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Glass art lifts spirits in any season

Nothing says Christmas like the sparkle of a stained glass window in candle light.
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In a time when teaching and other full-time jobs are in short supply

Nothing says Christmas like the sparkle of a stained glass window in candle light.

Much traditional stained glass, such as Nativity scenes, are found in churches.

Lakecity teacher and artist Diana Watt has been creating special glassworks that aren’t found in churches, but can be found in local homes and businesses.

Some of these are custom Christmas pieces that people can hang in their windows for the holiday season then take down until the next year.

Watt has been dabbling in stained glass for about five years, but has more recently started using the glass-on-glass mosaic technique to create her art pieces, some of which grace local businesses such as Red Tomato Pies and the Bean Counter.

“I think it is fantastic the way Jason Akeson and Cindy Chappell were so excited to have my work in their shops,” Watt says.

“It started with a simple conversation when they saw some piece I had done for fun and thought it would be neat to have a mosaic of their own! I think in this day and age it’s great that local businesses will support local artists. It has been a great experience that I loved every moment of.”

Watt says she is now working on two pieces for Kevin Lewis’s outdoor carving gallery in Courtenay, and is expecting to collaborate with Steve Harkies of Juniper Trails this year on some window decoration  for his business.

She includes her clients in the whole process if they want to see the progress of their glasswork.

“I make lanterns with abstract designs as well as mini murals, transoms, breakfast-in-bed trays, table tops, and even window hangings. I do custom work that is designed after collaboration with a client,” Watt says. “There are so many ideas I have each day that I can hardly wait to get inside my shop to sketch them out and start on them.”

Watt got into mosaic glasswork when she and her mom Sherry Watt started doing little weekend projects together.

“I never expected a fun weekend mother/daughter project to end up bringing in bill-paying money,” Watt says. “My mom and I still meet and discuss colours and designs, which works well as she is always my biggest supporter and sounding board before I start a new project.

“She has encouraged me since day one to give all my ideas a shot!”

Watt grew up in Williams Lake and followed in her mother’s footsteps in becoming a teacher.

She has been teaching elementary school since 2001 but like many young teachers who graduated in the last 10 years or so, she has had to go abroad to find full-time work.

Her first teaching job was at an inner-city school in the Surrey suburb of London, England.

During the second week of work as a substitute teacher, she stopped a fight between two Grade 7 students in which one student was trying to stab another student.

“That was an interesting day,” Watt says.

After school that day the headmaster asked her if she reckoned she might consider coming back the next day and was surprised when she agreed.

Watt  felt it was better knowing what you were possibly in for the next day than to chance a new day with another mystery school.  She says visiting teachers from out of country are mostly placed in schools with very challenging students.

“I taught there two years and I am still in contact with some of the families I met,”  Watt says. “I did go back five years after I taught there to visit. The students I taught in grades 3 and 4 were then in Grade 9 and had a tea for me. I was amazed that of my 28 students, close to 20 came by!”

Watt is still in touch with four families whose children are now in Grade 12.

After London, Watt came back to Canada and taught at Mile 108 Elementary and at Alexis Creek before teaching in Langley and returning to the lakecity.

Her sense of adventure took her next to Resolute Bay, Nunavut, the third most northern community in the entire world.

Resolute Bay is an Inuit community of 150 people on tiny Cornwallis Island situated along the Northwest Passage, above Baffin Island, that is too far north to even see the northern lights, she says.

In Resolute Bay Watt says they ordered their food on the Internet and it came in by plane from Montreal or Yellowknife.

Ice cream often arrived soft and malt like and the milk, frozen.

Once lasagna took a month to make as she forgot to order cottage cheese once and another time, the noodles and had to wait for two weeks for the next order.

That Christmas she returned home to Williams Lake for a visit after not having seen daylight for about two months. The sunrise flying into Cambridge Bay gave her a headache that prompted her to pull the window blind. Her subsequent teaching assignments have been all over B.C.

Over the last 10 years she has travelled in Ireland, Scotland, Spain, France, Austria, Germany, Morocco, Guatemala, and Belize.

In Spain she says Christmas is a very festive season where people start out celebrating on Christmas Eve and are still out socializing until 7 a.m. Christmas morning.

In Morocco she says she was invited to New Year’s Eve festivities by a fabulous Muslim family. “They had a traditional band play on the roof of the brick home with instruments I have never seen before and some phenomenal drummers preformed,” Watt says.

“Their hospitality was amazing. In all my travels, I have been fortunate to have experienced the generosity of people and I look forward to being able to return the favour when I meet overseas travellers here in Canada.”

Watt has a passion for many different hobbies including photography, gardening, home renos, kayaking, squash and participating in marathons and triathlons.

“When I lived in England I got into triathlons of the smaller distances pretty heavily,” Watt says. “I’ve never been bored. There is always something to do and somewhere to go.”

Watt says the passing of lakecity hockey player Josh Wolbers in his sleep a few years ago was an epiphany for her and inspired her to help raise funds for a student bursary in his honour.

“I remembered how nice to everyone he had been during school and in his community work,” Watt says. “His passing made me evaluate life and realize that if we don’t make the time to do things, or to try things we say we want to try, we may never get the chance.

“It made me think about some things I wanted to do but hadn’t done yet. He gave me the inspiration to do a half ironman distance triathlon after only doing the smallest distances. I would be jumping from a 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike and five-km run to 2.5- km swim, 90-km bike and a 21-km run.”

During a race in Vancouver she says Robin Williams was making a movie on the race course. After placing second in her first half ironman, Watt says she was full of courage and set off to see if Williams would donate to the cause as he is a biking enthusiast.

“He autographed my race gear that was sold and given toward the bursary,” Watt says.

“Some of the security guys pitched in and donated too. I raised more money and did my first half ironman in his (Wolbers) memory. I raised money through family and friends, as well as a  squash tournament  at the gym and silent auction and it was all put into an account that will be used as a bursary for a high-school student graduating who has been involved in community work and is heavily into sports.

 

“If all goes well, this year may be the first year for the bursary.”