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@barbara-trombley
Barbara Trombley is the founder of Art Glitter, a company dedicated to creating eco-friendly, non-toxic art glitter products. She is a multimedia artist and educator who has built a community around creative expression and environmentally conscious crafting materials.

Follow The Synchronicities
"Other things came from the universe and pulled me in a direction, and I went in that direction fortunately. If you go on your hunch, take your hunch, and if it's a pure feeling, try to move forward toward that hunch. Just experiment with that dynamic idea that came to you. Why not, right? I have a piece of art over there called, Why Not Jump Off the Cliff and Try It. I don't take credit for it myself, it came through me, and so this happened and I just kept going."

Life-Changing Event
"I didn't quite know, but I know I had an inspiration that came over me in 1976 when I was sitting in my little silver Honda car. I thought, I think I'd like to be in glitter, no, in art and business, I'd like to meld those two because I was a financial rep at the time, but really my entire background was art. I'd been drawing, making things in all different medias since I was a little kid. In 1976, that's a long time ago, I had a friend who said, Barb, why don't you help me design this booth? That was just one thing, and then she got me a job with a graphic design studio in Detroit. It was just one thing happening and pulling me toward it."

Persistence & Patience
"Then Desert Storm happened, and all the phones stopped ringing. Adversity, right? We got one phone call a month because everybody stopped buying. I moved it all back into my house from the 1,500-square-foot studio. I remember when my brother said, what are you doing out here in Arizona, in the middle of nowhere? Come home to Detroit, work on some big things. I said, this is my dream, this is my dream, I can't stop it. After I really made that commitment, that that was my dream within myself, then it started changing. Like I said, these outside influences come to you and pull you and fill a niche in the world."

Take Action
I made up 21 card designs and took them around to alternative card stores in Detroit, which there were only about five, and they ordered them. That's how I started. I took out some paper and I had a pen, and I put my pen to the paper and I said, okay, where is this pen going? I just started doing and I tried not to think, and I also tried not to judge myself. If you want to be a runner but you just don't have the motivation, just get in your running clothes and step outside. Don't think about the rest of it, just move forward."

Use Your Gifts
"My entire background was art. I'd been drawing, making things in all different medias since I was a little kid. I was a formally trained calligrapher. It's your creativity, it's God's creativity, it's coming through you as well. It's your inspiration, something inspiring you, and you're able to then inspire outward. I think that I have inspired people."

Be Courageous
"I just kind of stepped out on a limb, dove off that cliff, and it worked out. That is part of love coming out of you too. It's your creativity, it's God's creativity, it's coming through you as well. It's your inspiration, something inspiring you, and you're able to then inspire outward."

Mentors & Teachers
"Alfred Topman in Detroit. He was a big magnate of shopping centers in the United States. I said to him, Alfred, what should I do? He said, honey, do what you love. What should I invest in? Invest in yourself. That was it. A friend of mine from when I was a financial rep funded my company for $20,000, and he kept the books for two years. D. Grunick, a very famous person in the rubber stamp industry, saw me at the New York State Show and said this would be fabulous for art rubber stamping."

Inner Child & Subconscious Work
"My mother was a florist and my father was a creative engineer in Detroit. I had glass glitter from her. She gave me her extra glass glitter from the 50s and 40s. I made my own Christmas cards every year in a different medium, so sometimes I watercolored them. One year I did them in glitter, chunky glitter from the dime store, and I sent out like 50 cards and got about 12 phone calls back about how much they liked them. It was just like immediate response."

A Vision
"I was all about taking it from a craft product to an art-level product medium for people to use, and I think I have accomplished that. Glitter is dynamic, it does something inside of you that's just beautiful. I think it would be a really good product in the mental health industry because it makes you feel good with the world, with yourself, it inspires you. Plus, it was a very new medium, it was just amazing. We have done some amazing things. We did the Victoria's Secret runway show for about eight years. We decorated the White House Christmas tree with the children of Arizona."

Follow Your Joy
"It was my passion, my love for color, my love for beauty, that happens when that glitter is dynamic and just does something inside your brain. I think it's wonderful, makes you happy. I was all about taking it from a craft product to an art-level product medium for people to use, and I think I have accomplished that. A gentleman friend of mine, Alfred Topman in Detroit, I said to him, what should I do? He said, honey, do what you love. What should I invest in? He said, invest in yourself. That single statement was probably the most moving statement anybody had ever said to me: invest in yourself. Do what you love and invest in yourself."

Take Action
"I made up 21 card designs and took them around to alternative card stores in Detroit, which there were only about five, and they ordered them. That's how I started. I took out some paper and I had a pen, and I put my pen to the paper and I said, okay, where is this pen going? I just started doing and I tried not to think, and I also tried not to judge myself. If you want to be a runner but you just don't have the motivation, just get in your running clothes and step outside. Don't think about the rest of it, just move forward."

Follow Your Joy
"It was my passion, my love for color, my love for beauty, that happens when that glitter is dynamic and just does something inside your brain. I think it's wonderful, makes you happy. I was all about taking it from a craft product to an art-level product medium for people to use, and I think I have accomplished that. A gentleman friend of mine, Alfred Topman in Detroit, I said to him, what should I do? He said, honey, do what you love. What should I invest in? He said, invest in yourself. That single statement was probably the most moving statement anybody had ever said to me: invest in yourself. Do what you love and invest in yourself."

Take Action
"It was my passion, my love for color, my love for beauty, that happens when that glitter is dynamic and just does something inside your brain. I think it's wonderful, makes you happy. I was all about taking it from a craft product to an art-level product medium for people to use, and I think I have accomplished that. A gentleman friend of mine, Alfred Topman in Detroit, I said to him, what should I do? He said, honey, do what you love. What should I invest in? He said, invest in yourself. That single statement was probably the most moving statement anybody had ever said to me: invest in yourself. Do what you love and invest in yourself."