A glass act for 30 years

Many said it couldn’t be done or that it was a mistake to have a glass-working studio situated right outside Wimberley.

Despite all the critics advising against it, Tim De Jong and Wimberley Glassworks have been standing tall as they approach their 30th anniversary this Saturday.

It’s an accomplishment that De Jong still can’t believe it’s happening.

“Sometimes I can’t quite believe that I’ve pulled it off,” De Jong said. “At the time it opened (Wimberley Glassworks), people said I was off my rocker. ‘You’ll never make a living doing this.’ ‘You’ll never succeed.’ We’ve just kept reinventing ourselves enough to plug it along. It’s exciting and daunting, because every year is a completely new challenge. This year is equally challenging as any other hard time that we’ve had, but we are doing good.”

“Everyone questioned why I moved to Texas,” De Jong continued. “‘Why do you want to move to Texas? It’s just brown and flat’... Even local people were like ‘If you depend on the people from this area to make it, you will never survive.’ But I have to say, if it wasn’t for the people in this area, I wouldn’t be here. The unique thing about Texas is that if you really work hard, you will make it, because people respect that.”

De Jong’s journey to becoming a renowned artist in glass blowing started with a one-way ticket to Seattle.

After deciding to not attend college, De Jong’s father purchased Tim a one-way ticket to Seattle, Washington along with $300 dollars cash. He told him to work his way back home to New Jersey, which took him four and a half months.

It was a tough journey for De Jong, but ultimately he came away with some experience and knowledge that he uses today.

“It taught me some important lessons,” De Jong said. “One is where the absolute bottom was. Not many people in America know what absolute bottom is. The other lesson was, how far can you push it until you fall? If I did fall, it was no big deal. I knew how to get out because the one thing you can do in America is if you end up with nothing you can restart. You can’t do that anywhere else.”

The lessons De Jong learned during this experience eventually turned him into the tenacious risk taker that he has become.

“Since I already started on the street, ending up on the street, even if it was temporary, was not that scary for me,” De Jong said. “It turned me into a risk taker and made me really tenacious in wanting to succeed. If I came into a hard time, I would figure out a way to get through it anyways. It’s not easy nor is it fun when you hit a wall, but if you are tenacious enough, you can get through it.”

After working his way back home, De Jong attended Alfred University in New York to become an artist.

During a trip to Niagara Falls, De Jong was captivated by the ice formations on the light posts and metal railings that reflected the sunsets.

“The ice had formed on the metal railings on the fencing from the Canadian side,” De Jong said. “The sunset behind (the metal railings) would change color, and I thought ‘Man that is phenomenal.’ Then ice built up on the lanterns that were there, which were about four feet thick. It was so crazy. Then the lights would come up. It was so cool, because the whole thing was lit up, which got me interested in light and glass. I enjoyed playing with the ice, but you don’t get a lot of ice in Texas. Glass was the way I found that I could really explore it all the time.”

The decision to move and open the glassworks shop in Wimberley was due to the fact the antique market pulled the same customers he was selling, but he was met with another obstacle.

“Wimberley, when I moved here, had an antique market,” De Jong said. “I thought, ‘The people who shop for antiques are the same that shop for art glass. If I have an art venue that is pulling the right crowd, I’ll go ahead and move here.’ Of course when I moved here they (the antique market) turned into a flea market, which turned the best day of the month into the worst day of the month.”

But the turns of unfortunate circumstances turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“It drew a tremendous amount of people and gave me the opportunity to grow while becoming more well known,” De Jong said. “Then I got a gig at the Texas Renaissance Festival for five years, which really put me on the map in Texas. So when I left there, my studio really exploded.”

Having run and operated Wimberley Glassworks for so long, the main challenge for De Jong is the constant battle between staying creative and doing what is best for the business.

“It’s a very difficult business to run, because you are constantly trying to reinvent yourself,” De Jong said. “You are constantly trying to stay creative… One of the most difficult things to do is to be creative when you are terrified. Hands down, that is the most difficult thing to do… I’m the one who faces it all and holds it all together. I’ve gotten scared a lot, but in the midst of all of that I still have to stay creative and be on the cutting edge. I tell everyone in the morning that the right side and the left side of my brain have an argument, because I want to be this really cool creative guy that makes this really cool stuff. But I have a mountain of bills to pay every month. I have to figure out a way to still be creative but meet the responsibilities of paying people and vendors.”

To settle the debate within himself, De Jong goes with his gut.

“I usually have a strong gut reaction,” De Jong said. “If I don’t listen to it, I run into a lot of problems. I’ve learned that if you have a gut feeling about something you really should follow it.”

His advice to anyone wanting to start their own business?

“You should go for it,” De Jong said. “Go for it and eat a lot of Ramen. It is really scary to start a business from nothing. No family money, no nothing. I winged it from the seat of my pants from the word ‘go.’ It’s better to try and fail than to never try.”

Wimberley Glassworks will host Pearl of a Party on Saturday, June 11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The party will include cocktails, live glass blowing demos, tropical jazz, an art reveal and treasure hunt.