Turning a profit with glass animals

An entrepreneur sells handmade glassworks in his upstate N.Y. gallery.

By Brandi Stewart, FSB Magazine

(FSB Magazine) -- If he hadn't discovered glass blowing during his last semester at the University of Kansas, John Burchetta would have been a business major. Instead, he became a business founder.

Today Burchetta owns a studio and gallery in Carmel, N.Y., where he creates, displays, and sells his works, which range from Christmas ornaments to decadent chandeliers. For 2006 he projects more than $250,000 in revenues, up 7 percent from the year before.

Over the past 21 years Burchetta, 46, has handcrafted more than 1,500 glassworks for everyone from individual customers to large companies, including Disney (Charts), which contracted the studio to design sculptures for one of its Disney World restaurants.

Among his most popular offerings: a line of 14 farm-animal-inspired nightlights, which retail for $110 each. The lights can also be customized; earlier this year, Burchetta whipped up a hot-dog-shaped version for a local restaurant.

"I love creating something from nothing," Burchetta says. "That's the core of the entrepreneurial spirit."

Please send feedback or column ideas to fsb_mail@timeinc.com.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.