to me to begin with the way I figured out how to price it was, every week I'd raise the price another buck or two and see what the market would. Yeah, it tells stop selling as quickly and then I dropped it back down to the previous price. And I just, oh, I made so much money for me at the time. I was just like, blown away, blown away.

 

Jan Johnson  15:27

And didn't you that must have made you feel validated.

 

Ann  15:32

Oh, yeah. And still today, as far as I know, I'm the only one that uses this method of sandblasting etched glassware. And so once I developed the technique, and then I, you know, over the years, I've gotten better and better, I've got shading, you know, big scenery at the time, I was just like putting a couple of leaves on a glass and you know, calling it good. But gradually, I developed the technique where I could do entire sceneries and, you know, it was amazing for me. And then I worked my very first street fair where I didn't have to send pictures of the work. And because that was photographing etched glasses hard.

 

Jan Johnson  16:30

Oh, yeah. Because of the reflection. And yeah,

 

Ann  16:34

yeah, just really hard to make it look good. And there was a street there in Seattle. And you could send the actual pieces up there. And that when they juried them, they bought all my pieces, right? Instead of sending them back, they, they just bought them right there. And I got into that show. And I went up there and I sold everything, but maybe one box full of glass was at the end. For me that again, that was a turning point.

 

Jan Johnson  17:10

 For people who are not in an art world like that describe what it's like to what do you have to do to be juried?

 

Ann  17:20

Well, there's it this was back in the heyday of street fairs. But the way you jury is, you have an application that where you describe your technique, and then you describe who you are, and you pay a fee. And the fees vary from show to show. And then you send in slides of your work. And then jurors, there's usually three or four professional gallery owners or artists or people in the business. And they sit in a room. And they read your information off while they're showing slides of your work. And then the jurors score them. And if your score high enough, then they let you in their show. And then you have to send them some hundreds of dollars, depending on it sometimes over $1000 Just to be in a show. And then you have to have a booth with a set up. So you can display all your work.

 

Jan Johnson  18:33

So there's some of the challenges was figuring out the booth and transporting things and how to, to have

 

Ann  18:40

a vehicle that runs well enough to get you there. You have to have accommodations once you get to this destination. So you have to have a hotel, maybe you know somebody that lives in that town where you can stay. I mean, there's a lot to it. It is

 

Jan Johnson  18:56

even carding the stuff you know, yeah, yeah, transporting it, getting it, even the time it takes to get it in and out and what kind of displays and tables and

 

Ann  19:10

what you made to take to that particular show what the price points you're going to have. How many of this what color because inevitably, someone comes up to your booth and they say, Oh, I would really like that with you have it in this color. And

 

Jan Johnson  19:28

that's a one color I don't have

 

Ann  19:30

gone. Oh, okay. Well, nice work and they walked away and you just lost the sale. So Right. In the heyday, we would just, I would have put so much stock in glass is heavy. Yeah. And it breaks fragile. Yeah. So there were challenges where every crafts person I know is always jealous of jewelers. Yeah, 1000s of dollars worth of stock in a suitcase. And they just pop up their little table and build a little display. And there you go, you're all jealous of them.

 

Jan Johnson  20:16

I would think that part of a side benefit of a business like that is you get to meet all kinds of people.

 

Ann  20:26

Yeah, yeah. Well, and, and what's really nice too, is, you always get to know your neighbors, whoever set up right around you, because you know, you'd have to you ask them to watch well, your booth while you go to the bathroom, pick up something to eat,  And then once I met Jay, then I started doing wholesale shows, so we could sell to galleries, okay. And then we also had employees, so we could make enough stock to sell the value at that time, and

 

Jan Johnson  21:03

all of that, of course, gets into your whole business sense, and the challenges of taxes and paychecks. And all of that kind of stuff too

 

Ann  21:14

a catalog shows your work. That gives you price points, website. Yeah, and then Jay created a whole system where every piece is coded. So when we write out a code, we know exactly what the person ordered, and how I need to make it in order to fill that to fill the code. And then we and then it keeps track of all the raw stock and finished stock. And yeah, there's a lot to it.

