How Etsy Became a Bulgarian Glass Artist’s Bridge to International Collectors

Who: Evgeniya "Jeny" Guneva – JG Glass Art
What: Contemporary kiln-formed glass art – sculptural wall pieces, sculptures, vessels, tableware, lighting
Format: Physical product · Bulgaria, sold internationally in English
Started: 2012
Audience: ~1,000
Payers: ~1,050 Etsy sales; unique buyers not tracked
Promotion budget: Variable; primarily invested in building the practice rather than paid advertising
Income: Revenue-generating art practice; not yet profitable overall
Status: Active and growing
Channels: Etsy marketplace, visual social media, Pinterest, own website, repeat customers and referrals

What worked: Etsy – by far her main channel into international sales.
The result: ~820 orders and €160,609 in revenue on her main Etsy shop alone.
The catch: Still learning to tell which channels bring buyers from which just eat time.

I did not begin my professional life as an artist. My first career was in engineering. I studied at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia and spent many years running my own engineering company, with a team of around 30 people, working on major infrastructure and water-related projects.

Art, however, had always been another part of my life. Later, I studied Porcelain and Glass at the National Academy of Art in Sofia and earned a Master's degree.

My path specifically into fused glass began almost by accident. At the time, I was looking for ways to diversify a jewelry line when I came across the technique of glass fusing. I began experimenting with it, and gradually glass became much more important than the original reason I had discovered it. I am largely self-taught in the practical techniques I use, learning through years of experimentation, online resources and specialist books.

What fascinated me was the tension between control and unpredictability. My engineering background had trained me to think in terms of precision, structure and planned results. Glass behaves differently. You can design carefully and understand the technical process, but once the work enters the kiln, heat, gravity and the material itself become part of the outcome.

At first this unpredictability was something I had to learn to manage. Eventually, it became one of the things I loved most about the material. I learned that I did not always need to force glass into complete obedience. Sometimes the most interesting result comes from creating the conditions and allowing the material to participate.

Over time, what had begun as an experiment became JG Glass Art. I eventually left my engineering career behind and devoted myself fully to working as a glass artist. Today I create contemporary kiln-formed glass wall art, sculptures, vessels, tableware and lighting, and my work is purchased by customers and collectors internationally.

Before Etsy became her main sales channel, Jeny's first buyers came mainly through her exhibitions in Bulgaria. She had four solo exhibitions, as well as one exhibition dedicated to her jewelry, and this was where people first encountered and purchased her work in person.

Her first international customers came primarily through Etsy. By the time she had reached roughly her first 100 customers, Etsy had already become the main source of new buyers discovering her work.

There was no single viral moment or advertising campaign that built my audience. My growth has been gradual, and much of it came from learning by doing.

Etsy has been by far my most important commercial channel. Across my two Etsy shops, I've made approximately 1,050 sales so far – my main shop alone shows about 354,300 visits, 820 orders and €160,609 in revenue. As an independent artist based in Bulgaria, Etsy gave me access to an international market that would otherwise have been extremely difficult to reach. Through Etsy, my work has traveled to customers in the United States, Europe and other parts of the world.

One of the most important things I learned was that selling art online is not only about making good work. The customer cannot touch the glass, see how it reacts to changing light or understand its scale in person. Photography, presentation, descriptions and trust therefore became extremely important.

I gradually improved the way I photographed and presented my work, the information I gave customers and the way I communicated with them before and after a sale. That made a significant difference.

Pinterest has been useful as a visual discovery platform because people often encounter my work while searching for interior ideas, glass art, wall installations, lighting or table settings. Instagram and Facebook have helped me show the work and the person behind it, although they have not been as directly connected to sales as Etsy.

Another important source of growth has been repeat customers and commissions. Some customers return for a second or third piece, and others send photographs of their homes and ask me to create something specifically for a particular space. For me, this is more meaningful than simply accumulating followers. It tells me that people are beginning to recognize and trust my work.

