Employee Spotlight: Toril Lavender - Marketing Manager/Photographer

The time has come, friends. The final Employee Spotlight of this series. (Don’t worry, we are working up the next series to come!)

We played around with a lot of ideas on what order these would come out, but from Day 1, we knew Toril would be last. Why? Because you needed to see her work to truly see Toril at the end.

Toril has been a photographer for many years, with experience in newspapers, wedding shoots, and senior portraits; you name it, she's shot it. Now, we are lucky enough to have her. She officially became a Blenkonian in March of 2024, but she had been wandering these walls long before that, seeing this place through many lenses, from many angles, in all kinds of wild lighting, and figuring out how to make every bit of it shine with the beauty it all truly has.

As our Marketing Manager, Toril brings a level of patience that honestly deserves its own award. The kind of patience that makes you pause, reset, and maybe even hear your own momma’s voice in the back of your head telling you to straighten up. She’s steady, kind, and thoughtful in a way that reaches everyone around her, whether you’ve known her for years or just crossed her path for five minutes. Human or animal, it doesn’t matter. Toril shows up with the same warmth every time, and that warmth drives everything we do in Marketing.

Capturing glass is no easy task, but Toril makes it look effortless. The color, the light, the life inside each piece all come through because of her vision and her ability to see what makes Blenko special and bring it to the surface.

Not only does she handle all of our photography, she helps tell our story. She writes most every post, email, and advertisement. If you’ve read it, there’s a good chance Toril had a hand in it. She co-designed our West Virginia piece this year alongside our Operations Manager and continues to be a strong voice in the design and creative process.

Behind the scenes, Toril has also been the eye behind this entire Employee Spotlight series. Every single photo you’ve seen has come from her interpretation of each person’s story. Yes, even this one, her very own photo.

This series may be coming to a close, but it feels right that it ends with someone who helps shape how it was seen every step of the way. Toril didn’t just document the people or glass of Blenko. She helps tell our story; and she did it beautifully.

Thank you Toril, for everything you bring to the table: your kindness, you unimaginable patience, your gentle hand, your unmistakable eye, and for telling our story while helping build the future. We couldn’t thank