Cracked with Chevonne Ariss

Cheering Workshop Fairies with JinYoung Park and Via from Decoratif

• JinYoung Park - Decoratif • Season 4 • Episode 48

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Hello and welcome back to Cracked with Chevonne Ariss! Today’s guests are JinYoung Park his wife Via, who are joining us from Seoul Korea. Together they created Decoratif,  where they professionally create and install  stained glass for sacred spaces, cafes, retail stores, residential and even do lots of work for K-drama tv series. Today we’re going to discuss the evolution from JinYoung learning stained glass from his mother to the family business it is now, Via’s structure for classes, and some really unique and interesting projects I found on their site to dig into.

Let’s get into it…

Join me as I crack it all wide open!
 
To see more of JinYoung and Via’s work, their instagrams are @jyglss and @decoratif_official and their website is jyglass.co.kr.

For the Cracked Patreon page, Jin and via made us a studio playlist for us. I’ve been listening to this playlist non-stop and a k-pop fan has now been awakened within me! And of course, the link to that Patreon page is always at the bottom of the show notes. 

Honorable mentions from this episode:
Favorite glass artists:
Studio Orme
@studioorme
Cut Join
@utjoin
Flora Jamieson
@theroundwindow
Flora's Cracked ep.
runaglassworks.com/podcast

Favorite artists:
Audrey Beardsley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Beardsley
Matisse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
jdsmithfineart.com/gallery-of-artists/toulouse-lautrec

Youghiogheny Glass Company
Stained glass sheets and glass products for the art and stained glass industry.

Canfield Technologies
Canfield sets the standard for the Stained Glass industry.

Paul Wissmach Glass Co.
Your Source of Colored Sheet Glass

Ed Hoy's International Glass Supplies
The Single Source for All Your Art Glass Needs

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey,

SPEAKER_03:

everyone. I'm Siobhan Arras.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm Ted Ellison.

SPEAKER_03:

Ted and I have spoken about taking on larger commissions here on Cracked, and we received so much feedback and questions that we decided to take this show on the road. There's lots more to learn about the transition from small projects to larger, and we want to help you get ahead of some of the challenges you might face.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. You can find Siobhan and I in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, September 30th at the SGAA SAM a 112th annual conference, Forging New Paths, presenting an in-person version of what we consider a companion to the information we've shared on Cracked. And this time we'll have a real-life Q&A.

SPEAKER_03:

Some things we'll be touching on are how to decide if it's the right project for you,

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things to take into consideration when discussing deadlines,

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how to manage difficult client relationships and when to set boundaries,

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how to negotiate pricing for something you've never done before,

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tips on etiquette when asking a more experienced And lastly, how important

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it is

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to photograph

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your work.

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We absolutely cannot wait to meet you and chat with you in real life. If you haven't already purchased your tickets, you can at stainedglass.org. There's lots of other amazing presentations, tours, classes galore, a juried exhibition, and so much more to sign up for. But

SPEAKER_00:

most importantly, get started. Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Again, get your tickets at stainedglass.org and we can't wait to see you there. Hello and welcome back to Cracked with Siobhan Aris. I'm Siobhan and I'm so happy you're here today. Before we jump into our chat, I'd love to thank some of our sponsors. We have Wismac Glass, Paul Wismac Glass Company, who makes gorgeous quality sheet glass out in West Virginia. You can follow them at at Wismach underscore glass, which is W-I-S-S-M-A-C-H underscore glass. I'd also like to thank my GOAT, Canfield Technologies, the makers of Sodermate Soleil. Canfield's Soleil flux is an active, non-hazardous liquid flux that sets the industry standard for excellence in lead joints or restoration projects. Find out more at canfieldmetals.com. Also, thank you to Yakagini Glass. Yakagini is a small manufacturing company that specializes We'll see you next time. Korea. Together, they created Décoratif, where they professionally create and install stained glass for sacred spaces, cafes, retail stores, residential, and even do lots of work for K-drama TV series. Today, we're going to discuss the evolution from Jin Young learning stained glass from his mother to the family business as it is now, via structure for classes, and some really unique and interesting projects I found on their site to dig into. So heads up about this interview, it has a different flow to it than and any other episode of Cracked I've done. Jin Young and Bia's answers were often much longer than the translation, so I really had to cut down the sound bites spoken in Korean. Because of that, if you are a Korean listener, this interview won't make any sense. After I ask Jin Young or Bia a question, you'll hear them start to answer, and then our translator's voice will come in. Her name was Sienna. I hired her from a website called Upwork.com that was suggested to me by M from Funky Glass works. So thank you, Em. Join me as I crack it all wide open. Jin, and what's your wife's name? You can call me Bia.

