Tyler Hayes has been playing with fire and exploring the art and beauty of blowing glass for more than two decades and loves it. 

He has been running his family owned and operated glass sculpture business Hayes Glass Designs out of Cobble Hill for the past 12 years.  

Hayes, who is originally from New Brunswick, studied forestry, environmental studies and eco-tourism in Ontario before heading out west to find employment. It was during a summer of adventure and travelling across the province that Hayes met and befriended glassblower Chris Windsor out of Victoria. To help fund his travels he began selling his pieces at different festivals across western Canada. Always having been a bit of a firebug, it was this encounter and experience that sparked his interest in having fire at his fingertips.

"When I first saw it being done, the chance to play with fire and melt things is what really drew me in," said Hayes. "Once I became interested in it, I just sort of went for it."

He took some beginner demonstration classes, and befriended other glassblowers in the community who set him on the right path, but admits he is primarily self taught. 

"That helped a lot but the best way to learn is to just get on the torch and try it," said Hayes. "If you have the time, experimenting is the best thing to do, and the funding we received that first year really allowed us to do so."

In 2002, Hayes set up his first studio with another business partner under the name Mystic Creations which at that time specialized in unique hand sculpted wearable art.

"Having a business partner, we just put our heads together and started playing around with glass and exploring all the possibilities," said Hayes "We received  a government grant when we first started out, and for a year we received monthly payments which really helped us get the business going. It was great, because with that grant I really didn't have to work, so it allowed me to just focus on what we were doing."

Hayes said he first started off with a very small setup and every year bought more equipment to make it a healthier and safer environment. Hayes said the biggest part of glassblowing is having the right tools, and being safe about it. This includes having proper ventilation and eye wear, which is extremely important as Borosilicate glass, which what Hayes works with, melts at a higher temperature and is really bright. Wearing Didymium safety glasses is a must to prevent eye damage.

"I love being able to take something solid, then put it into a liquid form, and then back to solid again," said Hayes. "When glass is in that molten state, it feels more alive, and you can feel the energies throughout it. Once complete, the art always looks really nice in solid form, but I always enjoy it the most when it's blowing — it has a bright orange colour going throughout it, which is always really cool."

Hayes said when he first dove into glassblowing 22 years ago, Borosilicate glass, which is a hard glass that is dishwasher, oven, and microwave safe, was mostly only used for scientific applications, and was still relatively new as an art form. Glass colours weren't invented until the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

Hayes said the colour palate for Borosilicate glass keeps growing today while soft glass goes back hundred and hundreds of years. All of the clear glass he works with comes from the Czech Republic as they make the highest quality of the Borosilicate glass, and he orders all his coloured glass from the Portland and Oregon area in the United States. Hayes also uses an array of hand torches for his creations that are also made in the U.S.

"With the torch I use you have the ratio of four oxygen to two propane, so by having that you have flames as small as two millimetres to flames as big as a light sabre," said Hayes. "Those large light sabre flames is what you do all your really big blowing with. I can turn on and off the big flames with a foot pedal, which makes it a lot easier, and frees up your hands so that you can keep working through multiple flames by clicking on and off the foot pedal.

"I just love being able to get the glass nice and hot and to melt it into liquid and just play with it. When working with Borosilicate glass you will start off with different preps to get what you want, a lot of glass work is definitely making your preps first and then going to assemble it, and then making it into your creations."

It was after two years of building Mystic Creations in Sooke that Hayes first met his wife Leah, who is originally from Mill Bay. The couple eventually made their way back to the valley, and for the past 12 years have raised their family in Cobble Hill where Hayes works out of his shop under Hayes Glass Designs. He says on a typical day he can be in his shop for up to 12 hours at a time, but he absolutely loves being self-employed as it gives him the flexibility to work around different people's schedules and to take time out for himself for a mid-day bike ride, or other opportunities that may present themselves.

Hayes is not one to pass up good opportunities.

He got to bring his background in environmental studies and eco-tourism full circle when he and his wife embarked on the journey of making glass straws under their incorporated company Enviro Glass Straws in 2012, which all began when a friend requested some, and from there it began to gain momentum. 

"It was just a better environmental option," said Hayes. "They were made from laboratory glass so you are working with the strongest glass out there and we would give a five-year warranty with them. You could drink both hot and cold through them, plus they are dishwasher safe. It was one of those things that we saw an opportunity to make something that can be reusable and help the earth."

Through some online research, he quickly realized that at that time they were the only ones in Canada making them to sell. Business was booming at a time when there was talk of getting rid of plastic straws altogether before COVID reared its ugly head. Before the pandemic, Enviro Glass Straws had four employees with the hopes that they could eventually run the show, giving Hayes the time to focus on larger scale art pieces such as lighting and chandeliers.

Their innovative glass straws have been sold worldwide including places like the Carribean, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Dubai where thy became a popular item in fancy restaurants and cocktail bars. The distributors they had in Vancouver, the U.S. and Dubai helped make this venture such a success, and during its peak Hayes took a hiatus from his art to ensure everything was going off without a hitch. It wasn't long after that other Canadian and Chinese companies began jumping on the bandwagon to create similar products. 

"Once what we were doing found its way into the media it just took off," said Hayes. "China works with third grade Borosilicate glass which has a different chemical compound, so that is what keeps us different even though they all look the same. It was great to have this opportunity, I knew if I didn't jump on it I would have kicked myself down the line."

COVID presented some setbacks once reusable options came to a halt, which allowed Hayes to once again focus on his art. Enviro Glass Straws can be found at some local stores, or purchased online at .

When it comes to his art, Hayes most enjoys creating his glass globes and nautical pieces such as octopuses, where he makes all the pieces separately and then assembles them. The octopuses can take up to 12 hours to make and sell for $950. 

"I just love the different optics you can get with both the glass marbles and globes because they are under so much more magnification," said Hayes. I love doing the universe ones, it is something that I have been playing around with for years and years now, and something I really enjoy experimenting with the pattern work inside of them."

Hayes also makes an array of mugs which are both microwave and dishwasher safe, and has recently been experimenting with vibrant glass colours such as tequila sunrise, and apricot, and notes that the colour will often change throughout the piece, and will reflect the weather outside. 

"I love when the pieces are complete and you get to see some sunlight on the glass, it just becomes so much more alive," said Hayes. 

Over the past 10 years Hayes has honed his skills at creating meaningful and special pieces where he infuses the ashes of a loved one into molten glass, and encases it with layers of glass for a unique custom creation to forever honour a person's memory. Hayes found himself on this path after one of his close friends died, and was asked by his wife if he could create something unique and special to honour his memory. 

"He was from Holland and it worked out that she was able to take some keepsakes back there for his family and relatives," said Hayes. "From there, it slowly grew but over the last six years I have had a lot more people reach out to me to inquire about it."

Hayes has brochures that go into more detail about this unique keepsake which he hands out at markets and shows, and also works with some local funeral homes and crematoriums in the valley as well as Langford who help spread the word about this service as well. Hayes will sit down with clients  to come up with the perfect design for a pendant or globe in multiple designs and colours using just a teaspoon of a loved one's ashes to make these lasting memories — he's currently working on a special design for a woman from Nanaimo. 

"I show them the design I have made in the past but everything is mostly custom," said Hayes. "Last week I did a really neat globe, the mom liked hummingbirds, and the dad like owls so I actually have these little images I can put on the back, and then I do etching," said Hayes. "It's a privilege to be able to make these pieces and give people something that they enjoy and honours their loved one. It definitely touches them in a different way, then when you make an art piece for some one."

To learn more more, visit Hayes Glass Designs at