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This has been a massive game changer for us; we now have 12 days’ worth of hot glass to work with. ”
T he art of glassblowing is both extraordinary and timeless. At the heart of glassblowing lies an ancient ritual with molten glass gathered on the end of a steel rod, glowing with the brilliance of fire before gradually transforming into an object of light and color. The practice demands precision and patience, balancing creativity with discipline. For Curtis, this centuries-old art is not simply a skill, but a lifelong commitment. Curtis was born in North Vancouver, the son of a marine engineer. His childhood was anything but settled; his father’s contract work meant the family moved frequently, living on the West Coast, the East Coast, and everywhere in between. “We lived in most of the provinces,” he recalls. The unsettling way of life left him feeling rootless. By the time he was a teenager in PEI, school no longer held his attention. At just sixteen, he left both home and high school behind and spent some time working seasonally with a wooden boat builder for a season and a woodturner for the following season. Curtis became friends with a woman in PEI
whose father was a glassblower in Seattle; she showed him photographs of blown glass in a book that piqued his interest. Growing tired of seasonal employment, Curtis decided to move to Vancouver to work as a roofing laborer, but it was there that he found his passion for glassblowing. One day, while working on a roofing job, Custis’ piqued interest in glassblowing became a reality when he opened the Yellow Pages and found a glass studio on the edge of the city. And started pouring more than half his monthly wages, $1,000, into lessons and workshops, attending religiously every Saturday. “Right away, I knew I loved it, and I was probably going to be a glassblower. It suited my style, it’s very music of the moment, it’s freehand, and intuitive,” Curtis explains. Within six months, as a nineteen-year-old, the studio Maple Ridge, British Columbia, hired him as a full-time apprentice under a very gifted Maestro—Daniel Vargas, who brought hundreds of years of glassblowing knowledge and traditions to Canada from Guadalajara, the ‘glass city’ of Mexico.
That mentorship cemented his path: glassblowing would be more than a job; it would recreate his life. When his first child was born, Curtis knew he needed stability. Curtis had family in Prince Edward Island, but in 2008, he chose New Brunswick and bought a homestead deep in Albert Country. “It’s a little wilder, a little more untamed, and that really drew me because at the time, I was only in my early 20s, but my mindset was that New Brunswick was kind of like a less expensive British Columbia,” Curtis stated. Once at the homestead in New Brunswick, Curtis built a fourteenth-century-style wood- fired furnace in a woodshed on the property, and with $300 to his name, he founded and launched Glass Roots Inc. The name itself was symbolic, a play on “grassroots”. “I never felt like I really had roots anywhere,” he explains. “I didn’t feel grounded until I discovered glassblowing. This was my way to put down roots through my craft.” For more than a decade, Curtis balanced his art with challenges and obstacles. He fished
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BUSINESS • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE 95 Reservations Recommended
94 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 25 ISSUE 4
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