SPEAKER_02:

Bia.

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Jin, how long have you been doing stained glass? Because I went all the way back to the beginning of your Instagram, which was 2015. So he

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actually

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comes from, it's like his background, because his mom did stained glass.

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So he

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kind of shadowed her and worked her time for the past 14 years actually. 14 years ago.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, wow. How old are you now? I'm

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33 years old.

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He's 33. And did you teach via? Stained glass.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

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Jin, did you have any other jobs before you did stained glass?

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So

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he

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actually majored in fashion in college.

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He

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managed to launch his own online. and tried different things with fashion, the fashion industry, and then kind of made a circle back to stained glass about eight years ago. When

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you met Bia, did you teach her stained glass pretty early in the relationship or did that kind of come later?

SPEAKER_02:

They

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actually just, he was actually more eager to create, um, grow his company. So he had a couple of apprentice positions open and tried to recruit many people because stained glass is still not commonly practiced or not very common in Korea.

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So

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whenever she applied, he just jumped at it and then later found out that she was actually really good at it and they became business partners first. So he was actively recruiting new employees and And she just excelled immediately.

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She

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learned on the job.

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She

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just showed interest and then he like, okay, come on in, let's give it a shot. And then like, it just worked out perfectly. Okay. They like started their, the current company decorative called decorative together.

SPEAKER_03:

And Bia, what did you do before you came and interned for Jen? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So she had an MFA in painting, so she wanted to become just an artist, like a professional artist career, and thought that learning ceramics could be an interesting avenue that she could pursue as an artist. And then Jinyoung, at that point, with his Jinyoung glass, he was also more focused on architecture. But then through this sort of unofficial drop-off Bia, what was

SPEAKER_03:

your relationship with glass before you came into this? Was it something that you just admired from afar? Did you know a lot about it? Or was there a place that you loved going that had stained glass? What was your personal relationship with stained glass beforehand?

SPEAKER_01:

So earlier, she was working at a glass company. was just most familiar with the most well-known example, which is Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, which is kind of a beloved example and very well-known in Korea. And then six years ago, she went on kind of an extensive trip to Europe, and she visited a cathedral in Prague and noticed how that stained glass changed the way that light is reflected and was really moved by that play um light play that um she can just like single it out as a moment that she remembers first being very moved by that art form

SPEAKER_03:

i love that i love that now for you jen um with most of my guests that have stained glass in their family and that learn generationally, more often than not, there's a stage of rejection that comes with it. And it sounds like you had that with fashion.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So he was not immediately just pushing it back. He wasn't opposed to the idea of doing family business. He was just not ready to commit to it yet at age 20 or 21, especially when he studied fashion. So he did it for a couple of years, two, three years, and then found that he was still more fundamentally drawn to stained glass as a form of art. So he switched, he like spent more time, committed more time to stained glass and just gradually moved to doing it full time. And now he's working on sort of developing new approach to stained glass. Cause traditionally like the most popular practice of stained glass production is that you just have several motifs that work really well, that people like, and then you just kind of change the dimension of it, you know, amplify it or diminish it, just, you know, like using the same motifs over and over again. But he is very keen on creating, um, customized design for each and every building, each and every, um, architecture project. And he actually sits down with like the architect and the like developer to come up with like a, a brand new design for, for the stained glass. And, um, Yeah. And another thing that he's working on is just to be coming up with more original designs in general, just his own style, stylistically growing. I

SPEAKER_03:

want to put a pin in that because I did take some notes on how wide the spectrum of his work is. So we're going to circle back and we're going to talk about that. But first, I just want to ask a couple more questions about the family and about sort of like timeline wise. a little bit more at the beginning. I want to know, what are his mom's feelings on him sort of taking the torch and moving forward?

