I have been interest in arts and crafts for as long as I can remember. As a young girl growing up on the Queen Charlotte Islands, I remember spending much creative time with my grandmother who was interested in trying anything and everything crafty. Her lessons in making woodfibre and fabric flowers, working with patterns and making copper pictures encouraged me explore my artistic interests. In my teen years, my sister, Wendy, encouraged me by selling my fabric flowers in her gift shop.
When I moved to BC's lower mainland in 1983, I took a night school course in Professional Flower Arranging, with the idea of meeting some people with similar interests. Upon completion of that course, I started my own part-time floral consignment business, with nursery and convenience store outlets. This enabled me to just work part-time in the mainstream workforce, and spend more time at home while my children were young. As my children grew and my life circumstances changed, I eventually shut down my floral arranging business.
Upon our move to Alberta, in 1997, I worked full time in the mainstream workforce, and took up drawing & painting as a hobby, inundating friends and family with my artwork. A friend suggested that I shouldn't be giving away my original work, so my husband gave me his old scanner, and I began making Note Cards using the flower sketches that I had drawn. I reactivated Miroge Flowerworks, and began selling my packaged cards.
For a number of years I longed to add stained glass to my list of media, so one year as a birthday gift, my husband purchased a weekend retreat at the Glass Inn to learn the basics of creating art with glass. Joanne was a great teacher, and this fantastic experience opened up a whole new creative outlet for me.
In 2006, after being commissioned to do several stained glass pieces, I changed the name of my business to Miroge Gallery & Gifts... not only to reflect the expansion of my artistic medium, but also to work with other new artists to increase visibility for their artwork.
One of the highlights of working with stained glass was the workshop I held for a group of girls from a church youth group. They were all thrilled with the little angels that they made for Christmas gifts that year!