 

Jan Johnson  21:46

Describe your sandblasting equipment. And where do you do that?

 

Ann  21:52

Well, Jay, built, my husband, Jay, the best partner I could possibly have. He built a it's a big glass booth. And I call it a booth that they you know, it's like a room pretty big. It's probably 20 by 30. And I have what's known as an air desk, which is a filtration system that sucks air down in a way. So I sit at this desk and I turn on this machine and it sucks away most of the fine dust, the finest of fine out and I wear a Tyvek suit and eye protection, which is a welding goggle that I put foam around to protect my eyes. It has glass panels that I see through, and then those panels can be changed out because the sandblasting blows back into my face. 

 

Ann  23:02

And it picks up the surface of the of that glass panel. So those are really cheap and you can change them out. It doesn't cost a lot of money. And then I slipped a little what I call a cheater in there. It's a magnifier glass. So that helps me see what I'm working on. Oh yeah. And then a respirator and then gloves. So I'm completely suited up and then Jay rigged a I just have a gravity feed sandblaster and the nozzle hang down, hands down, but I control it with a knee petal. I don't have to squeeze the handle. Because that was just my hands are wearing out as it is that that would wear him out even more. I can do production.

 

Jan Johnson  23:53

So tell me about of all the things that you've done. Let's talk about architectural glass. What's been your favorite piece

 

Ann  24:03

architect, oh, what they're I did these banana leaves for this woman. She lived on a golf course. And she she wanted a lot of privacy. And her bathroom faced this golf course. So she had to have, you know, something to protect to prevent people from just being able to look into her bathroom. So it was mainly etched. But these banana leaves they just turned out really beautifully. They had a whole lot of detail and they were very subtle and this really pretty. was one of the prettiest things I've done.

 

Jan Johnson  24:50

And do you have some of that glass in your house?

 

Ann  24:54

Oh yeah. We are finishing up our kitchen remodel and

 

Jan Johnson  24:59

which is beautiful, by the way, with all your hand made cabinets and yeah.

 

Ann  25:09

Anyway, we have a room divider banister that goes between the kitchen and the living room. And I am going to add three panels below the the cherry banister, and then one of the cabinets in the kitchen, it will also be etched.

 

Jan Johnson  25:30

Can't wait to see that that's gonna be really neat.

 

Ann  25:34

We just ordered the glass and it's really thick. And so our color scheme in there is the cherry maple wood. So those are kind of brown. And then we have a granite countertop that has browns and oranges and colors like that. And then the walls are light green. So the glass is thick, and it'll have a greenish tint to it. To pick up the wall color.

 

Jan Johnson  26:00

Oh yeah.

 

Ann  26:01

So pretty.

 

Jan Johnson  26:03

Can't wait to see. What do you think has rubbed off on your kids or on your granddaughter?

 

Ann  26:11

Well, my granddaughters I go on and on. She She loves to write stories and draw and so she illustrators stories and those are really fun. Has it doesn't really do any graphic art. But when he was in high school, he had some ceramics class. And he made a couple of things which I of course the mom have kept doing. It was very sensitively.

 

Jan Johnson  26:54

Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. And then yeah, go ahead. I just gonna say and Marilyn has made jewelry.

 

Ann  27:03

Oh, and she draws better than I do. Really? Yes. She is very, very talented. Extremely talented. Yeah, from the get go when she was about, oh, I'd say eight or nine. I was making these little Femo sculptures and faces and things. And she made this little girl. That is just the sweetest little thing. Of course, I kept that.

 

Jan Johnson  27:38

You have to? Sweet. Yeah.

 

Ann  27:41

It has so much emotion. And it's just a tiny little thing. But yeah, very sensitive.

 

Jan Johnson  27:48

Don't you feel like the as a parent and a grandparent? Isn't that one of the neatest things that you can pass down to your kids?

 

Ann  27:58

Yeah, well, and I'll tell you this, you know, when I took care of mom, as while she had Alzheimer's, that I would go over and tuck her into bed at night. So you know, to make sure she was all safe, and make sure she was good. And at night, she would say to me, she would go well, you know, if I don't make it through the night, I just want you to know how happy and proud I am of all of you. And I just I just want you to know how much it really means to me to have my family and, and I just feel so much joy and pride from you all. So touching is like, yeah, just the sweetest thing. The sweetest thing. So I think it all comes around and goes around. I think we get back what we put out.

