Spotlight on
Janice Blair
My name is Janice, and I live on Vancouver Island in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada. I grew up here, moved to Vancouver and Greater Vancouver for about 20 years, and then moved back to the Island when my hubby retired from a long career in the ski industry. We have a 31-year old son who lives a ferry ride away, and I’m fortunate to live in the same house with my parents.
We are big dog lovers, and if you follow my Instagram you’ll see photos of the dogs in my life. I work full time for the RCMP, (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and have worked for them for almost 25 years, in various places and roles.
For the past 17 years of that time, I have worked in the IT side of things, mostly in administration and management. Retirement plans are 3 years, 8 months away, but who’s counting! My hubby and I love to road trip and holiday in our RV, hiking, biking, fishing and sightseeing.
I was introduced to lampwork beads about 15 years ago when I was given some earrings as a gift. Lampworking was explained to me, and I thought it sounded interesting – who wouldn’t like melting things with a very hot torch? You know the story, it’s the same beginning for most of us: “I took a 3 hour class, got hooked, went home and ordered a beginner kit and the rest is history!” My husband gave me space in the outdoor shed and bought me a fire extinguisher.
About four months later, after I had proven I wasn’t going to burn the place down and winter was coming, I was able to move into the house. There wasn’t much available online back then, the best source on the internet was Lampwork Etc. While searching one day, I found a tutorial by Fine Folleys to make critters and I found my passion, along with a program called Beads Of Courage.
A few years later, Soda Lime Times came along, which is where I learned a lot of my skills. It seems I’m more drawn to making things with eyes, smiles and a little on the weird side. I have done a few tutorials for Soda Lime Times for Beads of Courage, which I really enjoyed doing. I do make some jewellery, but lean more to non-jewellery items.
While I appreciate and am in awe of people who make amazing beads with perfectly aligned dots, I’m more the person who puts antlers on a fish at Christmas. The past couple of years I’ve been playing with making murrini, and it is something I really enjoy. My torch time is my peaceful time, and if I’m lucky I get to spend about once a week on my torch.
I have a nice little dedicated space in the back corner of the garage that is all mine.I’ve had the opportunity to see some amazing glass artist demos, but have not taken too many in-person classes. I have benefited from artists who could not travel the past few years and provided on-line video classes, which I hope they continue to do as well as in person.
I sell my creations at a local salon, as well as occasionally at our local farmers market. It’s the perfect amount of commitment to keep me stocked in glass and tools comfortably.
I dabble online as well, but prefer to spend my short but valuable spare time watching videos or torching as opposed to social media marketing and the work it takes to keep an online store up and running. I’m hoping in 3 years, 8 months the ratio of glass time will significantly increase!
Here’s a sampling of my quirky work, including a dragon just for you that I made about 10 years ago. You can see more if you’d like on my Instagram @jmbglassart
Happy torching! Janice
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