Interview with Alexx Cheng
Q: Why I created my designs:
A: Wow, at first it was strictly for curiosity and pleasure, but after four weeks on the torch, I felt confident to be a full time glass artist so I dropped everything in 1996 and began my winding road as a glass artist. My biggest achievement was sending my daughter to six years of university without a dime of student loan, making one crazy bead at a time. On hindsight, it was insane, stupid and gullible.
Q: Upcoming shows and sales:
A: I am fully retired. All the beads I made in the past fourteen years were free. I have not sold anything that were made by my two hands, always gave away. But the thirty plus million Pandora beads produced by my staff were marketed worldwide. Hell Fire Company was responsible for over 1.2 billion dollars in sales globally for Pandora. I now don’t have to think twice about that cheese on my cheeseburger because it is 40 cents extra. At one time, I had to double check my pockets.
Q: What is my artistic future:
A: Continue to make large soft glass beads, all for pleasure. Borosilicate stemware, shot glasses, marbles and insects. I just retired recently and am still setting up my studio for Boro work. I hope to have something presentable in a few months.
Q: How long have I been working with glass?
A: I believe it was the fall of 1996 that I found a couple of discarded VHS videos and a couple of books in a friend’s house. I popped the tape in my VCR, jaw dropped. And from that moment, my life was all about glass. All self-taught, never took a bead workshop because I could not afford them. It completely changed my life.
Q: Inspiration. What or who.
A: I just love glass beads. In the earlier days my idols were Kristina Logan, Heather Trimlett, Pat Frantz, Patti Walton and Corina Tettinger, just to name a few. All these idols became my very good friends later on. My highest three seconds in life was at my ISGB presentation in Las Vegas, when I looked down at the audience and Kristina Logan was wiping her tears. Lately I am interested in borosilicate work such as goblets, shot glasses and marbles. I am following Roger Parramore, Cesare Toffolo and John Kobuki.
Q: Goal of moving forward.
A: Since I am retired, my goal is to travel and teach for free as long as my health permits, as it was always pro-bono for the past fifteen years. I am now stuck at home due to Covid, but once travel is allowed, I have many countries waiting for me. I thrive seeing the glow in people’s eyes when they learn and are able to do new things, new techniques. I also want to pay it forward to the world for being kind to me. I will continue to support kids that are less fortunate and hope to provide a better education for them. I was very lucky. I am probably the only Asian male professional bead maker on this planet that can say I did the impossible.
