Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Port Saint Lucie. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Garfield Bowen helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Port St Lucie, Florida.
Is your business serving the residents of Port Saint Lucie? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpPSL.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie
From Apprentice to Artist: Ana's Stained Glass Journey
Ever wondered what it takes to transform a childhood fascination into a lifelong artistic career? In our newest episode, we meet Ana Booth, a master stained glass artisan with 34 years of experience who's bringing her unique craft to our local community.
Ana shares her remarkable journey that began at age 16 when she finally convinced her father to let her apprentice with a family friend who worked with glass. What started as youthful curiosity evolved into decades of expertise crafting everything from traditional church windows to intricate jewelry boxes, three-dimensional flowers, and custom photo recreations in glass.
But it's Ana's story of resilience that truly captivates. During the height of the COVID pandemic, she made the bold decision to leave Virginia with just $20 in her pocket, her children, and their dog. Landing in Florida, Anna worked roofing at a hotel while transforming her room into an impromptu studio during off-hours. She would create art before and after shifts, selling her work outside her door – a testament to unwavering determination that eventually led to rebuilding her business from scratch.
Today, Anna runs a thriving studio from her home, offering personalized classes and custom creations. She adapts her business seasonally – teaching at children's camps in summer, working with seniors during off-season, and creating for tourists year-round. Her philosophy that "art is soul food" underscores her holistic approach to creativity as a form of stress management and spiritual nourishment.
Ready to explore the world of stained glass or commission a unique piece? Visit anasartz.com or call Anna directly at 772-475-2556. Whether you're looking to learn a new skill or add a beautiful handcrafted element to your home, Ana's expertise and passion are just a call away. Subscribe to our podcast for more inspiring stories of local artisans transforming our community through creativity and determination.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for a stained glass artist or instructor? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing to you Anna Booth, with Anna Arts. Anna, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. How are you?
Speaker 2:I am well, I'm well. Listen, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.
Speaker 3:I'm a stained glass artisan of 34 years now and I've been teaching for approximately 14. I'm from the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia henceforth the accent and I came down to COVID during the COVID period for a better opportunity in Florida and here it was interesting getting started. But I'm up and running.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome to Florida.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:So how did you get into this business here?
Speaker 3:I was probably nine years old when my father had a friend that did glass work and I kept begging and begging and begging to go work with her and they never would let me until I turned 16. Then, when I turned 16, she took me on as an apprentice. I did an apprenticeship for three years and I took it on my own and then I started kind of getting bored. So then I introduced teaching and which kind of keeps it alive for me.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what are some of the myths and misconceptions about stained glass artistry?
Speaker 3:That it's easy that they don't realize how much work actually goes into one single piece of work. It's a lot.
Speaker 2:When I think of stained glasses, I think of, like the windows in a church or something like that. Is that what it is?
Speaker 3:I make those. I make sun catchers, I make jewelry boxes, I make three-dimensional flowers. You pretty much name it. If it can be done in glass, I make it. I even recreate photos.
Speaker 2:Okay, we know marketing is the heart of any business. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:Actually, it would probably have to be a lot of seasonal. During the summer my target is to the kids camps. So I go and I teach at kids camps. I also do events. I go to birthday parties and I sit up and I teach at kids camps. I also do events. I go to birthday parties and I set up and I teach at birthday parties. I travel to to wherever you call me to. Through the off season it's senior centers, retirement communities and places like that, and through the regular season it's the tourists.
Speaker 2:So you have a little store stuff where they buy it online. How do they get your products?
Speaker 3:It's actually it's online and most of the time it's customs, and I receive phone calls through my website and I have put in a classroom into my home. I have a studio at my home which almost takes up probably three quarters of my home, so everything's at home.
Speaker 2:Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?
Speaker 3:Yes, I would love to, because, from what I understand, there's not a lot of good instructional videos and stuff out there and I'd love to have an opportunity to teach people who just call in and if I have a podcast, they could call in with questions and I could answer the questions.
Speaker 2:OK, let's turn to a little lighter note. When you're not so busy running your business, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:art so you visit museums or you know well, no, I mean seriously, if I'm not creating glass, I'm creating beadwork, I'm creating drawings, I'm creating dream catchers and tie dyes. The only other thing that I do that is probably not this is my downtime is fishing. I love to go fishing.
Speaker 2:OK, let's talk about a hardship, a life challenge, something that you went through, and you can look back to it and you say better and stronger because of it. What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:It was actually coming here from virginia and restarting from ground zero. Okay, so during the covid period um, at that time I still did construction on the side, so I did a mixture of construction and artwork. And during the covid period in virginia september there's no construction, it's too cold, all right, because of COVID, there's no sales. So the only thing I could think of was pretty much pack what I could in a rental SUV, pack my kids, the dog and come to Florida. And I ended up in West Palm with a rental car, two kids, a dog and twenty dollars in my pocket.
Speaker 3:So from there I actually started working at on roofing at the Super 8 Hotel in Lantana, because they gave me a room, so I would work. And when I got out from work I converted my room into my studio. I got out from work, I converted my room into my studio, so I would work after work, and then I would get up in the morning before work and I would sit in front of my door and try to sell and then I would go to work on the roof and then I would come back and do the same thing. That was a challenge.
Speaker 2:That seemed like that could be a book or a movie. You know what I mean Brewing in Florida is no joke. Well, we wrap up. I want you to, Anna, tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Anna's arts.
Speaker 3:Well about Anna's arts is number one. I'm kind of specified. There's really nobody else who does stained glass art to the extent that I do Now. There is one other lady but in this area I'm the only one. But my main thing to pull away from this is art is soul food. If you think about it, when you look at a beautiful picture or you hear wonderful music or you dance, the feeling you get inside is your soul. So art is soul food. We feed our soul with art and that's one of the things that I do is I really stress, like holistic approach to stress management through art, because it helps. It just helps. It makes you feel good.
Speaker 2:Okay, our listeners listening have one word on their lips now, and that's how. How do we get more information about Anna's Arts?
Speaker 3:I am listed on Google. I have a website, a website, anna's Arts dot com, and that's arts with a Z, and I am listed in Yelp and I basically you just call me and right now I'm running pretty much individual small group classes out of my classroom at home, so you get a lot of instructional that you normally would not with a group setting that you normally would not with a group setting. Okay, is there a number you'd like to share? Absolutely 772-475-2556.
Speaker 2:Well, Anna, we really appreciate you coming on our show.
Speaker 3:We wish you and your business the very best moving forward.
Speaker 1:Thank you, have a great day. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Port St Lucie. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPortStLuciecom. That's GNPPortStLuciecom, or call 772-362-3840.