Becoming Michael Janis

Before Michael Janis was a glass artist, he was an architect giving his glass supplier a very hard time.

He remembers one particularly frustrating project, when he was trying to design glass partitions for a new British consulate in Brisbane, Australia.

“I told them I wanted glass that was clear, but that you couldn’t see through,” he recalls. “They were, like, ‘You don’t understand. We don’t have that.’ ”

The supplier invited Janis to come take a look around, and so began his education in glassmaking. That tour was a crucial stepping-stone in his life arc from artsy kid to architect to one of a select number of artists in the world creating sgraffito glass art.

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