SPEAKER_02:

His mom

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is very hands-on because she's kind of like a mentor to him. So sometimes she says like, this is the way to get things done. It's always been done this way. but Jin Young is very open-minded and loves experimenting with new forms and techniques and sometimes she's right sometimes he's right so there's a lot of back and forth but whenever he does try new things and that does work out brilliantly she loves it and she's generally very supportive and sometimes worried about his health because any creative career creative environment I mean, it can be kind of stressful because you can always overwork yourself. But other than that, she also absolutely loves the fact that her daughter-in-law is there and doing this whole business together. And they can all sit down and have family gathering and have serious talks about stained glass. And it's kind of a bonding experience for them all. So they really enjoy it. She really is supportive and loves that. Since

SPEAKER_03:

his mom is somebody who has such a strong opinion about what he's doing every single day, I'm curious how that was for Bia when she first came into the family and to the scene, if that was a little intimidating for her. So

SPEAKER_01:

everybody around her, like others, always worry about her. Like, how can you possibly... be like working with your mom-in-law that's like audacious um but she finds it incredibly easy because um first and foremost their relationship was like boss and apprentice you know worker and um she as a leader of the company was really um um accepting of feedback and so whenever they talk it's not really like um um one way but it's always two-way conversation so she never like talks her down she's very open to discussing um they're always taking this uh sort of like solution um based approach like if there's a problem we're going to tackle it together you know i'm not going to blame it on you i'm not going to like impose my method on you any of that so i think she's she's just really good at communicating i

SPEAKER_03:

love that wedding, I just want to give like a cliff notes version to Sienna and also to anybody who's listening. She posted a couple of clips from her wedding and one, she's walking down the aisle with her father and they're dancing to Heart of Glass by Blondie. Bia is wearing the cutest sunglasses that she's going to have to send me the link for afterwards. Yes. And then her dad, when he He hands her to Jin. He takes his sunglasses off and he puts them on Jin. And then him and Jin do like that little like shoulder dance. And it's just like, it's the sweetest, cutest, most authentic, fun dance. creative moment ever

SPEAKER_01:

their families are very creative first of all they were against this whole idea of very like formulaic wedding of like order of like even like down to every little thing like who walks and when and all that so they wanted to make it more spontaneous and fun most of all and so they picked this song they like for when the when Bea enters when the bride enters and they even came up with a little choreography a little dance but then they don't live to very close to their parents they have to like travel far from far so they only had a chance to rehearse like really quickly the day before but thankfully Bea's father he does theater and so he can just like take he can take direction and just do what feels right and it just comes out really great because he's like he's a kind of natural um thespian

SPEAKER_03:

yes improv improv he does improv for

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sure for sure so like everybody had a blast basically

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it's very rare that I see any wedding on Instagram where I'm like FOMOing and like wishing I was there but that wedding looked so fun

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thank you

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now that we have a little bit of facts story about the families and about how you guys sort of came together as business partners. I want to ask you some questions, more specific questions about Decorative. This may be dated information, but in 2019, you posted there is already six members of the workshop and have been growing by one in a year. How many people work for Decorative now? And how is the workload split up between you guys?

SPEAKER_01:

Due to the pandemic, our the actual number of people working at the company kind of shrank by one. So they have five people working for the company, including Jinyoung, Bea, and Jinyoung's mom. And Bea does all the ceramic class. She teaches all the classes. And Jinyoung does the original design, the creative design. front end production. And then the two other employees and Jinwoo's mom do most of like the hands-on production and installation.

