Robert Parkes’ big break came during the 2008 economic downturn.
Since 1987, he had been working under Robert Held, largely considered the “grandfather of Canadian glass-blowing.” As his top glass-blower, Parkes was stationed out of Held’s Pine Avenue studio in Kitsilano. He began as an apprentice and spent 22 years making art for Held, loving every minute of it.
“I was very lucky to apprentice under him,” said Parkes. “I came to the studio one day, and he was firing his drywaller for not showing up. I had my drywalling tools in my truck, so he hired me to work for him, and then after a few days I showed him my portfolio.”
Parkes had been working sporadically as a stained-glass window artist since 1969 and seized the opportunity to work for one of Canada’s glassblowing pioneers. But when the economy soured in 2008, and Held’s sales fell 85% to 90%, he was forced to lay off staff and close his store and studio.
“Being one of the top-paid glass blowers, I was one of the first ones to go,” Parkes said.
The shop had 17 glass-blowers on staff and was one of the largest operations in North America at the time. Despondent, Parkes said he fell into a deep depression.
“I was very dedicated to my job, so I took it very hard. I had a really tough time, at the age of 56 having done nothing but glass my whole life, and I still had four kids and a mortgage and I needed to find out what to do.”
After a few months, his family sat him down and presented him an idea. Parkes was living in North Surrey’s Port Kells area, running a hobby farm with his wife, Jeanette, producing organic beef, raising chickens and keeping honeybees. His family urged him to turn a large building he was using to store hay into his own glass-blowing studio.
“The City of Surrey’s engineering department came out. At first they didn’t understand what I was trying to do, so I applied for a business licence, but they had to create a new category for me.”
Then-mayor Dianne Watts was pushing to expand the city’s arts and cultural scene at that time, so Parkes was in the right place at the right time.
“The economic development department came out, the tourism board, and the ball started rolling. We opened up and everybody thought we were crazy. ‘Why are you building a studio out in the sticks? How are you going to sell your glass?’”
However, the city immediately commissioned several high-profile pieces for political delegates and two former U.S. presidents: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Parkes got to meet both of them in 2011 when they attended the Surrey Regional Economic Summit.
He said the experience drastically changed his perspective of the two.
“Here I was a hippie from the old days. And both of them, they were very gracious and kind and funny. I look at them both totally different now.”
Parkes was also commissioned to create a piece for B.C. business mogul Jim Pattison, who promptly sent him a picture of where it was placed in his home, and he followed that up with a phone call to remind Parkes how important artists like him were to society.
Since then business has been steady.
His wife left her full-time job and took over the business side of what would eventually become the Loafing Shed Glass Studio and Gallery.
“I enjoy analyzing where the sales come from,” said Jeanette Parkes. “And determining which events and marketing strategies are working for us, fine-tuning things each year. Tour groups and studio demonstrations, open house events, memorial glass and corporate gifts are some of our more important income sources.”
She added that her eldest daughter has also contributed to the business. Angela Parkes has produced videos of her father making glass. She now runs the studio’s social media accounts.
Parkes – who has taken on an apprentice glass-blower much as Held did with him – said looking back on his career is something that brings him great joy.
“It’s all turned out to be quite a lot of fun in retrospect.”
