What led to that venture?
I was very interested in glass, so I bought a sheet of glass from John Hogan in Los Gatos, did my first score and actually destroyed the whole sheet. I went back and talked to John for about a half hour and he showed me how to cut a piece of glass. After that I taught myself. I made lamps for about a year, then started making windows. In 1973 I began making windows for clients. My father was superintendent of schools in Los Gatos and also a building contractor. During the summers he built houses and we started making windows for his homes. He wanted my brothers and me to take over his construction business but I wanted to do glass. I probably could have made a lot more money following him in his construction company! I met my wife, Susan when we were both in school as art majors. We were married in 1974. Soon after we were married I started doing glass full time. Both of us worked together, designing and making art glass windows. My father was a ceramics major at San Jose State, so we grew up doing ceramics. He also taught us how to paint and draw since we were young. So we always had an interest in art.

What attracted you to glass?
I don't know! My first experience with a piece of glass was in West Virginia at the Wissmach Glass Factory in Padon City. I was staying with some people there and the local glass factory had just cleaned out their furnace. They had these large chunks of clear glass that they were throwing out in the back. In 1970 there weren t the concerns about liability that there are now. This glass was just laying there alongside the road. I picked up a piece that was a little smaller than a football, and it was still warm! I wrapped it in some paper I found and took it back to the apartment where we were staying. I put it in the middle of the table, and it looked pretty cool. Sometime in the middle of the night it blew up - just exploded. This is when I learned about annealing. Anyway, that was my first interest in glass. I ve always loved glass, anything to do with it.

What is the focus of Walton Art Glass?
Mostly architectural glass. 99% of what we do is art glass for homes and commercial buildings. We ve worked with Disney for 25 years designing and doing glass for them in parks all over the world.

Do you get to travel all over the world with the company?
Sometimes. We did a big Minnie Mouse window in Tokyo, but never saw it in place. We just shipped it Fed-Ex. It was about 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Most of the time we ship all the work. We did go to Paris to see the glass we made for Disneyland Paris (formerly EuroDisneyland). That was fun, seeing it finally finished. I worked on that project for about 3½ years. I felt like we put everything we had into that. At the beginning of the project Disney wanted us to move to Paris, so I went back to my family and said What do you think?  Two of my kids were in high school at the time and they thought that would be cool. I got a call from Imagineering the next day and they said that there was one little hitch. They didn t realize how many kids we had (6 in school) and they would only pay for 2 to go to school. So we started doing the figuring and realized if we went to Paris we would barely break even. So we just worked in Glendale and I commuted back and forth from Campbell to Glendale. I remember getting the first set of plans from Paris and they were all in French and it was in the metric system. I called up my dad and he gave me a quick lesson in metrics and conversion. My dad was always supportive of everything we did, but he had wanted me to finish college, since he was in education. When we published our first book I think he felt we were a little more educated. Now our kids have said they d like to take over the business and I ve said Great! Everybody's going to get a college degree in something and I don't care what it is. Then you can come back and take over.  So my oldest son is a dentist now, my second son is a forensic serologist, but he just changed careers and opened a stained glass studio near Park City, Utah. My third son is a dentist and is just finishing periodontal school, and my fourth son has just graduated from the academy in San Jose as a paramedic and is with the San Jose Fire Department. It s a great place for him to be because he can still blow glass, and he has his own studio. We still have two sons and a daughter in college.

How has Walton Art Glass evolved in its years of operation?
When we first started we were specializing in beveled glass. We had all the big machines to grind and polish glass and a lot of guys working on those machines. We were one of the largest studios on the West Coast. However, countries overseas began producing beveled windows and flooded the market with them. The cost was so low, that there was no profit in producing beveled windows. The higher-end clients we have are more interested in stained glass instead of beveled glass. We re doing a lot of domes in larger homes, and skylights that are stained glass. So it s kind of come full circle.

Has the taste of the clients changed over time?
Yes. I think we do a lot more Arts and Crafts style. We used to specialize in Victorian, but there s not a demand for that now. The design is much simpler, more architectural. But that could be changing again, too.

Do you work directly with clients or with builders?
I work mainly for two designers in Beverly Hills. Most of the time I don t ever meet the homeowner. These houses are all 35,000 square feet or so. We spent 3 years on one home project, a $67 million house. We get to work on some great projects... we re really lucky. I am about to start two projects in Palm Desert and one in Hawaii.

What has been your most interesting project?
I would have to say EuroDisney. We were able to do all styles of architectural designing. I like working for Disney. Of all the projects for Disney, the Paris project was the largest in scope.

Were they clear about what they wanted?
No. That s what was fun about the project. That was up to me. They gave me the opening measurements and we designed over 2,000 windows enabling us to use our creativity throughout the project.

You recently started publishing a new magazine, World art Glass quarterly. Can you tell us what led you to that venture?
My wife, Susan and I published four books on stained glass. In 1982 we started a magazine called American Art Glass Quarterly, along with my brother Curt Walton and our publisher. The magazine was all about glass, but the main focus was on stained glass. We were really busy with fabricating glass, so we stopped the magazine in 1985. Twenty years later we decided there was a need for a new magazine to promote art glass. We launched World Art Glass Quarterly at SOFA Chicago two years ago. It received a very good response.

