Project ‘nerve-wracking’ but worth it

Then, three years ago, she started working in glass as well as clay. Her team includes glass blowers Lisa Samphire and Jay Macdonell, who were the ones who first suggested her work would be amazing if interpreted in glass.

“For the first couple of years, it was a large learning curve, especially trying to make these vessels with long stems and developing new techniques to create the forms,” explained Fox. “But we are starting to hit our stride now.”

Some of her exotic pieces now fetch up to $5,000. (She has an exhibition and sale opening at Winchester Galleries’ Fort Street location on Nov. 29.)

Fox also makes everyday tableware and chuckles when people comment about the number of pieces in every room. “What can I say? I’m my own greatest fan … and what the hell. It you don’t appreciate your own pieces, what’s the point?”

She works long hours, but occasionally takes time to relax on her front deck and enjoys the community feeling.

“It’s like a throwback to the 1960s, sitting in your front yard, open to the street. I have a lot of stones out there that I’ve collected from beaches all over the island, and I plan to use as bases for my chalices.”

She said the renovation turned out a thousand times better than she had hoped.

“It was really nerve-wracking to do such a large financial thing … it was a little disconcerting and a big deal for me to go into debt. But my whole life has been about creating beauty and this is how I will spend the rest of my life.”

The farmhouse sink came from Ikea. Fox says she “went cheap” on the counters, which are black Arborite.

Above: Fox’s “creation” room is overflowing with work. “This is where the magic happens.”

A peninsula-style gas fireplace has glass on three sides and acts as a partial room divider between living, kitchen and dining areas. Floors are solid wood.

Right: In a small alcove, Fox has placed a few family heirlooms, including an old trunk, a rocker from Eastern Canada and a chest of drawers she found in a Chilliwack auction.

The torso of a woman was modelled in clay by Fox and required multiple firings to resemble arbutus bark.