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Raeann Brown beams with enthusiasm as she talks about her etched glass artwork. Not one to boast about herself, she struggles to find the words to describe her love for her craft and the masterpieces she creates to promote her culture.

Brown is the proud owner of Made with Love Inuit art by Raeann Brown — a small business she’s operated from her home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador for the past three and a half years. It started as a hobby when she bought herself a $30 stenciling kit as a past time. Today, it’s grown into a full-time job for her, one she happily balances with her home-life.

All her works are original glass etches that depict moments from her childhood and portray her Inuit culture. “A lot of the pictures that I put on the glass are just memories of my childhood growing up and wishing sometimes that I could go back,” Brown explains. “It’s a different way of showing the beauty of our culture through something that I finds beautiful too, which is glass. I want people to see our culture in a different way — that it is beautiful and it should be celebrated.”

Brown’s works range in price and size: from a small set of salt and pepper shakers that sells for $20, to a door-size commissioned piece that sells for hundreds. She first draws her scenes on paper, then cuts out her stencil with a small knife before sticking it to an item and applying etching material. Each stencil can only be used once which makes the final product a one-of-a-kind piece of art.

“I’d never be able to describe how gratifying it is when I peel away the stencil and wash it off to see what I’ve created. And sometimes I’ll look back on work and say, ‘Wow, I actually did that?!’”

Brown receives a similar reaction from many of her customers who find her products through word of mouth or on her Facebook page. She’s recently completed a fully stenciled French door, and has sent other pieces as far away as the United States.

But her plans for the small business don’t stop there. Brown is building up the funds and the courage to expand into sand blasting, which she says would allow her to be even more creative with her products.