How do you decide who and what to profile?
What we re trying to do is showcase the best art glass in the world. That s our goal, along with trying to educate the public. Deciding who to feature is my main focus in the magazine. The internet has been a great resource. There are so many artists out there. Through the internet you can take a quick tertiary look at an artist s work and decide if you like it or not. Sometimes people have written to me and said have you ever heard of a certain artist?  and I will do some research. That s one of the ways we find out about people we don t know - people email me or send me information. We are also looking for art that has depth and good craftsmanship. I have a huge file of folders, one for glass blowers, one for etched glass, lampworkers, etc. We try and make a mixture of different forms of glass art. I fill out the next 3 issues, and we have a meeting and decide if the issue is balanced.

Do you try to spread out the focus and feature different techniques, etc?
Yes. For example I wanted to write an article on Kimiaki Higuchi, with a focus on her as a female artist in Japan. Often in Japan women have had to take a secondary role. She was very pleased that the article was focused on her, which is not usually the case. We try to profile a range of artists and techniques. That s one thing our magazine can do. There are a lot of people who are working hard and don t get a lot of recognition. If we find out about them, visit them, and they have enough work, we can feature them in the magazine. When we show our magazine to people who collect art or are educated in art, they say We had no idea that people could do the things they do in glass.  So by selling this magazine in bookstores we re bringing it to people who maybe didn t appreciate glasswork before, and now they say, Wow! Look what can be done!  We want to have some of the big names and some of the emerging artists, and everyone in between, as well as artists from other countries. By showing this range, people can be educated about glass.

Is the bulk of the sales direct subscription or through stores?
Both, but still not enough of each. We do distribute the magazine at shows like SOFA Chicago, which is really a good spot for us since so many glass collectors are there, as well as gallery owners. We contact a lot of people and a lot of subscribers sign up at the show. SOFA has a resource center for people who have magazines, schools, and the Corning Hot Glass Roadshow. The product is there, but advertising and distribution is another matter. You can t put out a magazine and think that everyone is going to buy it. You have to get the right person to advertise and the right person to distribute. The magazine business is brutal. After two years we feel we have reached a plateau. That s why we are starting the World Art Glass Foundation. We feel that to expand our magazine into other countries there is a need for a central collection point for artists and ideas. The World Art Glass Foundation (WAGF) will be the place where artists and collectors from all over the world can share and educate others about what they re doing. Some of the goals for WAGF will be to identify emerging artists in different parts of the world and help them with scholarships. We are very excited about this new venture.

You're also involved in a new glass gallery, the J. Morgan Gallery, so can you tell us a little of that history?
We have so many friends in the glass business. We re in this beautiful building (a newly restored Julia Morgan mansion in San Jose) and we thought the front room downstairs would make a great art glass gallery. We asked people if they would send pieces, and they have, from all over the world. As more people learn about the gallery, the visitors have increased. We have glass in many styles and from many countries, so people can see in person the range of what is being done in glass around the world. Since opening, we now have both the downstairs and upstairs front rooms for exhibit. Our gallery has collectible pieces starting at $95 for the beginning collector. The prices vary from that point to over $30,000.00. We are having a glass opening to show the work of English artist Peter Layton. The downstairs gallery will focus on his art. At a reception to be held on April 8th Layton will speak about his work. Later in the year we will welcome guest artists Latchezar Boyadjiev and Toland Sand. We are also looking forward to featuring the work of Randy Strong, who just won a 2008 Niche award.

Have you backed off on your involvement with Walton art Glass, or are you still deeply involved in that aspect?
I am still pretty involved. My sons, Mike, Jason and Jeremy are involved, but they have been in school, which takes up most of their time. I do the design work and turn as much over to them as their time will allow to fabricate and install. I still try to do all the design work, which is a lot. I'll say! When you said you designed over 2,000 windows for Disney, that s a lot! Do you have lifetime free passes? We used to get passes for our family! We also design products for Disney, like the Keys to the Magic Kingdom. We ve sold over 100,000 souvenirs to Disney and we still sell them. Our children grew up putting together and packaging keys for Disney and other theme parks. The last theme park they built was in China, and they used some of our designs, but everything was made in China. We bid on a couple things, but our cost to build them here and transport them to China were too high.

You are simultaneously involved in 4 major ventures: Walton Art Glass, World Art Glass Quarterly, J. Morgan Gallery, and World Art Glass Foundation. What is the connection between them?
Glass! It s all involved with glass. And the ventures are very different. You have to take one hat off and put another hat on.

What has been your most challenging project and your favorite project?
I would have to say my favorite project has been raising my family, and they ve all been involved in glass over the years beveling glass, blowing, etching, beadwork, and design. They have used their own artistic talents in their various careers. They all had jobs growing up beveling glass, fabricating, etc. It was fun. I still love to spend time with my family in the outdoors climbing mountains and skiing. Those influences help me in my work.