E90: From Glass Art to Surface Pattern Design - Reinventing a Creative Business with Ann Klos

In this inspiring guest episode, Delores sits down with glass artist and creative entrepreneur Ann Klos to explore what it really looks like to evolve as an artist over decades without losing your spark.

Ann has spent years building a business rooted in glass and colour. Recently she’s moved much of her business to Etsy, rebranded as a boutique operation, and rediscovered her first love: fabric, quilting, and surface pattern design. 

Together, Delores and Ann discuss the reality of creative reinvention, balancing too many ideas, and why creativity rarely moves in a straight line.

Key Takeaways:

• Growing an Etsy shop into a major revenue stream
• Transitioning from wholesale to boutique-style selling
• Using tools like ChatGPT to improve Etsy listings and keywords
• Pursuing surface pattern design and licensing goals
• Balancing multiple creative interests without burnout
• The importance of refinement versus constant reinvention
• Creative longevity and staying curious later in life

Whether you’re an artist, maker, digital creator or handmade business owner, this conversation will leave you feeling encouraged and inspired.

Guest links:

Ann Klos:
 • Jubilee Creative – Jubilee Creative: Your Premier Source for Fusible Glass Designs
• Captive Glass Designs on Etsy – CaptiveGlassDesigns - Etsy UK
• Quilty Creative – Quilty Creative - Infuse Your Home with Cozy Comfort

Transcript

Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Creative Jug- Juggle Joy Podcast. I'm so happy you're joining me today. If this is your first time, I'm Delores Naskrent, and I have a passion for helping artists and creatives find ways to thrive in their artistic journeys. Today, I get to sit down with someone who's both a friend and a student, and Ann Klos.

Ann has been spending many, many years building a creative business rooted in glass and color and design, and lately she's been making some thoughtful shifts in how she works and what she's building next. Ann, I'm so glad you're here. 

Ann Klos: Thanks, Delores. I'm really happy to be here, and a little nervous, but in a good way.

Delores Naskrent: That's a perfect combination. 

Ann Klos: Yes. 

Delores Naskrent: Before we dive in, can you give everyone a snapshot of who you are and what you are working on [00:01:00] right now? 

Ann Klos: Right now my main focus is my current business, Jubilee Creative, in which I sell pre-cut glass shapes and designs to the fusing and glass industry. And specifically, I started listing my items on Etsy last year just to...

for a little extra income, and I was really surprised that the sales were, like, in the 20,000s, so I'm like, "Oh, boy, I've got to put a little more time into Etsy." And I've got 60 listings out there now, and we had $3,300 worth of sales for January. 

Delores Naskrent: Wow. Shall we? People are going to actually hear that and be like, "Wow."

'Cause a lot of people that I know who are at Etsy are celebrating when they're making a couple hundred dollars a month. So that's incredible. It's just such a moment when the numbers actually start telling you a story, whether you're ready to hear it or not, [00:02:00] right? 

Ann Klos: Yeah. What I noticed last year was my sales on my website went, were down quite a bit, and I realized that I may have picked up some of those customers on the Etsy side.

But then when I started looking back and forth between my customers, I'm like, "Oh, these are all new customers," so you know, I could possibly have on my website. And so then

I had to look honestly at where people were choosing to buy and why. That led me to rebrand Jubilee Creative as more of a boutique business. Before that, I sold mainly to distributors and then to some bigger companies that made stuff to sell with my glass.

But one of the biggest and scariest decisions was stopping sales to distributors at the end of the year. These were companies buying my products at a 45% discount and reselling it. Walking away from that felt risky, but I also knew it wasn't serving me the way it once was. 

Delores Naskrent: Right. 

Ann Klos: Now, my largest discount to my customers is 25%, and anybody can have [00:03:00] that discount if they provide a tax ID.

That shift alone changed the entire feel of the business. 

Delores Naskrent: I can see that. 

Ann Klos: Yeah. Yeah. 

