Village People: Glass Roots Canada
From molten glass to lasting memories, Glass Roots Canada is a Saint John studio creating meaningful pieces with heart and heat.
We sat down with Charlotte McLeod to hear how it all began, what it’s taken for her and her partner Curtis Dionne to grow the business, and the impact she hopes Glass Roots will leave behind.
Q: What’s your favourite colour?
A: If I had to pick one, it’d be purple. We named our daughter Violet.
Q: Where did the idea for the business come from?
A: Curtis has been blowing glass for nearly 25 years, and when I first saw him working — honestly, I was in tears. It was just so powerful and beautiful; I instantly thought, this is incredible. We’ve been working with glass together for many years and officially started our business in 2008.
Moving to Saint John was a joint decision. We were looking for a place that felt artsy, vibrant, and full of character — and Saint John just made sense.
Glass is our passion, so starting the business wasn’t even a question for us. We knew we had to do it.
Q: How did the name of the business come to be?
A: The name really came from a mix of things. Curtis has been blowing glass for years, so obviously that was a big part of it. But it also tied into his own story — he moved around a lot growing up because his dad was a shipbuilder, so he never really had a chance to settle anywhere or put down roots.
Starting this business in New Brunswick was about finally doing that — building something solid. So the name is about the material we work with, but also about creating something lasting after a life of moving around.
Q: Did you have a different job before you started working here? What did you do?
A: I was working out west for a while. I actually started out as a kid cooking in my aunt’s restaurant, then later worked in bars.
Curtis was a roofer out west, and he also spent about 10 years working on fishing boats. In the early days of the business, it was seasonal. He’d fish most of the year, then come home, fire up the furnace, and blow glass for six to eight weeks before heading back out. So yeah, we’ve both kind of been all over the place before landing here.
Q: Is your container village location your first brick-and-mortar retail shop?
A: This isn’t our first brick-and-mortar shop — our studio is actually at 87 Canterbury Street now, but before that we had a shop in Riverview for about five years. When we first started blowing glass, though, it was way out in the middle of nowhere — New Horton, just outside Alma on the scenic route to Moncton. We were living on a farm, trying to live off the land and blowing glass right there.
Then COVID hit and everything kind of shifted. We ended up going out to Ontario for a year to help another glassblowing company that was expanding — they needed an experienced glassblower, so Curtis stepped in. But even while we were out there, we knew we wanted to keep building our own thing.
We were still getting a lot of business from back home, especially for our memorial pieces, so New Brunswick always felt like where we were meant to be.
Q: Why did you want to set up shop at AREA 506?
A: We really want to get more people up to our studio on Canterbury Street, and setting up at the Waterfront Container Village felt like the perfect way to do that. It’s such a high-traffic spot, especially with the cruise ships and all the tourists coming through, but a lot of them weren’t making it up the hill to find us.
This gave us a chance to have someone here full-time — not just making sales, but also spreading the word. Being able to say, “Hey, all of this is handmade just a few blocks away. You can actually go watch the glass blowing happen,” has been such a great way to connect people to what we do.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I honestly had no idea what I wanted to be. I remember at one point thinking I’d be a marine biologist or something like that, but it always felt kind of out of reach. I grew up in Cape Breton, in a small town, and all I really knew was that I wanted something more. I just wanted to get out and figure it out as I went.
Curtis, on the other hand, always knew he’d be a craftsperson. He was super artistic, a little different, and definitely had that creative spark from the start. Looking back now, I think I was probably meant to be an artist too — I just didn’t realize it at the time.
Q: Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were starting out?
A: I don’t think we’d do anything differently. We’ve just stayed steady and focused — raising our family, doing what we love, and making it work. We’ve got six kids, so it’s always been about providing for them while also following our passion. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been worth it.
Q: What do you consider your biggest success so far?
A: I think our biggest success has just been being able to provide for our family by doing what we love. Opening our space in Saint John has been a huge part of that. For years, Curtis was building everything from scratch — homemade furnaces, makeshift equipment, just figuring it out as we went.
Now, we’ve got a proper setup. It’s not like the fancy studios you see on shows like Blown Away, but it’s ours. The furnace is beautiful, the equipment works well, and we’re even able to employ a solid team. Being able to support other people and their families by making things with our hands — it’s something we’re really proud of.
Q: What’s next?
A: Right now, we’re focused on leaving a lasting impact in Saint John — something that can carry on for future generations. One thing we really want people to know is that we do memorials and awards for all kinds of organizations, businesses, and individuals.
The memorial side is something we’re really trying to grow. We’ve been doing it for years, but now we have a beautiful catalog we can share with clients, which makes it easier to show what’s possible. We’ve started working with Fundy Funeral Home and a few others to help let people know that this is an option to hold onto a little piece of someone you love.
If you’re an entrepreneur with a business that you think would be a great fit in the Waterfront Container Village, and you’re interested in hearing more about available opportunities, email hidden; JavaScript is required — we’d love to hear from you!