Chris Loutit left an Exchange District art gallery in Winnipeg this weekend to find shattered glass surrounding his truck.
Some of it was from his smashed passenger window. And the rest were pieces of his own glass creations that he’d packed up to deliver to friends and clients.
Loutit took stock of what was left and recovered what he could. But one of the missing pieces held special meaning. He’d mixed a pinch of his late mother’s ashes into the glass.
“It’s sentimental value,” he said. “I can still replace it, fortunately, but it’s just kind of sad that it’s circulating out there.”
Loutit is a hobby lampworker, a type of glassblower that uses a torch to melt glass in order to form it into the desired shape. He’s created glass keepsakes containing ashes for family and friends and keeps another small piece with his mother’s ashes in his pocket. His mother, Marilyn Loutit, died of cancer in 2021.
“She was very funny. Always telling jokes. Always ready to give someone a big hug,” Loutit said. “She was a really amazing person, probably the biggest influence I’ve had in my attitude, in being positive.”
Loutit began working with glass five years ago when he took a class with Kevin McKay, who ran a glass shop and studio at The Forks for more than a decade. The two soon discovered they both had properties in Traverse Bay, Man., and Loutit began learning the craft from McKay’s home studio. He hopes to make it his career after two more years of training.
“I enjoy it very much, it’s my passion,” he said. “It’s very meditative.”
It’s the calming nature of the work and his mother’s memory that helped Loutit reframe the break-in in a positive way.
“The way I look at it is that it gives me the chance to make it better this time around,” he said, adding that he’s already re-made most of the stolen and broken pieces.
“Life has thrown some pretty hard stuff my way at some times, and maybe that humbles you a bit,” he said. “I don’t get worked up over small things like that.”
Loutit didn’t file a police report for the stolen goods, and the deductible for his insurance claim would cost more than the pieces were worth. Although he’s disappointed to lose some of his creations, he’s chosen to let it go and hope whoever took them is enjoying them as much as he enjoyed making them.
“Maybe the pieces that they took are going to go to someone who will appreciate them,” he said. “That’s… how I’m going to look at it, but it’s just one of those things. It is what it is.”
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