About Sand and Fire Works

Hanna Hastings is an independent contemporary artist working in the medium of stained glass. She creates completely original glass panel concepts and sculptures using the traditional Tiffany technique as well as lead light work.

Hanna attributes her love of glass art through her connection to her grandfather Seamie. An active member of the glass art guild of Toronto, Seamus Egan produced large scale windows, murals and lamps in exquisite craftsmanship on a voluntary basis for institutions throughout the city. He was diagnosed with lung cancer when Hanna was 14 and she immediately resolved to take in as much of his knowledge as possible before his passing in 2005.

The pair spent every Sunday afternoon labouring in his glass workshop passing on the skills he had finely honed until Hanna realized she had her own blossoming passion for the art and set up her own home workspace to continue the practice.

Over the next 20 years Hanna would reestablish her studio six more times, moving with her glass through house and school changes until finally settling in Hamilton, Ontario. It was here that Hanna finally made the move to turn her hobby into a business and began selling her pieces through Etsy.

Wanting to differentiate herself from the more traditional glass designs and commonly seen pattern work, Hanna took her inspiration from nature and her dangerously vast collection of houseplants. She wanted to bring nature and natural subjects into the homes of her patrons and experimented with 3D sculpture and unique textures and colours of glass.

This unique and modern take on designs carved her out a space in the local glass scene as well as the online sphere. After moving her marketing efforts into social media, Hanna grew a following significant enough to dedicate full time hours to her craft and begin teaching her techniques online to other budding glass artists.

Hanna now works on her pieces and facilitates a unique glass shopping experience from her home studio in Hamilton.