Glass Happens

Enchanted Ranch is your funky art experience

By Megan Willome

On the way to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, at the top of a hill, visitors pull off where the buildings are painted a funky purple and green. They are greeted by Holly and Paul Simonette, always wearing tie-dye T-shirts. Holly is a weaver, and Paul is a glass-blower. Both offer art experiences on their 22-acre ranch.
“What we’re doing is living history,” Holly said. Both loom-knitting and glass-blowing trace their origins back to the 1500s. The Simonettes welcome couples, families, RV clubs, corporate office parties, and friends to their ranch.
Art experiences take place on Fridays and Saturdays and are scheduled according to the size of the group. A larger group can request a midweek experience. In the fall, guests make glass ornaments, and in the spring, heart sculptures and suncatchers.
“Just call!” Paul says. “It can be a same-day appointment.”
The experience begins with a safety briefing by Paul at the furnace, the Glory Hole.
“A lot of people have seen ‘Blown Away’ on Netflix and want to give it a try,” Holly said. “They don’t realize how hot that glass is—2,100 degrees is just a number until you actually feel it. Paul always tells them glass is the consistency of honey, but hot like lava.”
Visitors find it’s hard to make the glass do what they want.
“Sometimes the glass goes bloop, like a marshmallow in a campfire, and Paul helps them recenter it,” Holly said. “We always say, ‘Glass happens.’ It can be artwork or floor art if it drops on the ground and breaks.”
But people love making something, even if their project doesn’t turn out perfectly. “They say, ‘I love that it’s funky,’” Holly said.
The same ah-ha moment comes when people attend a fiber art experience and make a macrame leaf or woven wall hanging.

“People don’t appreciate what goes into making a piece of woven clothing unless they look at a loom setup,” she said.
“They don’t appreciate glass on a shelf if they don’t see how it’s made,” Paul added.
The Simonettes offer more than a shelf—there’s a whole funky gallery, the Purple Shack Makers Gallery, with art by Paul, Holly and 17 other local and regional artists. Fiber art, jewelry, photography, woodworking, fused glass, blown glass, and even a little garden art are all available for purchase.
Beside the Purple Shack is a pollinator garden, recognized by Hill Country Master Naturalists and the Native Plant Society of Texas. Guests can bring a picnic and sit on a butterfly bench or in the shade. Something is in bloom most of the year.
“Spring is best for butterflies, but they continue through early summer, then come again in the fall,” Holly said. “We’re restoring and diversifying the plant life for the benefit of the wildlife.”
Their signature purple and green came from the mealy blue sage in the front meadow. “The paint store helped us match the purple flower and the green leaves, and we use the colors on our buildings and in our T-Shirts that say, ‘Art Is Hot,’” Holly said.
The Simonettes came to Fredericksburg five years ago from San Diego. Holly describes herself as a “recovering bureaucrat” who worked in public relations. A friend gave her a loom, and she apprenticed with a fiber artist. She has been weaving for the 20 years.

Paul was a firefighter. Holly gave him a gift certificate for a glass-blowing experience, and “He took to it like a firefighter to flames,” she said. He apprenticed with glass-blowers in San Diego every Sunday for a year,
“I thought, ‘This is a challenge. I’m up for a challenge. And I can take the heat,” Paul said.
Because of the heat, Enchanted Ranch doesn’t offer glass-blowing experience after the Fourth of July, in the late-summer heat. They reopen when things begin to cool off, October through December, take a brief break during the winter chill, then reopen around Valentine’s Day.