Delores Naskrent: And then at the same time, you then moved, like you said, part of your inventory from your website, your main website into Etsy, right? 

Ann Klos: Yes. I've moved all of the pre-cuts there. It really was. At the same time I moved about 90% of my pre-cut inventory into Etsy, I found a Shopify app that keeps my Shopify and Etsy inventory synced, which sounds simple, but the learning curve has been intense.

Right now, I have about 60 listings up with about 340 more to go. I'm using this as an opportunity to look at every product and improve descriptions and keywords. I've been using ChatGPT to help with that, and so far it's working. And at the end of January of this year, we were at 3,300 in sales, which encouraged [00:04:00] me tremendously.

Delores Naskrent: Okay, so what I'm hearing from you is that you haven't even moved all of your inventory onto Etsy yet. Once you do, and you've only got a small percentage there, your Etsy sales are gonna blow right up. 

Ann Klos: I'm hoping for about 100,000 this year. 

Delores Naskrent: That is unbelievable, and what I admire about this is that you have somehow done this transition really smoothly.

You have not burnt everything down. What you've done, 'cause a lot of people do that. Yes, they do ... I laugh, but a lot of people say that's not working." They stop completely. But what you've done is you've refined it. So you've taken all of what you learned or what you have learned, and you've now changed it up.

So you've paid attention to what the data was showing you, and you made a [00:05:00] thoughtful decision even though it was scary, and I like it. That's long game thinking. 

Ann Klos: And Delores, one thing to add to that is one of the distributor wholesalers that I had actually did not leave me and just is living with the 25% discount.

So that was a great bonus as well. 

Delores Naskrent: That is really cool. I know I use that word a lot, but it, to me, just makes me think, wow, that was so much money sitting on the table for so many years, and here you are. You just had the guts. Basically, what it boiled down to was having the guts to do it. And what I like about you and how we got to know each other was...

it had nothing to do with the glass business. I didn't even know you were doing that. And all of what you've been doing also includes exploring fabric and quilting and digital art, and that's how I got to [00:06:00] know you. And that isn't new for you. Can you talk about that part of your creative life?

Ann Klos: My first love is fabric, and I've been sewing since I was 12. But when I was 12, I started sewing clothes for my dolls out of fabric swatches from my father's company where they made sleeping bags. And then they, everyone would come in with the swatch books, and he'd just bring those home when they were done using them.

And I, I made so many doll clothes out of that. So fabric and pattern have always been part of who I am creatively. They just took a backseat when glass became my business. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Ann Klos: Around 2022, I spent a lot of time learning digital art. I've taken more classes than I care to admit, and honestly, nothing has fully stuck yet.

Part of that is because I tend to switch directions too often. I get excited, then move on before I've gone deep enough. 

Delores Naskrent: That happens. 

Ann Klos: Yeah. 

Delores Naskrent: So now you've decided to focus a little bit more on surface pattern design, right? What's your goal there? [00:07:00] Yeah. 

Ann Klos: My goal is to get licensed with a fabric company.

So I am taking Bonnie Christine again this year, and that is all I will focus on. Nothing else is going to happen in that, in those weeks until I come out with a collection. 

Delores Naskrent: I can relate to that deeply. As I have taken immersion three times, and love Bonnie, love how she teaches, and I've really tried to model a lot of what I do after the way she, run her business.

So following along beside her. I had her as a professional business coach- ... for a wonderful year, which was so eye-opening. She has- helped me to really understand the big picture of my business, and that's the same big picture that she teaches in immersion. She teaches, definitely [00:08:00] teaches you as a surface pattern designer what the big picture of that business is all about.

Ann Klos: She sure does. I'm looking forward to this year. 

Delores Naskrent: When you look back, you see the thread that runs through everything. I want that to be like the next part of this conversation. Let's go back to the beginning for a minute, and then just tell me with this love of fabric and sewing, how did the glass business start?

