I will be teaching a five day sculptural flameworking techniques class at North Lands Creative Glass February 20-25, Monday through Friday 2012.
Cost: £550
This five day technical course will use the bench burner and hand torch to build skills for making sculpture in clear borosilicate glass. The course will cover general health and safety of the studio, torch, canisters of gas, and the flameworker, as well as building your own studio.
Beginning with cutting techniques for solid and tube, we will quickly move on to making a small sculpture, with a solid grounding in solid-to-solid joints and bracing, which is required for moving on to larger scale work. Blown techniques will be covered, beginning with pulling points, use of the blow-hose, tube-to-tube joints, and finer points of blowing specific areas of the glass.
The course will also cover use of the hand torch to enable larger-scale work. New assignments each day will build on and refine the previous skills learned. This course is suitable for all levels of experience.
If you are interested you're welcome to ask me questions, but please register with North Lands Creative Glass
Alchemic Object: Rejection/Muse has been selected for New Glass Review 33. So excited!
Photo: Simon Bruntnell
Read about Homing in
Homing
Photo: Duncan McNeill 2011
Video of the unveiling ceremony for Homing at Chichester Cathedral.
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I gave a talk at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday, September 14th with fine art curator Maria Devany at 2pm in the lower rotunda. This is one of several casual lectures that are part of Trove: 32 Years of the Scottish Glass Society. This exhibition asked artists to respond and make new work that was inspired by the vast reserve collection of the museum. My work was inspired by the painting Portrait of Effie Millais by John Everett Millais. Effie Millais was from Perth and was the wife of John Ruskin prior to the anullment of that marriage and the subsequent marriage to Millais.
On June 11th, 2011, I gave a talk at Callendar House in Falkirk, Scotland as part of the Crafts Council touring exhibition Breath Taking: Revealing a New Wave of British Glass Blowing. I spoke about "Engagement through Flameworking: Social Inclusion Through the Creative Process", or the many methods of madness that I get other people involved in my work. The Callendar House website can be found here: http://www.falkirk.gov.uk/events/event.asp?eid=620&did=3915
I gave a talk at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday, September 14th with fine art curator Maria Devany at 2pm in the lower rotunda. This is one of several casual lectures that are part of Trove: 32 Years of the Scottish Glass Society. This exhibition asked artists to respond and make new work that was inspired by the vast reserve collection of the museum. My work was inspired by the painting Portrait of Effie Millais by John Everett Millais. Effie Millais was from Perth and was the wife of John Ruskin prior to the anullment of that marriage and the subsequent marriage to Millais.
May 23 - 25th, 2011 was spent in the hot shop of Edinburgh College of Art where my glass journey began. I've decided that some of the feathers for the Chichester Cathedral exhibition in October should be rather large, given the scale of the work. I want to thank everyone in the glass department at ECA for lending me not only the facilities but brilliant assistants in the form of ECA student Kirstin Binnie and Alfred exchange student Signe Ballew. Many thanks to artist in residence Julia Malle, technician Ingrid Phillips, Department head Alison McConachie, Liz Smith, Jeff Zimmer, and all the students.
In the hot shop at ECA being assisted by Alfred exchange student Signe Ballew whilst ECA student Kirstin Binnie takes a well deserved water break.
The week of May 16th, 2011 was spent in total bliss at North Lands Creative Glass. I was hired to teach flameworking to Jessica Ramm, a brilliant sculptor whose work I first happened upon at the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition New Contemporaries 2010. Ramm wanted to learn flameworking to make lightbulbs for a future project. With no previous glass experience, it was amazing how quickly she took to the torch. Read about our time together during her residency on the North Lands blog and see images on Flicker. Here are a few of my own:
Two fabulous artists help me with a dry run (well a hot run anyway) of a demo at Edinburgh College of Art the week of May 23rd, 2011: Jess Ramm and Patty Niemann. I had a fantastic time teaching Jess and am looking forward to seeing what entrancing things she makes with her new flameworking skills.
My work has been included in Ausstellung im Europäischen Museum für Modernes Glas:
Studioglas aus Großbritannien in Coburg, Germany. The exhibition runs from May 6th - November 6, 2011.
You can see my installation and the exhibition as a whole here: http://www.kunstsammlungen-coburg.de/index.php?wohin=ausstellung/glasmuseum_aus.php&nav=&sp=
I hope you will be able to come along to Trove: The 32nd Annual Exhibition of the Scottish Glass Society. It is open from March 28th-December23rd, 2011 at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, in Perth, Scotland. All of the works exhibited have been made in response to the reserve collection at the Museum. I am proud to have been co-curator of this exhibition. The Scottish Glass Society was given unprecedented access to not only the usually hidden reserve collection, but also all of the curators at the Museum through group field trips and individual meetings between artists and curators. Read more about it on the CraftScotland website.
I exhibited Alchemic Object: Rejection/Muse, pictured below, (photo Simon Bruntnell) at Trove.
This work has been inspired by the portrait of Effie Gray by John Everett Millais.