SPEAKER_03:

You guys have done so many interesting installations. And I wanted to mention that the style of your artwork is so varied, which tells me that you're very willing to give the customer exactly what they ask for, even if it's not your favorite or maybe So

SPEAKER_01:

actually, the clients that come to them, come to Decorative, are very familiar with their portfolio and their previous works. So they expect that level of originality and creativity. And as a matter of fact, in Korea, there are not many large and multi-series windows. It doesn't give you much space to put everything in, all the details that you want. So there's that kind of meetings to make the design more realistic, if anything. Because the clients are always expecting to make the most original and most individualistic and detailed design that can really tell tell their story, like, like a tattoo. And Jin Young is, has to kind of bring them back to reality. And like, it's only by meter by meter. Yeah. For like little cafes and whatnot. So.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. That makes sense. Well, you know, a lot of the artists that I talked to, a lot of us as artists, we're always trying to like work our way towards having that, that unique style that's your um signature

SPEAKER_01:

some of them give them symbols or avatars of themselves or like the menu from their coffee shop or their restaurant things like that so it needs to be like really fragmented to you know contain all those details like recognizable shapes right so yeah he needs to kind of yeah work it through or like incorporate some and not. I

SPEAKER_03:

think that it's really incredible that he has such a wide variety of work out there and that there are things I can see. And I think that that's actually a testament to how talented you are in terms of being able to present like this wide spectrum of work. I'm wondering what the learning curve was for you in terms of actually having to deal with the public and having to deal with clientele. Because I know your mom did it before you, but did it come very naturally to you or is it more natural for her? Because it's hard dealing with clients. Like they're not always super easy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I just said there are too many times when we felt that. So yes, definitely, as Bia said, it could be very stressful because the clients usually want designs that are really out there and they always expect their design to be the best and the most special, you know? So they keep pushing him to do more and more and more. But then working within the limits of the realistic constraints, um, of the space and the material and everything. Um, he actually learns a whole lot. Um, so even though it's very stressful, he think of it as a growing pain. Um, and yeah, things is actually very rewarding.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I mean, there's always a lot of constraints, like there's always timeline and budget and a lot of times they're not actually speaking directly with a client or if they are, it's very little, a lot here, you end up dealing with um like design firms is that common there as well

SPEAKER_01:

yeah it's since it's not like a mainstream industry in korea yet like it's still a very niche um sector the stained glass production um and design so um sometimes they're asked to like wear many hats actually a lot of the time so um yes there is a case when they have a meeting with client and architect slash interior designer um the three of them as a trio but then at the same time they are very like since like a lot of um building projects in korea have very tight deadlines are expected to finish in like short stretch of time they actually have to just like jump in and like go there and look at the space and just like come up with the design on the spot sometimes so um there is no like well-designed path of um like production flow they just have to jump in whenever they're expected to do uh or get something done on time and he actually doesn't mind if he actually really finds he finds it very thrilling

SPEAKER_03:

that's awesome okay i'm gonna switch gears a little bit i actually want to ask about some specific pieces there's one piece that is for the cafe collectible what is the bird character so

SPEAKER_01:

that bird is actually the cafe like cafe's unique design like a logo the business logo that they already had as like an illustration and they received that and then just kind of modified a little bit to fit into the stained glass form

SPEAKER_03:

you know very cute there's another one that is the koriko cafe stained glass for the witch delivery department kiki the the post said i can't believe that i can make kiki and gg by myself the workshop fairies were cheering so i wanted if i was wondering if you guys could tell us about that piece

SPEAKER_01:

oh i honestly don't know how to pronounce i know the studio ghibli but i always pronounce it ghibli but they pronounce like ghibli so i don't know oh

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studio ghibli yeah we say ghibli

SPEAKER_01:

here we say you but maybe it's Ghibli because it's, you know, fanatically similar to Korean, Japanese. Anyways, it's the first cafe, Studio Ghibli cafe, official cafe that opened in Korea. And so the design they worked on was actually confirmed by the studio. And she was worried about, like, if she just, like, printed that design onto the glass, then when the light came through, it would just... it wouldn't feel right. So she actually cut out like the pupils and the mouth and then inserted the details like manually. Yeah. So she like went to extra cause she's such a big fan of Studio Ghibli. So she had a lot of fun just laboring over little details.