More recently, I have also begun entering international art and design competitions. In 2026, my work received two Platinum distinctions at the HOUZEE Awards: one in Artistic & Sculptural Lighting for "Light in Motion" and one in Tableware for "Refractions." That recognition has helped me position the work more clearly as contemporary glass art rather than simply as handmade products sold online.

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One of my biggest mistakes was believing that an independent artist could simply make the work and that everything else would somehow follow. In reality, I found myself doing many different professions at once: artist, photographer, copywriter, marketer, website manager, social media manager, packer, customer-service representative and international shipping coordinator.

I have spent a great deal of time learning things that had nothing directly to do with making glass. Some of that learning was necessary and valuable; some of it was simply time lost.

Social media has been a particularly difficult lesson. It is very easy to spend hours creating posts, videos and content because you feel that you must constantly be visible. But visibility does not automatically become sales, and activity is not the same as progress. I am still learning to distinguish between the channels that genuinely help my work and those that mainly consume time.

Photography has also been difficult. Glass is one of the hardest materials to represent accurately. Its color, transparency and reflections change with the light and with the background. A photograph can make the same object look dramatically different, and I have had to learn how important accurate visual presentation is when the customer is thousands of kilometres away.

There have also been product directions that seemed promising but became impractical because of shipping risk, breakage, technical standards or the cost of international delivery. I have learned that deciding what not to offer can be just as important as deciding what to create.

There have certainly been moments of doubt. But I have never lost the desire to work with glass. Usually the frustration comes from everything surrounding the art, not from the art itself.

I don't think there was one dramatic turning point. There were several smaller ones.

The first was realizing that people in other countries were willing to buy my work without ever seeing it physically. Every successful international sale made that possibility more real.

Another important moment was when customers began returning for additional pieces. A first purchase can happen for many reasons. When someone comes back, or asks you to create something specifically for their home, it feels different. It means a relationship with the work has begun.

A more recent turning point has been international recognition. Receiving two Platinum awards at the HOUZEE Awards in 2026 changed something in the way I thought about my own work as well.

I increasingly stopped thinking of myself as someone who makes glass objects and sells them online. I began to think of myself simply as an artist building a body of work. That distinction matters to me.

This is actually the hardest question for me to answer with a simple demographic profile. I cannot say that my buyers belong to one particular age group or profession.

What I do see is a pattern in why they buy. They are generally people who care about their interiors and are looking for something individual rather than mass-produced. Many are attracted by the color, movement and way the glass interacts with light. Quite often, they are looking for a particular piece for a particular place in their home.

Increasingly, customers send me photographs of their interiors and ask whether I can create something specifically for that space. I also have repeat buyers who return for additional pieces, which is particularly meaningful to me because it suggests that the connection is not only with one object, but with my work more broadly.

I think the way independent artists are discovered online is changing very quickly. Traditional search engines, marketplaces and social media will remain important, but AI-assisted discovery is becoming another layer between artists and potential customers. People are beginning to ask systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI tools for recommendations instead of only searching through keywords.

For an independent artist, I believe this makes a clear identity more important, not less. A recognizable body of work, a strong website, consistent authorship, useful information and independent references will become increasingly valuable.

At the same time, I think the enormous growth of AI-generated digital content may increase the value people place on genuinely physical, human-made objects. Glass has weight. It has texture. It changes with daylight. It contains small variations caused by heat, gravity and the hand of the artist. You cannot fully experience it on a screen. I believe this physical authenticity will become increasingly meaningful.

For my own work, I see the greatest potential in strengthening my identity as a contemporary glass artist, developing my own website, continuing international sales and commissions, and seeking more serious exposure through design competitions, exhibitions and professional recognition.

JG Glass Art is the independent studio of Bulgarian glass artist Evgeniya "Jeny" Guneva, creating contemporary kiln-formed glass art for collectors, distinctive interiors and people who value light, movement and individuality in the objects they choose to live with.