Ann Klos: Here we are again. I was working a full-time job doing programming for an IT company, and I think I saw an ad to take a stained glass class. I'm like, "Oh, sure, I'd love to do that. I love color." So I took that in 1996, and in 1998 my husband and I started a business out of our garage with water jet cutting.

And I thought hey, I think I can cut glass with this machine." And there you [00:09:00] have it and there you are. We started right then and there in the garage. 

Delores Naskrent: And so was that the plan with this water jet? What was he gonna be doing with 

Ann Klos: it? No, the plan is, was to cut metal. Ah. The other part of the business does a lot of cutting of aluminum for Boeing and other people needing metal cut- Great.

Gotcha ... into shapes. 

Delores Naskrent: Must be a powerful machine. 

Ann Klos: Yeah. It's the size of a car. It's big. But ... And then so we got into business, and I thought now how am I gonna sell this stuff?" And I started ... I really hadn't done any business, so I started looking around in the glass industry and I found a couple trade shows which I peddled my wares, and I picked up a couple distributors.

And that was back when the internet was just getting going, and I ... In tw- in 2012, I believe, I had my first website up and running that really took off. 

Delores Naskrent: So you were designing glass for mo- mosaic artists, but you quickly moved [00:10:00] into fused glass pre-cuts. Is that correct? 

Ann Klos: That's correct, and that's because in that, at that time, fusing blew up as an industry to use the art glass.

You started having all these glass manufacturers start producing the fusible glass. 

Delores Naskrent: Right. 

Ann Klos: And what that really means is two pieces of glass fused together and they don't blow up. 

Delores Naskrent: Right. 

Ann Klos: So it's really cool. You can do some really neat things with that. 

Delores Naskrent: Absolutely gorgeous work. I've seen- Now, in my opinion, as I listen to all of this, our conversations that we've had behind the scenes as well, one of the things about you that stands out is that clearly your commitment is to quality and customer service.

Ann Klos: Oh boy quality. I will throw something away if it is just not perfect. But customer service is really my main thing. I like to make people happy. I want them to feel happy with my [00:11:00] product. I don't get hardly any complaints, but when I do I'm like, "What's wrong?" And I just send out free stuff to them.

A happy customer keeps coming back. 

Delores Naskrent: This is true. When someone gets something from you, they feel really excited and confident, and then they really feel taken care of. I totally get that. 

Ann Klos: Yeah. Yes. 

Delores Naskrent: And you are one of the people that I would consider very much like me, and it's so tough.

And we had it ... Believe it or not, all of you listeners out there, Anne and I had probably a 25-minute conversation before we even started recording, and one of the things that we were talking about was balancing ideas and just making time for the ones that really count. And one of the things that we both concurred on was that we've learned not to chase all of the ideas.

Ann Klos: Yep. Jot them down and let them go. And [00:12:00] then revisit. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. Now, you have mentioned immersion. Let's go back to that for a little bit. When I personally was going through cancer, that's what got me started in immersion. And immersion, what it did for me was to keep me grounded. And so just like what you've said, I chose to specifically use that period of time to focus on that because it was a time of real uncertainty for me.

On the other side of it though, what it ... What ended up coming out of me taking immersion, and I also took Leverage Your Art that year, and this was when I was, going through or recovering from cancer, getting my cancer treatment. All of that led to me starting the membership which had you asked me a month before or even six months before, I would never have predicted.

So when you say immersion mattered, I understand [00:13:00] that really deeply. For you, now you're going in it for your second time this year. So when you first went into it, what did it open up for you? 

Ann Klos: Immersion showed me that I could do something else with my art. And to tell you the truth, I didn't believe I was an artist.

Even drawing little shapes. I just, I never considered that art. So immersion let me know I could step into another creative space and belong there. Immersion gave me permission to explore without pressure, without needing to immediately turn it into product or a business. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Ann Klos: It reminded me that creativity doesn't move in a straight line.

