Jane Charles

In 1980 Jane went to the North Staffordshire Polytechnic to study Ceramics. She loved the material but being of an impatient nature she was getting frustrated with the length of time that the process took. Next door was the studio glass workshop. It was a hot noisy and an exciting place to be, but most importantly the process was immediate. A piece could be made one day and got out of the kiln the following day to start cold working on.

Jane tried to fight her growing interest in the medium but eventually had to give in. Here began her affair with hot glass. The techniques were hard to learn and at times it seemed an impossible task to acquire the enough technical skills not to inhibit her creativity but not to become so bogged down in technique that the work would become static and lifeless. Jane loved the energy of glass.

On finishing her degree, Jane went to the heart of the British glass industry, Dudley near Stourbridge in the Midlands. Here she did a traditional course on glass making which gave her her own skills that she needed to really start making her own work.

In 1984 Jane had finished her education and knew she wanted her own studio but had no experience so spent the next three years working in as many studios around the country that she could. This was invaluable as life is very different outside the safety of college.

By 1987 Jane felt ready to go it alone and established Jane Charles Studio Glass - originally set up in Edinburgh. She raised the capital to buy cold working equipment and came down to Newcastle to make blanks one week per month. Eventually it made sense to move lock stock and barrel to Newcastle and have her cold working studio next to the facilities she hired.

In July 1996 Jane moved to a larger studio in the same building and installed her first furnace finally making her totally self sufficient.

In February 2011 Jane moved studios again and in April 2011 she opened her first glass gallery in the centre of Newcastle.