Cornelia Fondse, 54, moved to Basingstoke last year to be with her partner. The former accountant, who is originally from the Netherlands, before moving to Belgium in 2011 and finally settling in the UK, has opened a new shop, Atelier Vidrio, selling glass art in the Viables.
“I used to make glass art in my free time, and when my son moved to London to study there, he needed some kind of income, so he would sell my glasswork there, but unfortunately, Covid came, but then we began to grow.”
Following a successful period, Cornelia was able to leave her accountancy role and set up shop in an old motor store in Cheriton, but, following the demolition of that building, she moved to the Viables on June 7.
Her new shop is staffed by herself and her dog, Nero, with her children helping with marketing and social media roles.
“I’ve worked my a** off as an accountant and now I have this shop, this still feels like more of a hobby, it doesn’t feel like work and it just happened by accident, I didn’t want to be an accountant anymore, I wanted to be here.
“At the moment, business is slow, but we have had more business here in a week than we did at Cheriton. We just need to get the word out now.”
Everything in the shop is hand-made by Cornelia, who explained that while decorative urns are her best-sellers, she loves getting hands-on to make creative art pieces.
She said: “The tealights are selling very well and the butterflies – I can make them with my eyes closed in 10 seconds.”
Her favourite piece is a stained glass bear, which she said she has grown fond of and would be sad to part with.
She joked: “Every time somebody wants to buy it, I have to add another one or zero to the price, I really liked making it.”
Cornelia offers a walk-in workshop where visitors can learn how to make their own glass pieces. She offers this to groups as large as 10.