Never. No, you're driving somewhere and you're like, "Oh, gosh, I got an idea. How can I write that down or draw that?" Yeah. It's just like that. It's, was, it's just fun. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. It's exactly like that for me. Creativity isn't a ladder that you just climb once. Nope. It's something you can return to again and again, and in so many different forms at different [00:14:00] stages of your life.

Ask me about all the different things I've done from, craft sales to art licensing, sewing. I've always tried to figure out ways that I could make an income from it. And when I look back, I did make an income from every different thing that I did. Yep. And I look at it now that I'm at this age, and, I'm 65 years old, I can look back at all of these different things and I can see that sometimes it just looks like refinement, sometimes it looks like circling back to something that was always there. But I feel like even though it's meandering, it's how depth is built. 

Ann Klos: Exactly. I totally agree. 

Delores Naskrent: You said something that stayed with me. The day that you quit working would be the death of you. Do you remember saying that to me? 

Ann Klos: I do, 'cause I think about it a lot.

Delores Naskrent: There was something really powerful in that. When you said it to me, and not in a dramatic way. You [00:15:00] were just- Nope ... we were just talking, and you said it in such an honest way, and it spoke- Yeah ... to how creativity fuels you, not as a pressure, but as- ... a sense of purpose, as engagement, as being alive in your own life.

Ann Klos: Yeah. Just turning 63 this year. Oof. I know I'm gonna work till I'm 95. We'll go to that. 

Delores Naskrent: Yep. I believe that you will, because as live with my 89-year-old mother, and not a day goes by that she isn't working on some project. And if you could see how prolific this woman is at the age of 89, she did pullover sweaters with fancy designs for all of the grandchildren and my daughters and nieces and nephews in the month of- Wow

in one month, in the month of December. Wow. And she is constantly making blankets. [00:16:00] She's constantly making gifts that she, you know- gives away, honestly, she gives a lot of it away. She never, ever sells anything, but she is constantly knitting. And so I wanna be that person. I see the rest of her family, and she is the one that is the most healthy, the most alive, and it is definitely that sense of purpose.

Ann Klos: It really is, 'cause my mother is 87. She's down here with me right now for three weeks, and she's always busy. She doesn't sew so much anymore, but she does, she plays puzzles, and it- she's just busy all the time. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. It, I think it keeps you healthy and young. And I don't feel 65, Anne. I don't.

I feel like I'm still, that younger me that's trying all of these neat new things. And my biggest issue is thinking I'm running out of time. Here it is mid-February. It's almost the end of February, and- 

Ann Klos: Oh [00:17:00] my 

Delores Naskrent: gosh ... I'm like, yeah. So much, I have so much to do. 

Ann Klos: I know. I feel that same way every single day.

Did I get enough done? 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. Yeah. And I love having that. I really do. 

This has been a great conversation. I've enjoyed the pre-recording part of it and this recording part of it. And before we wrap up, I wanna make sure that people know where they can find you and your work. 

Ann Klos: On my website is jubileecreative.com, and on Etsy, we are Captive Glass Designs.

And for my surface pattern work, I go by Quilty Creative. 

Delores Naskrent: Perfect. 

Ann Klos: Perfect. So check them out. 

Delores Naskrent: People, anybody listening here, this is what a long creative life looks like. It evolves, it adapts, it meanders. It doesn't move in a straight line, and it doesn't stay fixed on one identity. It asks you to pay attention, to notice when something is [00:18:00] shifting, to have the courage to adjust.

It does take guts sometimes, doesn't it? And even when that adjustment feels uncomfortable, just going for it. A creative life, personally I feel, isn't about constantly reinventing yourself. Stay with it for a while. Stay with whatever that thing is that got you excited in the first place. Stay engaged, stay curious, honor the experience you've built while still leaving room for what's next.

Anne, thank you for not just the business shifts but the honesty behind them, and thank you for sharing, not just, with me, but with my audience. As always, everyone, stay creative, and I will see you next time on the next episode of the Creative Juggle Joy.