Side Street Studio Blog | The best art that B.C. can offer
About This Site
Side Street Studio in Oak Bay Village and now Humboldt Street, Victoria, has been selling the work of British Columbia artists for over 25 years. Side Street Studio is family owned and has the support of five highly trained and helpful staff. We are commited to providing a showcase for the best pottery, jewellery, wood, glass art, textiles, cards & books, carvings, West Coast photography & art prints and special Gifts that B.C. can offer. more...
Watch local Victoria based Glass Artist make a Glass Dragonfly – on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMXE5gd7ABE
or VIMEO at http://vimeo.com/11147141
Amazing creativity – in real time!
From Side Street Studio www.sidestreetstudio.com
I have been working in glass as an artist for over thirty years. I began as an apprentice in a studio involved in Stained Glass restoration and residential, religious and commercial stained glass commissioned work. I also had the prividge of taking a course in studio glass blowing at the Art College of Alberta in 1975. I set up my own studio in Nanaimo in 1977.
I began fusing and slumping glass as a sideline to my stained glass work in 1978 and completed a few commissions of fused and bent glass lamps for a Victoria restaurant. There was little market for warm glass at that time and stained glass and sandblasted commissions paid the bills.
Over the years I would bend replacement glass panels for antique lampshades and make glass sculpture that included bent glass components. In 1992 I had a show at the Nanaimo Art Gallery at Malaspina University College featuring bent and fused plate glass sculpture.
The design process gets more involved all the time. Initially I was fusing fairly 2-D designs but after some study I began working in cast glass and colour bar last year, I’ve begun creating pieces with more depth and interesting elements inside the piece itself.
A lot of what I create needs cold work to produce a polished glass edge on these very thick pieces. The polishing process sometimes involves a diamond saw and a wet belt machine using over 6 different belts and finally cerium oxide and felt. 
As I design and fire more pieces suggest themselves and soon they too become manifest. Even after all these years I still excited by all the possibilities that warm glass possesses. You can seem more of Chris Smith’s magnificent work at www.sidestreetstudio.com
CELTIC KNOT PAPERWEIGHT
Robert Held wrote’ “I was born in Santa Ana, California and aspired to be an artist from an early age. My father was a sculptor but only lived for the first six years of my life Yet he passed on the talent and appreciation of art that gave me the beginnings of a quest to create beauty in form and color.
COBALT ART NOUVEAU GLASS BOWL
In High School my paintings won the “Ebell Award” for promising students. I studied painting at Whittier College until ceramics artist F. Carleton Ball crossed my path.
To explore this new medium, I changed colleges, supporting myself through this time as the Art Director of the Los Angeles County Fair.
Pursuing a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, I was awarded the graduate assistantship. At this time, I won the prestigious “Glen Lukins Award” for new work in ceramics.
FLOWER CANE PERFUME BOTTLE
Upon graduating, I was offered a position as Head of Ceramics at a college being built in Ontario. I accepted the position becoming the youngest department head at the Sheridan College – School of Design. In 1968, after a visit to the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, I discovered a new love: the art of glassblowing. I returned to Sheridan College inspired and succeeded in launching Canada’s first college level hot glass program in 1969.This program allowed many Canadian artists to become skilled in this medium, and crowned me as the pioneer of art glass in Canada. Eventually, I left the teaching world, and in 1978 I began my own glass studio known as Skookum Art Glass Inc based out of Calgary, AB and operated there until 1987.
GIVERNY BOWL - AMETHYST
At this time, I moved to Vancouver, BC, and continues to enjoy much success there today at my studio: Robert Held Art Glass, and also through the many fine galleries and gift shops that carry my work throughout North America, Europe and Japan.
I use techniques that date back as long ago as 2000 B.C. however, my collections range from classic to contemporary.
MEADOW LARGE CRUCIBLE VASE
Some works are inspired by the paintings of famous artists such as Monet and Klimt, while others take inspiration from photographers and even interior designers. Our studio prides itself on providing its customers with a large selection of affordable hand-blown gift items, as well as my own individual creations for the serious collector. My glass work has also been chosen for many prestigious awards and collections. My goblets were selected to grace the table of the Governor General’s “Perfect Setting” and my newest commissioned piece: a glass bowl encasing 23rd karat gold maple leaves and sparkling dichroic glass now sits in Her Majesty’s Royal Collection.
