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.
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 the skills required to start making her own work.
By 1987 Jane felt ready to go it alone and established Jane Charles Studio in
Edinburgh before raising additional capital in the 1990’s to buy cold working
equipment and a move to Newcastle. Jane
eventually opened her first self-sufficient glass gallery in the centre of
Newcastle in 2011.