SPEAKER_03:

I thought that that was Studio Ghibli, but I wanted to ask and make sure because That's so special. Congratulations for getting to have that approved by the actual studio. That's really, really neat. When she says that she put the eyes and the details in, does she mean like she, does she press it between two panes of glass?

SPEAKER_01:

So she kind of cut out a hole from like a sheet of glass and then inserted a new, just a different glass within. They were worried that if they just painted directly onto the it would not really reflect the light the way they want it because they really wanted to create a bright facial complexion like bright colors in that character's face so they had like a base like a template glass and then they cut out that eye part and then the mouth part the orifices and insert like another white glass or pink glass in that cut out areas

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was it fused together then or was it did it have a lead line

SPEAKER_01:

they like meticulously sealed the gap with silicon because the client vetoed the idea of a lead line

SPEAKER_03:

okay so they inserted another piece of glass but instead of using like copper foil with solder they didn't use solder they glued

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it in they glued it in with silicon yes

SPEAKER_03:

oh okay okay interesting cool this piece uh that i'm about to ask about is very like fairy tale very like disney inspired it almost looks like it would be in cinderella um it's the dongtan angels garden chinese door stained glass version three uh it said this is a chinese work with dongtan angels garden ribbons flowers butterflies and birds expressed it's a work that pays a lot of attention to color harmony it's a stained glass window installed in Dongtan Angel's Garden. When I heard that the representative was a member of the Korean Rose Association, I especially paid a lot of attention to roses. We worked happily and joyfully in a warm and sensible space.

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So

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when he first went to scout the location, it was just like beautifully, like a lot of natural light and a lot of well-designed with like antique, vintage objects. So he was like, oh yeah, I can go a little extra and a little extravagant with this design. I think the space can handle it. So he gave it as much detail and as many roses as it can hold. And the way he designed the rose is that he actually had a rose in his hand and drew it from real life. And I asked, do you remember what type of rose? And he was like, um, I'm not really familiar with the types of roses, but it was really pretty. It was a pretty rose. And he also noted that it looks so different inside or outside, depending on where you're standing, the stained glass, which feels like a field of roses to the spectator, changes character. And also at different times of day, like when the sun is coming down for example it feels completely different so he loves that kind of versatility like you know how it changes so dramatically with different like conditions and the client was so impressed with that kind of scale of work so he went on to give commission other projects like stained glass curtain which is positioned on top of a door

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. Yes. Yes. That's what I saw. Yes.

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Yes.

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And

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that is also full of roses.

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It's so

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beautiful.

SPEAKER_03:

It's so beautiful. Okay, I want to ask you about this, a TV show that you guys created some stained glass for. It says MBC drama 100 Deacon is a TV show. And you guys did some stained glass for the set.

SPEAKER_01:

So in a lot of K-dramas and movies, what are trying to portray wealth You know, when the character is coming from an African background and want to show their wealth, the set designers or producers always ask for one or two sheets of stained glass inside for an interior set. And so they actually surprisingly get always a consistent amount of a stream of orders from those K-dramas and movie industry. um and most of the times because it is to kind of show off the character's wealth and you know um so they kind of go all in instead of like the actual small businesses that they will they also work for um this one this one is an opportunity for jin young to um try out some of the like daring brave designs that he always dreamed of so he always looks forward to working on set? I

SPEAKER_03:

mean, the amount of work that they're cranking out, I'm so shocked, especially if there's only five of them. It's crazy, the stuff that they post. I'm like, that would have taken me six months, that project alone.