PEACOCK FLAT VASE
In 2003, a piece from my Flower Line was selected as the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association’s Gift of the Year. My glass sculptures may also be found in major collections such as the Roland Michener and the Indusman.
POPPY PERFUME BOTTLE
In 2009 I created a bowl that our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper presented to the Premier of China at the start of the 2009 Beijing Olympics”.
You can see more of Robert Helds fabulous and great value work at http://www.sidestreetstudio.com/catalog/robert-held-m-8002.html?page=1&sort=3a
Ed Kennedy wrote, “One evening many years ago, while playing a board game with my neighbors, I was given a task of making a wish. The wish that I heard myself making was, “I wish I had more wonder in my life.” I have been watching that wish come true.”
I have been working with glass, first, breaking it as a little kid, and later installing glass in houses and commercial buildings. One day a friend said, “You are a glazier, you should be able to make stained glass windows.” I had been interested, and now was challenged.
My first window was drawn out with a fat black marker, on a sheet of newspaper, and I learned to adjust. I finally had to put the window in storage, and let my mind dwell on it. A few years later, I did the Landmark Forum, and the next weekend I pulled the window out of storage and completed it. I have been having fun with stained glass for thirty years.
I live in Victoria, British Columbia, and five years ago I was given a job in one of the best stained glass shops in the Pacific Northwest, the Glass-Smith. I was doing regular glass work, and got to be around professionals who designed and built stained glass. The Glass-Smith offers classes in building stained glass, fusing, and I was lucky enough to learn glass painting. In the fusing class I was introduced to dichroic glass. It is magic for me. 
If you have ever opened a kiln with your work in it, you will be aware that a transformation has taken place. It brings mystery and wonder. The results are always a surprise.
Working with glass has been wonder full.
Angela Bone has been working with glass for five years, first as a bead maker, and is currently fusing large plates with a labyrinth design. 
Angela, with the help of the Garden Committee at Victoria General Hospital, has created a permanent 45 foot diameter outdoor labyrinth on the grounds. She brings beauty, vision, and grounding to her work.
You can see more of Ed’s and Angela’s superb work at www.sidestreetstudio.com
Mark Lauckner says,” When I first started blowing glass I was haunted by the realization that enormous amounts of energy are required in order to produce even the smallest blown glass vessels. 
I was interested in recycling glass. My focus was on making glass while considering ecology. 
I couldn’t see the point in recycling glass if the energy inputs required to do so were so large.”"In 1997 I started designing and building my own glass melting furnaces. By 1999, I had designed and built a furnace which uses approx. one tenth the energy consumed by traditional glass furnaces. I produced an instructional video of the design and building of this furnace and made it available to other glass artists. It became instantly popular. 
Since then, I have re-designed almost every piece of equipment used in a glassblowing studio to make them super energy efficient. These electric designs use no combustion, therefore produce no carbon emissions. These furnace designs are now in use in over 17 countries worldwide by glass studios and glass recycling ventures.
“On the home front, I process approx 12,000 pounds of scrap window glass annually and recycled over 140,000 pounds since I began operation in 1996! “
“I have my operation and large gallery showroom on Mayne Island, BC. I offer tours, workshops, demonstrations, and talks for school groups in an effort to promote the concept that glass art can be made while considering ecology.” 
You can find much more of Mark’s excellent and intelligently produced glass at Side Street Studio.
My name is Debbie Jansen and I have lived in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia for most of my life after emigrating from England as a child.
I became interested in glass after taking a course in making a stepping stone from glass and cement. From there I have taken various courses with stained glass, using both lead came and the copper foil method, but after learning about fusing glass in a kiln, I was hooked.
The process of fusing glass has been around for centuries. To fuse glass there are sometimes as few as two steps or many more depending on the desired outcome. The glass, which is specially designed for fusing, is first cut into the desired shapes and then reassembled on a kiln shelf and fired in the kiln at approximately 1460 F, for up to 12 hours, as you have to wait until the kiln has completely cooled down (as I learned by opening it too soon and having my plate break because it cooled too quickly). Then the flat fused piece of glass is placed on a ceramic mold and “slumped” into your desired shape at a lower temperature of 1150 F, this again takes another 12 or so hours.
I have had many successes, and a few oopses that I display proudly in my home and I am always learning and trying new techniques which include sandblasting designs onto the glass, using powdered glass to make very interesting visual effects and some works that have a raised 3D relief.
You can see more of Debbie Jansens beautiful work at Side Street Studio in Victoria, B.C. and at Debbies web site.
