I felt like I was fraudulently masking as a business

Your recycling bin right now is probably full of what’s given Kathleen Plate a flourishing business in the handmade arts. The founder of Smart Glass Art, Kathleen recycles glass bottles to create everything from jewelry to chandeliers to fashion gowns. She has been crafting unique recycled glass art from her studio in Atlanta, Georgia for almost 30 years now and has been commissioned to create art by the Guggenheim Museum, Aveda, Coca Cola, Hilton, and Indigo Hotels. Her primary focus is on jewelry pieces, which she sells wholesale; pieces that have led to fruitful licensing partnerships with major corporate brands. 

Unexpected twists and turns along the path of life

Growing up in a small town in the Northwest US during the 1970s, Kathleen took after her mom who was into crafts. She would often enter different crafts in the local county fairs, but it never dawned on her that she had the makings of a career artist. Later on in life, as a graduate student working on her doctorate in English literature, she would take breaks from writing papers and solder little sun catchers in her kitchen. She rarely had the time and certainly not the money to invest in much art creation. She did, however, have some empty wine bottles lying around, and the idea to ruse them for art would lead her on a path through life that she never could have predicted.

The opportunity to develop her art further came unexpectedly when she was living in Atlanta and a friend invited her to join in a holiday craft show in the friend’s home. Kathleen recounts, “That was the first time I sold anything, and someone said I should enter the Decatur Arts Festival.” That prestigious festival was nearby, so she applied and was surprised to get in. “I basically had no idea what I was doing, but I sold out the first day. You don’t have to put too much money in a grad school student’s hands to get their attention.” She continued making her art and selling it at local shows, enjoying the experience, and not worrying too much about the future because she knew she could always finish her graduate studies and become a teacher. 

Another big break came serendipitously in the form of two friends who secured a booth at a trade show that also happened to be the biggest trade show in the county. One friend made handcrafted frames and the other made candles; “They wanted to get a third person to buy into the booth because it’s so expensive.” She did the show with bracelets, earrings, and necklaces that she was making in the kitchen of her one-bedroom apartment. Kathleen recalls, “I was at the show thinking that I’m fraudulently masking as a business.” That day she didn’t turn down a single order. People offered to visit her “warehouse” to pick up the jewelry, “and I couldn’t tell them that was my kitchen, so I would just say, ‘no, we will send to you,’” she says with a laugh. Her naivety toward the business side of her art was a blessing in disguise as it provided her with zero expectations which enabled her to just go along with whatever was working at the time and grow organically. 

Scaling For Success

In 1993, Kathleen was still doing her thing, selling her art wholesale to small independent stores and sellers when she received her first corporate call. She had been working with Aveda glass bottles and was surprised to find a message on her answering machine from Aveda with an offer to purchase 300 earrings and 500 necklaces made from their bottles. “I must’ve listened 10 times to believe it wasn’t one of my friends pranking me.” Apparently, someone who had purchased her jewelry made from Aveda bottles was seen by an Aveda exec and now they wanted to partner with her. That was her first large order and she had to enlist the help of her friends, hire people, and work day and night to get it done.

Five years later, she received a similar call from Coca Cola. Kathleen recalls, “I wasn’t even using their bottles; it was someone from their purchasing department saying, ‘We’d love you to make some samples with our bottles.’” The huge multinational company was preparing to open the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified World of Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta. They were looking for recycled, eco-friendly items for their gift shop and they wanted Kathleen to develop a line of jewelry using their bottles. Kathleen told them, “I know I can exceed your expectations, but tell me how we do this because I’m not accustomed to how you do things in the corporate world.” She said that for a huge company they were surprisingly down to earth and walked her through the process and contracts.

So what’s Kathleen’s advice for making connections in the corporate world? “I think the trick is to find your thing and if you can get really really good at it there’s a sweet spot; you’re handcrafted, but you have to handcraft on a production level.” This may take some time, however: “When I started working with Coca Cola in year ten it felt like an overnight success, but it was ten years in and Aveda was five years in.” 

Big companies want to offer their customers something handcrafted and unique, not something they already produce. So if you are producing that unique item that fits what they’re looking for, they’ll find it cooler than you do and they’ll want to work with you even more than you want to work with them. Kathleen says, “I realized I was unique and they were getting a product with their name on it into places they could never be; we were creating this new thing together and they were getting as much out of it as I was.” Kathleen advises that you have to strike a balance between doing your art for the right price on a production level without losing authenticity.

Working with Coca Cola has been a big boost for Kathleen: “It opens so many doors to be able to say I work with Coca Cola, that I can meet their quality standards. It’s gotten me into so many more conversations and it’s given me confidence.” Because of her ability to legally use Coca Cola bottles in her art, Kathleen began crafting light fixtures with the iconic bottles. This got the attention of the restaurant chain Chick-fil-a, and she now makes Coke bottle light fixtures that go into every Chick-fil-a in the country.

Price Matters

Kathleen suggests to aspiring artists hoping to build a business to value your work. “I often see artists working out of their homes who are selling for super cheap and if your price is too small you will never be able to scale,” she says. Think of ways that you can cost-effectively start scaling up your process. For Kathleen, that might mean that instead of hiring more assistants, she might purchase a larger kiln. But dropping the price of your art to sell more is not the answer. “If you want really cool, inexpensive things, Target is full of that … if you’re trying to compete on cheapness you’re going to lose.” Kathleen prices her art the way she does because she knows it’s handcrafted, cool, and unique; and her customers know that too. “My buyers can be price conscious but they’re buying my jewelry because it’s cool and they can afford it.”

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