Light After Dark
The sky is a dark, velvety blue when Luann Baker-Johnson comes to work. By day, Lumel Studios is a bustling glass gallery and teaching studio, but between the hours of 4 a.m. and 8 a.m., it’s Luann’s quiet place.
It’s during these hours that her energetic, 'b-bopping brain' (Luann’s description) slows down enough to take stock, tie loose ends and focus on her own practice. Balancing being an artist and business owner is no small feat.
“I’m exceptionally social,” says the lifelong Yukoner, who along with her husband, Mel, conceived Lumel studio in 2016 intending to make glass blow accessible and affordable while creating a hub within the Whitehorse community for locals and visitors alike.
“I’m also a very insular person who likes my own time.”
As a child, Luann spent hours playing alone in the wilderness behind her family home. “That solitude is still really important to me.”
As the sun rises over Whitehorse –– just shy of noon in the Winter months –– it streams into the studio through its many glass garage doors.
“In Winter, we celebrate the rise of the sun almost every day.”
Anyone blowing glass will often pause to admire the pinky glow above grey mountains in the distance, says Luann. With only four to six hours of natural sunlight a day, the locals learn to embrace the light.
“In the Yukon, we let the darkness in and we let the light shine in,” says Luann, who is no stranger to both.
When her daughter Rondi died of Leukaemia at the age of 19, Luann went back to school to study art. “Grief triggers a fight or flight response. I suppose art was my fight.” Two years later, at age 47, Luann earned degrees in both ceramics and glass.
“Clay is very comforting and I think I really needed that comfort as a grieving mom,” she says. “Glass is very much a struggle, and that was an important part of my grief as well. I think I had to fight through something. I needed both.”
Glass blowing is as maddening as it is magical. Dangerous, tedious, thrilling and transcendental. The heat is intense, with temperatures rising as high as an erupting volcano. Glass is also a communal craft. It can be done alone, but the artist is limited in what they can accomplish.
Community is at the heart of Lumel Studios. A few years after she graduated from art school, Luann and Mel founded what locals affectionally now refer to as, “the happiness factory.” The writings of German-Jewish philosopher, Walter Benjamin were a guiding light from the start.
“In one of his essays, Benjamin talks about craft and how craft shops all along the trade routes were places where people would gather and exchange stories,” says Luann.
Lumel Studios was conceived as a glass studio, but for many, it’s also a place where they come to share, learn, laugh and heal.
“It is a place of conversation,” says Luann. “Locals gather here, and so do tourists. Travellers will tell us about their journey, knowledge that we then pass on to the next person travelling in the same direction. Since the beginning of time, that is what craft establishments have been.”
Glass blowing is as maddening as it is magical. Dangerous, tedious, thrilling and transcendental.
Every piece of glass tells a story. A gift of friendship. A labour of love. A leap of faith. Newcomers, who’ve never worked with glass before will try their hand at a bird or a heart in some bright gemstone colour.
“Our little hearts and birds are all over the world,” says Luann with a satisfied grin. Glass mugs are just as popular among tourists. “Our mugs are made to be used every day,” says Luann. “They’re as hardy as us Yukoners.”
Lumel Studios is located in Whitehorse, Yukon, and offers a range of workshops, daily demonstrations of glassblowing and a studio filled with handmade, Northern-inspired creations for purchase.
Athena Tsavliris
Athena Tsavliris is a lifestyle writer with a focus on decor, fashion, food and family life. She has written for Toronto Life, the National Post, the Toronto Star, Uppercase, House & Home, Chatelaine and Today's Parent. Pottery is a more recent passion, and you'll often find her running around Toronto covered in clay dust and blue glaze. Athena loves to swim, preferably in the sea. She lives with her husband and their three children in Toronto's south Annex.
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