Glenda van Koot
Her Glass is Always Half Full
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What hasn’t Glenda van Koot tried her hands at? Over the years, you may have seen Glenda in sales, retail merchandising, as a florist or in her own interior decorating business, but she packed it all in some time ago to focus on raising her children.
Keeping a part time job during those years is typical of Glenda’s ‘need to keep busy’ attitude and things haven’t changed today.
In keeping with Glenda’s experience in the creative field, she found the perfect new business to start with her husband and son – custom decorative glass. During her years as an interior decorator, Glenda became familiar with the amazing possibilities custom glass brings into a space.
In 2004 she took over an existing SGO Designer Glass franchise in Hamilton relocating it to Burlington; it has been growing steadily. Glenda was thrilled to sign on with this growing company. “The company clicked with me right away and the President is very positive and supportive,” which was an important factor for her.
The van Koot’s run the business together husband Bill stepping in as needed while son Josh takes care of most of the production, design work and installations. Glenda focuses on the business aspects and she and Josh both handle sales.
When asked about working and living with her son at the same time, Glenda says she always tries to draw the line between work and family especially over breakfast. “Spending time with Josh at work has been great – he might have something else to say about that!” jokes Glenda.
One of her proudest accomplishments is going back to school and graduating the same year as her son and on the Deans’ List to boot!
When Glenda’s clients come into the studio, they can bring in a photo or drawing or start from scratch. SGO has several books with patterns for inspiration and a glass program to develop customized projects to suit any need. “I always tell my clients that nothing is set in stone. With several methods of glass design to offer, we can put any design into glass art,” Glenda explains.
Stained Glass Overlay has been a world leader in decorative glass design and installation since 1978. Their decorative glass works for any room in home, office, place of worship, schools and many different commercial and institutional locations.
Glenda’s location handles stained glass overlay, bevelled, sandblasted, carved, traditional stained glass and heat-formed glass. They carry Medieval Glass, ArchDeco and are an approved dealer for Ultraglas.
While Glenda doesn’t have a favourite type of project to work on, she says “The best part of my work is when the client is thrilled with the project and they feel it really added to their space.”
Written By: Nicki Manley |
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