SPEAKER_01:

So on the workflow, because you were telling us that you're really impressed by the amount of work, the productivity, sheer productivity that shows through their portfolio. And they're saying like, oh yeah, they're really proud of the workflow of their team because each individual that is part of the team is highly, highly functional. They only pick the best candidate that comes through. When they see a talent, they're very selective with their choice. And also, each member of the team is creatively involved and not just like producing it just like manually so like when they're given even slightly unreasonable sort of timeline or deadline which can be stressful they like take it upon themselves like they enjoy the kind of challenge that comes with it and they're always trying to streamline their workflow better and more efficient and Jin Young also wants to note that it might seem like they're working overtime to meet the demands, but it's actually not true. They are very strict about work-life balance. So they never go too crazy about working overtime. It's just that each individual is very, very, very functional

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and

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professional.

SPEAKER_03:

That's good to hear. I'm only going to ask him about one more personal piece I wrote down like three more, but I think just based on the time that we have allotted left, I'm just going to pick one. Okay, so this one's Pepe's funeral. Now, I... Thank you so much. Pepe the Frog is a somewhat controversial character. I actually pulled an excerpt from an article that I wanted to read to you that I felt like really sort of like captured what I wanted to say. And I sent it to Sienna. So I'm going to read it in English and then she'll read it. Okay, Pepe the Frog is a cartoon character that has been a popular internet meme, often referred to as the sad frog meme, by people unfamiliar with the name of the character. The character first appeared in 2005 in the online cartoon Boys Club. In that appearance, the character also first used its catchphrase, Feels good, man. The Pepe the Frog character did not originally have racist or anti-Semitic connotations. Internet users appropriated the character and turned him into a meme, placing the frog in a variety of circumstances and saying many different things. As the meme proliferated in online venues such as 4chan, 8chan, and reddit which have many users who delight in creating racist memes and imagery a subset of pepe memes would come into existence that centered on racist anti-semitic or other bigoted themes in recent years with the growth of the alt-right segment of the white supremacist movement a segment that draws some of its support from some of the above mentioned internet sites the number of alt-right pepe memes has grown a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2000 The Pepe memes have many defenders. The use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seems to be increasing, not decreasing. In the fall of 2016, the ADL team with Pepe creator Matt Fury to form a hashtag Save Pepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions. I just want to add that obviously your piece is Pepe's funeral So I just wanted to ask you about it.

SPEAKER_02:

This

SPEAKER_01:

work was made for an exhibit, like a meme exhibit, just exhibit made entirely of memes. Basically, you're just appropriating and recreating, recontextualizing it. And Jinyoung was already aware of this transition or the transformation of Pepe, but in Korea, people people use Pepe without knowing all the backstory that you just read about, we just read about. So it's really just an emotive face crying Pepe or laughing Pepe, you know, just very neutral without the racist undertones. So he wanted to bring that to attention because it's, you know, very culturally relevant to the Korean audience. pick that meme, which is also an existing work on its own. It was done by Matt Beery

SPEAKER_02:

as

SPEAKER_01:

part of the campaign that you mentioned. So he took that motif and then he drew a sad face and then thought maybe it's a little too somber. So he gave a flying angel Pepe that's going to heaven on top in the corner and also some chrysanthemums. So it really drew him in. He was really fascinated by the... He related 100% to the struggle of the creator, Matt Fury, because it's such a painful thing to watch when you basically give birth to this guy, a frog guy, and he gets appropriated and taken into the next level, which is very hellish. So he he really empathized with that struggle and that pain of the creator, original creator, and wanted to sort of acknowledge that and maybe bring awareness to what's going on. Because yes, in Korea, that political connotations are not very clear.

SPEAKER_03:

Got it. Okay. Yeah. I was curious if there was like a deeper like statement about social issues there, or if he was just like, I don't know. I just, thought he was cute

SPEAKER_01:

general korean audience would feel that way like oh it's cute like it's funny haha you know yeah innocuous but chin young obviously had a different approach like had a different relationship to the to the design

SPEAKER_03:

yeah i like that i want to talk to bia about uh teaching because i know that she takes care of all the teaching and i wrote down here it looks like you have a couple different classes in a couple different formats She has a regular class, which seems to be a more ongoing format, an online class, and a one-day class. And I was curious how much you were charging for these, and I was wondering if she could walk us through what exactly she's teaching her students. There's a lot of different techniques in stained glass, like copper foil or lead, and what they're making.