Flameworked borosilicate glass, horse tail, sterling silver, table
knife from Bowerswell House, Perth, hair cutting scissors, swatch of
Gordon military tartan as depicted in "The Order of Release" by John
Everett Millais, burnt spine of 1898 copy of the Stones of Venice by
John Ruskin, rose from Brig O' Turk, paint brush remnant, three drops
of the artist's blood.
2011
I have concluded my Artist in Residency at Chichester Cathedral. Watch this space as I prepare for my solo exhibition there in October.
Paragon Kilns kindly sent a brand new frontloading GL18ADTSD for my use at Chichester Cathedral during my residency here. This kiln has now been sold. Many kind thanks to everyone at Paragon Kilns and Cherry Heaven, their British distributor.
The Netmaker. Spray-painted flameworked borosilicate glass, MDF, paint, powder-coated copper-coated steel, rubber, steel wool, cotton wool, monofilament. 2010.
On January 31st I begin my residency at Chichester Cathedral in collaboration with West Dean College. My studio space is the North Transept in the Cathedral!
Read more about it here:
http://www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/dyn/pages/whats-on/_folder2/
I am thrilled to be included in "Breath Taking: Revealing a new wave in British glass blowing", a touring exhibition of the Crafts Council in 2011. My work for this exhibition plays on the double meaning of the word take; meaning both to teach and be the student of. Concentrating on the breath-centric study of yoga, I took up a yoga class where I collected the breath from all the students and the teacher in balloons. The breath given was then transferred into glass vessels and sealed. These vessels are connected to each other and flow through a larger open vessel. The exhibition opens at Bilston Craft Gallery on January 22, 2010 and tours Britain for eighteen months finishing March 11, 2012. Read more about it here:
http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/about-us/press-room/view/2010/breathtaking-new-blown-glass/
and here: http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/bilston/exhibitions/004479.html
On May 4th, 2010 Milliefiori Meadow (that is the wonderful result of the sheep naming contest), the Perthshire Glass sheep moved to her brand new custom-made display plinth at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery. Long may she stay exactly where she is. (With sighs of relief after the massive lid was placed on top!)
Postcards of the Perthshire Sheep are now available for sale in the Museum Shop. This gives me a wild thrill!
Doubleclick on the photo to see a short film from "Through a Glass Darkly"
Carrie Fertig
Thanks to everyone who participated in the interactive:
Through a Glass Darkly
Friday 30th April-Sunday 2nd May 2010
The Ice House | Free
The following explanation of Beltane from Wikipedia: "Great bonfires would mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, and were accompanied with ritual acts to protect the people from any harm by Otherworldly spirits, such as the Aos Sí. Like the festival of Samhain, opposite Beltane on October 31 Beltane was also a time when the Otherworld was seen as particularly close at hand. Early Gaelic sources from around the 10th century state that the druids of the community would create a need-fire on top of a hill on this day and drive the village's cattle through the fires to purify them and bring luck (Eadar dà theine Bhealltainn in Scottish Gaelic, 'Between two fires of Beltane'). In Scotland, boughs of juniper were sometimes thrown on the fires to add an additional element of purification and blessing to the smoke. People would also pass between the two fires to purify themselves."
Explanation of event from yours truly:
"In the Ice House in Helmsdale set up a lone burner for flameworking, the flame providing the only light source in the room. On each wall is a large mirror reflecting the fire and visually making two fires for people to walk between for purification and luck. The flameworker sits blowing glass bubbles and each participant puts spoken or written words, juniper smoke or objects into the bubbles based on any concept of spirit they feel appropriate. After imbuing the bubbles with spirit the participants tie the bubbles to monofilament lines hanging from the ceiling; each bubble reflecting greater and greater light and fire as the days progress until the Ice House is filled with light and spirit."
The 'Show Scotland' weekend took place at Timespan on 30 April - 2 May 2010
Timespan: Dunrobin Street, Helmsdale, Sutherland, KW8 6JX|01431 82132
www.timespan.org.uk
There was lots of international response via email and Facebook. It was a great weekend. Watch this space regarding next year!
You can track the progress of this interactive performance and the preparations for it on my Facebook page.
Photo by Paul Adair and used with the kind permission of Mr. Adair and courtesy of Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council.
On March 22nd I delivered a glass Perthshire type blackfaced sheep to the Perthshire Museum and Art Gallery, who commissioned the work. This represents not only my first museum commission, but also my first inclusion in a museum permanent collection. I am very thrilled, honored and excited. You can track the progress of sheep building on my Facebook page.
Follow this link and view the press release as well:
Here is a photo of the sheep on a wee wander in the country.
Here is a photo of the sheep installed in the Perth Museum and Art Gallery.
Dolly and Dolly, the glass sheep, are ecstatic to be in their new permanent home at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh.
Contentment
Joint Winner of the People's Prize, British Glass Biennale
Flameworked borosilicate glass, live television, pacifier
200cm x 150cm x 80 cm
March 2008
photo: Simon Bruntnell