By: Julieta Hernandez Photos By: Rachel Benavides
The Snake and Sparkle brand refers to balance: a balancebrbetween light particles reflecting off glass, a balance between colors andbrdesign, and a balance keeping up with a business life and mom life. Forbrbalancer and glass-worker Candice Hanna, it’s all about trusting the flow andbrhaving a patient hand.
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“The snake is the same thing as the moon,” she says of thebrinspiration behind her brand name. “It’s always shedding its skin and alwaysbrchanging, like the moon cycles.” Working with stained glass as an art form andbra business means that sometimes Hanna will be cycling fresh ideas for pieces,brand sometimes she’ll have the greatest concepts come to her while simply changing abrdiaper. More technically, it also means that sometimes her husband will pointbrout that there’s glass dust in her hair after finishing a piece. That’s where the “Sparkles” part comes from in the name.
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That’s how Candice Hanna delicately balances out Snake andbrSparkle with a full-time mom life. With careful hands and fragile tools, Hannabrcreates reflective ornaments of all shapes and colors in her hometown ofbrAransas Pass – with the companionship of her children, who will occasionallybrdraw cat whiskers on her face while she’s sleeping.
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“That’s real life for me…you wake up as a cat, try and getbryour coffee in, stay in your pajamas, run outside, do a little bit ofbrgrinding,” she says. “When I do it, I’ll do like six pieces at a time. Butbrsome days, I might just decide not to. I don’t ever want to force it.”
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Between making commissioned pieces and collaborating withbrother local business owners, Hanna comes up with designs for the glass as shebrgoes. Her ascending color, seven-piece chakra-inspired hangings caughtbrattention in the January CC Bliss Box as a spur-of-the-moment design idea.brShe’s worked on pieces for Wildflowers and Archer Soapworks in Corpus Christi,bras well.
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Previously in the tattooing field, some of Hanna’sbrinspiration comes from classic tattoo designs, which explains the vintage, folkbraura of her translucent pieces. Her glass creations can range from colorfulbrgeometrics to muted colors of crescent moons that create vivid light patternsbrwhen hanging by windows.
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“I’ll finish a piece sometimes, and just like hold it up tobrthe sun for 30 minutes, because it shines so beautifully,” she says with a smile.
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The tangible artwork of these concepts comes from thebrdrawing pad of Hanna’s eldest daughter Sidney, who is also a tattoo artist inbrtown. Hanna usually will ask her daughter to draw her visions when she’sbrinspired for a new piece. You can also find Sidney’s cartoon artwork of Hanna’sbrsoldering, cutting, and grinding processes on the Snake and Sparkle socialbrmedia page.
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The best place to check out Hanna’s creations, or thebrlengthy process of making said creations, is on her Instagram,br@SnakeAndSparkle. Keep an eye out for her new pieces while you admire her pastbrones.