SPEAKER_01:

Her beginner's class, usually it meets four times a month, so It's like a monthly fee that they charge the students, the beginners, for beginners' costs. They meet once a week four times a

SPEAKER_02:

month. And

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for that, I think it roughly translates to close to$300. And they mostly deal with copper foil in class, whereas more intermediate, advanced class students will learn like architectural elements like how to um create something with lighting in mind and like lead work they just take into the labor and the materials into into um pricing

SPEAKER_03:

and what is the online class learning

SPEAKER_01:

uh online there's like a platform dedicated to like you know sharing talent and she um came up with sort of like a series of tutorials like lynda.com from like linkedin that type of series of tutorials that students can take at home and they also send out a kit to begin with with like the basic tools and materials some clients like there are a lot of clients who know their work and want to learn from them but live really far will usually start with online courses and like order a starter starter's kit starting kit um and when they get to a certain level if they're still committed and think they want to pursue more they actually travel the distance to learn in person so yeah it's like a it's like an sort of easy first step and they even got um a client a an order from France. There's like a Korean person living in France that wanted to learn from them. So they ordered the kit from them and all that. And they were surprised because like in Europe, there's like plethora of classes and, you know, like lots of opportunities to learn stained glass techniques. But this person really reached out to them because they connected with their work.

SPEAKER_03:

It's amazing. Just a couple more questions and then I'm going to let you guys have your breakfast and move on with your day. Okay,

SPEAKER_01:

so

SPEAKER_03:

this is a question for both of you, but I want you to answer it separately. If you had to choose only one facet of the business to do from now on, so if you could only teach or if you could only do commissions, if you could only do the gallery work, if you could only do the front-end designing, Which one would you

SPEAKER_02:

choose?

SPEAKER_03:

That's a typical

SPEAKER_01:

question to answer. So for Jin Young, he wants to focus on just what he's doing, like going to the location, especially small businesses, and figuring out the logistics and figuring out the design of it all, sort of like an architectural style. of the business and design side of the business whereas Bia wants to focus on kind of pursuing her artistic career yeah so like she really likes her creative journey like documenting the milestones along the way like her smooth transition you know like the changes over time She enjoys having that kind of personal archive of works.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. Okay, final three questions. These are the same three questions I end all of my interviews with. The first one is, who is your favorite stained glass artist? Maybe you guys have the same answer, but maybe you don't.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, she's so sweet. She chose her husband as her favorite artist. Her reason is also very, very... because she really thinks that he's like the leading artist, like the pioneering artist in Senghwas in Korea, like, you know, it's a whole new other genre. And she loves the fact that he never like loses his own voice, his own like independent original voice, even in commission works, you know, so be able to like, feels like, oh, That's the caveat. It's like, maybe he's the only single artist that I've known. So yeah, it's like she likes that he has his own voice. There's a list of many artists that he aspired to look up to and are inspired by. And Flora Jameson was one. And Studio ORM. I think it's spelled O-R-M-E. And cut join and you me? yes and your work I think bird what

SPEAKER_02:

was that?

SPEAKER_01:

butt first coffee oh yeah

SPEAKER_02:

that was really good

SPEAKER_03:

oh thank you so much thank you so much gosh it's like a sliver of what you've done but thank you so much Laura Jameson has been on the podcast the round window is her instagram and it's so funny because actually she and i i spoke with her about studio ghibli or ghibli uh first because she did a commission for a family she did a commission for the father is the one who hired her um and his children loved studio ghibli and so he had her hide tiny studio ghibli characters in the piece i don't know how How she hid them. And I don't know how large the panels were, but she's amazing. I love her.

SPEAKER_01:

That's really sweet.

