His employment history includes professional musician, custom carpenter, law enforcement officer and cross-country truck driver where he owned and operated his own big rig. In every job he had, art always entered into it in some way. For example, in music he designed his own advertisement flyers and business cards and also hand made his own bass guitar. In carpentry he made some of his own household furniture and made unusual custom smoking pipes. While in law enforcement he drew maps and did various police art projects, becoming the police department commercial artist. In truck driving he hand made log books for his truck driving friends; these books were tooled leather with full portraits or their trucks.

Although he has had no formal education in art, he is self-taught in many areas. He sculpts bronze, paints in oils, pastel chalks and acrylics. He builds his own custom made frames for his paintings. He also carves in wood, ivory and just about anything else he can sink a bit into. Gary started in the knife business by creating scrimshaw in 1977. He offered his work to customers by attending some of the knife and gun shows at that time. He also provided his work to various cutlery stores and private commissions. However, he felt that there were already so many good scrimshaw artists that he needed to be different and create something unique which, after a period of time, led to carving the metal bolsters on knives. His appreciation of the beauty of custom knives led him to creating his own form of enhancement and he introduced his art to the custom knife business in 1982.

As a hobby he started carving old beef steak bones with an electric powered dental drill. He also used this method when he first went into carving knives. Today his studio is outfitted with sophisticated pneumatic rotary equipment, most of which has been adapted by him to accommodate his style of art work. His favorite subject is wildlife. Gary has always been an animal lover. From the time he was seven until he was fifteen, his best friend and playmate was his pet mountain lion named Lucifer. His first dagger was made in 1989 followed by folders in 1991 and side locks in 1995.

In October 1994 a retail knife store "Blanchard's Cutlery" was opened in Las Vegas on the strip. In October 1997 a larger store took its place at 3507 S Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV. The knife making and engraving shop is located within this retail store behind viewing windows so that the customers can see any works in progress.

Gary has since closed the store to concentrate solely on the design and fabrication of custom knives.