O.C. BUSINESS PLUS : HEARD ON THE BEAT / SMALL BUSINESS : Young Artist Sees Clear Days Ahead With Fine-Art Glass-Blowing Firm

At 18, Caleb Siemon launched Caleb Designs, a line of “funky jewelry for young people.” The pieces--pendants and bracelets with religious symbols--were such a hit that Siemon came out with four subsequent lines and earned $80,000 in royalties.

Despite that success, Siemon has opted for a career in glass-blowing. The 24-year-old graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design has opened United Glass in Costa Mesa, which features vases, goblets, lamps, bowls and other items that sell for $40 to $1,000. “It’s my passion, what I love to do,” he said.

Siemon’s creations have won kudos and customers. Diane Rosenstein, owner of Russell Simpson Co., a furniture gallery on Melrose Avenue, recently bought two large vases decorated with a green-and-yellow abstract pattern. “He has an extreme maturity and sophistication in his work,” she said.

Siemon hopes to sell his fine-art productions to galleries and interior design stores. In typical artist fashion, he is loath to project sales or profits. “I have this crazy gut feeling that this will go well,” he said, adding that he hasn’t done market research.

If Siemon is a bit green about business, he knows his art. At age 6, he began working at Bob Siemon Designs, his father’s jewelry manufacturing and distribution company in Santa Ana.

After graduating from college in 1997 with a degree in fine arts, Siemon trekked to Italy to apprentice with glassblower Pinot Signoretto. After a year in Venice, he returned to the United States determined to start a glass-blowing business. Borrowing $20,000 from his father and chipping in $50,000 in savings, Siemon rented a large studio in Costa Mesa, bought furnaces for glass-blowing and hired two employees.

“Glass-blowing was a dying art that’s slowly reviving,” he said. “I definitely want to be a part of that revival.”