SPEAKER_03:

She's really sweet. The other two I don't know of, at least not by name. Maybe if I see them, I'll recognize them, but I'll have to look them up. I'll definitely have a link in the show notes for the listeners. Okay, so the next question is, who is your favorite non-stained glass artist? I

SPEAKER_01:

like So Bea picked, named Matisse, Henri Matisse, and Aubrey Beardsley. So for Matisse, it's like the vibrant colors and the masterful use of complementary colors. It's also explosive, but, you know, magical. And for Aubrey Beardsley, is contemporaneous with Toulouse-Rautrec um it was like a post-impressionist French um who's like really famous for the poster for Moulin Rouge oh

SPEAKER_03:

okay

SPEAKER_01:

he is very influenced by like you know like Japanese woodcut or lithographs so very detailed like ink drawings um and Bia mentioned that he doesn't have very colorful works just like black and white and more detail to more attention to details and she always gets she's always inspired by those two very different styles equally

SPEAKER_03:

beautiful beautiful What about Jinyoung?

SPEAKER_02:

I

SPEAKER_01:

actually like the artist that she just said. She's like, nah.

SPEAKER_02:

And

SPEAKER_03:

then the final question is, and this could be the same answer or this could be different for both of you, but what are your five to ten year goals?

SPEAKER_02:

They have

SPEAKER_01:

this goal that they've been working towards. He first opened by saying like five to 10 years sounds like a long time, but it's actually not. And they've always wanted to create a space sort of that they own and build in an open space in nature, sort of like a deserted area, like grassy meadow, like an imposing architecture type installation with stained glass that people can discover stained glass in that natural environment, which is very, very rare to come by in Korea. So it might sound like a totally doable, feasible project, but it's very daunting. Yeah, but they both really enjoy nature. So they want to have nature as part of their stained glass presentation. I see it happening. I knew. I was going to ask you, like, how about you? What are my

SPEAKER_03:

five to 10 year goals? We're moving again. And so I moved, I've moved a lot in the last couple of years, which isn't really like super helpful in this business. We have moved a lot. And so, uh, Packing up a glass studio and starting over. It's like a lot of like starts and stops. And I'm also a mom and I'm also a wife. And so a lot of times, all of the times that we have reestablished ourselves in a new city, taking care of my family has taken precedence over like unpacking my glass studio and getting back into my business. My goal is to like root deep into my business and my practice and keep learning and growing and expanding everything that surrounds stained glass not just like doing installations and commissions and doing my own work but also like growing this podcast and you know I have a couple other projects that have to do with the podcast as well so I just like want to like dedicate time more time to like building my business I guess and Not like... I don't know, having to spend so much time on like registering the cars and getting a driver's license.

SPEAKER_02:

They said

SPEAKER_01:

they can definitely relate because they just moved too. So they've been just doing a lot of like unpacking and organizing, which prevented them from doing actual work.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Well, I just want you guys to know that like choosing you all as my first like non-fluent English speaking artists and bringing in a translator, I knew it was going to be like a little bit more complex of a conversation but you guys were my first and it was really an easy choice because i feel very connected to you guys i feel really connected to your work i really enjoy your social media presence and you guys it didn't disappoint at all i loved talking to you guys today

SPEAKER_02:

thank

SPEAKER_03:

you for inviting us you're welcome and sienna thank you so much for your time. You were very patient and just thank you so much for your time.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, of course. You guys have been patient with me. I mean, I didn't even know what a lead line is.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your days, everybody. And I'll be in touch soon. To see more of Jin Young and Bia's work, their Instagrams are at jinyounglass and decorative underscore official. That's D-E-C-O-R-A-T-I-F underscore For the Cracked Patreon page, Jen and Bia made us a studio playlist, and I've been listening to this playlist nonstop, and a K-pop fan has now been awakened within me. There is some really good stuff on there. And of course, the link to that Patreon page is always at the bottom of the show notes. Next week's episode of Cracked is with Portland, Oregon native Ashley Costa of Caustic Glassworks. We'll discuss her episode of Cracked, Bye.