Cape Breton artist creates Maritime-inspired stained glass art

An artist out of Cape Breton has found her passion by selling custom stained glass art online.

Paula Camus began her creative journey more than two decades ago as an oil painter, but she said she was always drawn to stained glass art.

“It was something that no one around here was doing and I loved the bright colours and just the look of the light shining through the coloured glass,” said Camus.

Camus is the creator of La Brise Stained Glass Studio in Chéticamp, N.S., where she makes intricate stained glass art pieces.

While the pieces she makes now have a seamless look to them, Camus said it wasn’t always easy.

“The sauntering was a little, I guess, not smooth at first but I’ve actually improved a lot in over 20 years,” she said.

Paula Camus works on a stained glass piece in her studio. (CTV/Darryl Reeves) Camus like to focus on smaller-scale projects like earrings, sun catchers, and pieces to hang on your wall, but each project can take several hours to create.

“Time usually depends on the complexity of the piece; however it usually takes a couple of hours from start to finish on an average piece,” she said.

Some of Camus's pieces sit on a desk. (CTV/Darryl Reeves) Camus says the use of social media was a big part of expanding the reach of La Brise Stained Glass Studio.

“Social media really opened up the doors to business abroad, with that I ended up getting several orders throughout North America and even some overseas, nowadays that’s pretty much how I do business in any form, through social media and the website,” she said.

While she does take orders for custom pieces, Camus says she likes when someone gives her the creative freedom, and she like to get most of her inspiration from her environment.

“I always like the client telling me, ‘I trust your vision, I trust your work, can you make something like this for me,’ and just kind of let me go for it,” she said.

With files from CTV's Darryl Reeves. 

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