We chatted with Curtis Dionne, who, after completing a rigorous glassblowing apprenticeship, returned to the East Coast and began building his dream — piece by piece by founding Glass Roots. Dionne openly shares his artistic and entrepreneurial journey, which spans over two decades, and their heirloom-quality pieces that come from countless hours of dedication to the craft.
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The 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 lobster seasonally to subsidize the business and would travel to Ontario and Atlantic provinces to attend trade shows. With the growing success, sales were increasing, and then the pandemic hit, trade shows stopped, and the fate of the business was unknown.
It was during this uncertain period that Curtis, like most successful entrepreneurs, was able to pivot. While in Ontario, Curtis met some fellow glassblowers. The owners of the studio, Kingston Glass, invited him to visit. Curtis and his partner, Charlotte MacLeod, moved their family to Ontario for a year and rented a cottage just outside of Kingston. Curtis would work at the studio but would also rent studio time on the weekends to stock his Grass Roots gallery in Riverview, New Brunswick. It was at this time that Curtis decided to move his business online. Orders poured in, but what surprised Curtis was that the majority of the orders were coming from and being sent to New Brunswick. “That’s when I realized that New Brunswickers thought of us as ‘their’ glassblowers. That connection meant everything; that was the roots I’ve always wanted,” says Curtis.
This new insight and success pushed Curtis and his partner, Charlotte, to make another bold move. With their children in tow and the future unknown, they sold the homestead and set their sights on the city of Saint John. Launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a new urban studio in uptown Saint John.
As part of the campaign, they offered a thirty-tier rewards system where you would receive a glass object if you pledged a certain amount of money, but the gift wasn’t received until the kickstart hit its target goal and the move was complete. Against all odds, the campaign raised an incredible $40,000 in just six weeks. “Saint John was a visual art city,” explained Curtis. “We knew the cruise ship industry was happening here. We love that it’s an industrial city and it has all these brick buildings. You could live an urban lifestyle but still have a real small town community feel and a community that supports each other.” It took the couple approximately nine months after moving to get the production up and running.
Their first Saint John studio was a 200 sq ft space in a basement with a small hobby furnace that held 50lbs of hot glass they could use in 1 day, but it takes 2 days to cook the glass. As business grew, he decided to rent the 2,500 sq ft next door to create a showroom. The couple transformed what was once a forgotten annex with a crumbling roof into a thriving glassblowing studio. After two years of relentlessly walking back and forth from building to building, having two landlords and two rent payments, they decided it was time to create a new vision for the brand and its brick-and-mortar location. A vision sparked during his travels through Europe. While attending a glass conference in Berlin and exploring Northern Italy and Belgium with his oldest son, he was struck by how European artisans and entrepreneurs embraced unconventional spaces, hidden basements, tucked-away alleys, or centuries-old stone nooks, turning them into vibrant cultural gems. Inspired, Curtis returned home and was determined to bring the overlooked building and its unused basement to life.
After months of renovation, they moved out of their showroom in 89 Canterbury Street and reopened their gallery in the basement of 87 Canterbury—connected to the studio annex. The building was constructed in 1901, and features exposed bedrock, pilings built directly on top of granite boulders, and old-growth timbers 11” wide.
To keep up with growing demand, Curtis built a new giant furnace, named “El Diablow” over 5 weeks this past winter (2024/2025). The exterior is made from a giant steel maple sap holding tank that he cut down to size. The new furnace has a massive crucible that can hold 400lbs of hot glass. “This has been a massive game changer for us; we now have 12 days’ worth of hot glass to work with,” explained Curtis.
Guests can slip into a back-alley entrance and discover the fiery world of glassblowing (free of charge). The studio features church pew seating to interactive demonstrations where the heat and risk of the craft are felt in real time; the experience is one of a kind. Guests leave with not only a new appreciation for the art form but also the opportunity to bring home a unique keepsake or statement piece.
For those who have the opportunity to watch these glass masterpieces be created before their eyes and think, “I would love to give that a try.” Curtis offers six slots a month of workshops that happen over the period of one weekend. If you’re looking to book a larger group, they also do custom bookings for an even more curated experience. “But mostly we try to keep the studio rolling with our own creative freedom because it’s such a great experience too,” says Curtis.
The glass Curtis uses is far from ordinary. Each piece begins with a delicate blend of silica, limestone, and potash, fused into what’s known as soda lime glass. His studio imports pre-mixed, pelletized fine powder of a lithium barium crystal from Sweden, a product they’ve been developing for over sixty years. The brilliant colours that bring his creations to life come from Reichenbach Studio in Germany, which has been handcrafting for over 150 years. The glass is not simply melted together at random; its chemistry is exacting, requiring every formula to align perfectly so that expansion and contraction happen at just the right time; otherwise, the glass would crack under its own pressure. The result is beautiful, rare material, impossible to mass-produce. No two works of art are ever the same.
With the brand’s growing success on the rise, and the couple’s desire to share their amazing works of art with more people, this past spring, they opened a Container Gallery at the AREA 506 Container Village. With tourists flooding the area for festivals like the Boxcar Country Festival and AREA 506 Music Festival, plus passengers during the cruise ship season, the container was an excellent opportunity to really “blow things up this year.” They’re still learning a lot from their first year at the Container Village, but mentioned that they definitely have some tweaking to do in the marketing and advertising department, and are hopeful that business will only improve. One of the most exciting recent ventures, Curtis added, was his partnership with Eric Scouten at Kakutaru, a cocktail lounge located in another alleyway down the street. Curtis looks forward to collaborating with other bars, breweries, businesses, and events that would be interested in custom drinkware or unique pieces like the ‘Best of the Fest Award‘ for the Saint John Beer Fest, which is a crystal masterpiece that the winner can display proudly in their brewery or tap room, until a new winner is announced each year.
Now with three Glass Roots locations (Studio & Gallery at 87 Canterbury Street, the Container Gallery at AREA 506 Waterfront Container Village in Saint John, and their PEI Gallery at 169 Great George in downtown Charlottetown) and a solid online business, their products are reaching more customers throughout Atlantic Canada and beyond.
Curtis prides himself on his work. Each piece is beautiful in its unique way. Whether displayed in a living room or shared over a drink at a favorite bar, his glasswork stands as a reminder that beauty is best when it’s both timeless and personal.
by Krista Legge-Wakeley