 

Jan Johnson  28:58

Yeah, and I think that's an important thing to remember is to tell people how, and especially our family how proud we are of them.

 

Ann  29:07

Yeah, and she really, you know, when she was more our mother when we were growing up, there was a lot of butting of heads. And I think she really wanted to to express how much family meant to her and and how much she really deeply cared for us all.

 

Jan Johnson  29:36

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What would you tell your young friends or kids about pursuing ideas?

 

Ann  29:47

Well, when I work at the Saturday market, and I have kids come up and they are impressed by the glass work. I want them to know that they too can make a living making art, because it's not a given in our society, it's not a given that you can actually be creative and actually make a living. Usually, if Well, if you're going to go into art you better be prepared to teach art, because that's the only way you're going to make a living at it right, you are actually going to be able to make a product and sell it and make a living. And it's quite a challenge because it takes more than I mean, there are a lot of really talented good artists, but they can't make a living because it takes more than just producing something. make a living at it.

 

Jan Johnson  30:52

There's a whole life, you got to have the business aspect and the whole -There's, there's Yeah, it's a big package. It's and you have to have grit.

 

Ann  31:02

In the end, you have to have the self-discipline to keep on making things. Right. You, you know, nobody told me I have to work from nine to five. But generally on my work days, I work from around nine to five. I don't you know, I'm a nicer boss than.

 

Ann  31:28

Yeah. I say yes. And it's okay. If you go walk the dog noon and take an hour to break. Yeah. Then you can go dig up that plant. Move it over there. Yeah. I'm a better boss. But at the same time, I am pretty disciplined.

 

Jan Johnson  31:28

Yeah, for sure.

 

Jan Johnson  31:53

Yeah, you have to be.

 

Ann  31:55

Don't just slack off and do nothing.

 

Jan Johnson  31:58

Yeah, it's it's a work ethic there. So you are hoping to retire in the next few years? Where do you go from here? Well, what's on the bucket list?

 

Ann  32:12

Bucket? Well, I tell you what, I have been dreaming of buying an electric vehicle. That's like a true fantasy of mine. Because we just have the solar collectors just put on a roof. They're not up yet. But I want to get a solar vehicle and I just read. So what I do is I read about solar vehicles or electric vehicles. And there's going to be a like a VW microbus. It's going to be all EV. And so I thought maybe if I don't want to travel around in the little learn

 

Jan Johnson  33:03

nothing

 

Ann  33:04

Microbus? Yeah, well, you'd have to, if I was going to be within range, and I really, there's some places I'd really like to see again. Do you remember going to Bryce Canyon? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Go there again. Yeah, that's some place I'd really like to see, again, it's been in, you know, Dream imagery, where I dreamed about being there. So I think it's really supposed to happen. So I want to go again. Yeah, I really like to go again. And I just like to, you know, I'd like I don't know, I'd like to paint, I'd like to putz around my house. And not have to work

 

Jan Johnson  33:54

and not have a schedule or not have somebody waiting for something on time and a timeframe. And yeah, it's pretty dandy. I love it.

 

Ann  34:04

Yeah. And just, you know, do house improvements.

 

Jan Johnson  34:09

Yeah. Was there anything else you would like to share with our listeners?

 

Ann  34:14

Well, I just want to say that I think if you have a dream, if there's something that you if you want to express yourself artistically, go for it. It doesn't matter if you're going to sell it like I did. I mean, that's something that that I was driven at a young age to do is to make art, make a living that way for making artists satisfied. Even if it's just photography, actually putting a brush to, you know, Canvas or something like that. It feels good. Yeah. Yeah. And it's fun especially if you do look your kids. That's

 

Jan Johnson  35:07

yeah. Yeah, isn't it? Yeah. All right. Well, Ann Thank you. I am going to end this recording and I appreciate having you here. This was a lot of fun.

 

Ann  35:20

Okay, well thank you Jan.