Flo Glassblowing held a free glass-blowing workshop on Sept. 27 as part of the national Culture Days festival.
“It’s our fourth year, doing [the culture day events] now . . . We saw lots of people, probably 70 students go through throughout the day,” said Melody Jewitt, owner and glass-blower for Flo Glassblowing.
During the open hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., a steady stream of interested students and young families came to the store for the first-hand experience.
“It was awesome. It was harder than it looks,” said Jessica Pearson, a third-year student at the University of Ottawa who attended the event. “It’s such a great gift because you put your breath into it. I’m going to tell my mom to hang it in her window, that it’s filled with my love.”
“It’s an addictive art form . . . it’s more challenging than any art form that I’ve ever tried, so the learning curve is very steep but even more rewarding because of it,” Jewitt said about the process of creating blown glass. “There’s a rush to doing it, and the more that you’re comfortable with it, the more you want to keep building your skills.”
The glass-blowing event was part of the Culture Days festival going on across Canada, looking to shine a light on Canadian culture in local communities. According to Jewitt, this fits with her vision for the business.
“The heart of the business is about being as involved in the community as possible, so when we find things like Culture Days, we’re very eager to participate just so people know how much we’re open as a place for people to visit,” Jewitt said.
For Pearson, this event marked another one of the many events taking place in Ottawa’s thriving local arts and business scene.
“I’m from Saskatchewan, from a very small town, and I find that there are always things going on. People who are from Ottawa who tell me that it’s boring make me mad because it is not . . . there’s all these cultural activities,” Pearson said.
According to Jewitt, Flo Glassblowing started outside of Ottawa and moved into the city to get more involved on the local scene.
“I think Ottawa is the perfect community for what we want to offer . . . originally this whole setup was in Merrickville, so we moved quite purposefully into the city to get more involved with the community and get more people seeing what it’s about and trying it for themselves,” Jewitt said.
