Part I: 23rd April – 4th June 2022

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Brett Manley

"I love resolving my inspirations by mixing glass techniques.  Trying out new ideas and producing what has been lurking in my head sometimes for years is very very fulfilling although initially very nerve racking to share with others.  Making is essential to my happiness.  It is a drive that can’t be stopped.  During lockdown when I couldn't get to my studio I started painting again after an absence of many years.  But I am very happy to be back to fabulous, glorious glass now to try and realise my dreams.  Colour Ladders is a Stencilled, Fused, Cast and Gilded Glass sculpture of three building blocks inspired by childhood toys of wooden building bricks of many shapes and sizes and varying edges and of course the joy of colour.  These individual colourful cast glass pieces are made to be moved around onto their sides and bases and stacked to get the most from the interference pattern that occurs between the stencilled internal patterns and views through and light projection.  A feast of colour and juxtaposition."

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Claire Lake

"I started life training as a potter at Wolves Poly followed by nearly 30 years teaching art and special needs across the board then about 10 years ago enrolled on a day course in fused glass.  Much research, more courses and trial markets later I find myself with a new studio build, 2m kiln and small business supplying local outlets and running classes myself.  Lockdown has allowed me time and space to fine tune my direction and whilst I still love to create for the gift market my recent new range, developed over summer 2021 for one of my favourite events of the year – Wardlow Mires Pottery and Food Festival, has taken me to another level and market which compliments my large scale splashbacks/wall art.  Colour, texture, light and painterly techniques all come together in useful pieces for the home but could scale up for a focal piece just as easily.   Using powders, frit, rods and glass enamels my ‘Loosely Sushi’ range has come into being. With a nod to ceramics of the far east this range is adaptable with many colours possible mirroring the famille rose, verte, bleu or whatever twist I want to put on it as I create.  Powders are layered between clear sheets of glass, my most popular design, the cherry blossom, is painted onto the top layer in classic black and gold then each piece fired twice to achieve the depth and shape required.  Alternative designs have a limited palette of glass rods introduced or the striking monochrome of my brushstroke version.  It’s a contemporary range created to add a touch of ceremony to a meal or just to enjoy in its own right, one of life’s little pleasures I hope."

 

Magdooshka Creates (Magda Gay)

Magda has been working in her garden workshop in Ripon, North Yorkshire since 2016.  She is inspired to design and make work, motivated by a desire to add more colour, light, and movement into any garden or home.  Her work varies in size from small flowers, birds and creatures, which can be found in our gardens, to large sculptural pieces.  Magda prides herself on designing and making all of her original ideas with high levels of craftsmanship, developed over a number of years.  She is continually learning and using a wide range of techniques from different 3D disciplines, incorporating a variety of materials, including glass nuggets and tiny glass beads threaded onto thin, coloured wire, using her signature twisting and twirling wire work, into some of her pieces.  Magda predominantly uses traditional lead came and copper foiling techniques, together with some etching and engraving details on some pieces and is looking forward to using her newly purchased sand blaster and kiln to extend her ability to reflect the properties of the subjects she has chosen to make.  She chooses the right colour and texture of stained glass and uses copper and black patinas as appropriate to enhance the appearance of her work.  She creates organically driven pieces to hang or stand using wire, wooden and metal bases or stakes. 

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KayBee Glass (Karen Beggs)

"I was mesmerised by Amanda Gorman’s rendition of her poem 'The Hill We Climb' at Joe Biden’s inauguration in early 2021.  Resplendent in yellow, bathed in sunshine, projecting hope, ambition, history and the future through her words, I tried to capture all of this in glass.  It started with my own drawing as I do with all the pieces in my ‘stained women’ series.  All of my work uses the tiffany technique.  I used opaque black, brown and red glass for her head and hair, as a focal point and also to demonstrate the solidity of this fierce young activist.  I used transparent yellow for her suit, keen that her clothes were secondary to her words; she has a strong stance on the ethics of sponsorship and fashion.  The sun rays shine on her, answering the first line of the poem “where can we find light in this never-ending shade?"

 

Gina B Glass (Gina Clarke)

Since graduating from Stourbridge College of Art with a BA (Hons) in glass and ceramics, Gina have worked continuously with stained glass, now focusing predominantly on fused glass.  Using a small test kiln she experiments with many types of glasses and metals to establish their compatibility.  Once the glass has been chosen it is cut and ground to size ready to fuse.  This is done at a higher temperature than slumping so two separate firings are necessary for each piece.  “My work varies dramatically from delicate jewellery to large chunky panels and bowls.  Colour, light and texture are very important to my work.  Inspirations have come from research into the Bauhaus movement, with particular interest in the works of Kandinsky and Klee.”

 

Rachel Elliott

Rachel initially studied Architectural Glass at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with her BA (Hons) degree in 2007.  Since then she established her own kiln-forming studio and continues to undertake further specialized master classes to increase her curiosity about this material.  Her work is primarily representational as she thrives in the technical challenges in capturing exact details in glass with the unexpected troubleshooting element keeping her constantly engaged with the material.  Through this precision she attempts to explore contrasting concepts of fragility both within herself and the natural world around us.  These new pieces aim to showcase the intricate structure of the nautilus shell, nature referencing mathematics with the scaled increase of each hollow chamber.  The encasement of the shell within further loose particles of glass draws parallels from fossil excavation, playing with the role of the negative rock that is broken open to reveal the discovery inside.  Much like most casting molds, discarded but an essential part of the process.  From a more emotional stance the pieces are also a quiet reflection on the varying feelings and experiences of isolation, containment and distancing that much of the world has endured in recent times.  A hybrid form of pâte de verre is used to create the initial shell pieces as glass powder and water is packed into various handmade silicone molds and frozen in place in a freezer.  Without any refractory material, these forms are more sintered that fused in the kiln at low temperature and then hand carved to refine the shapes.  In contrast, the encasing of these piles of dust with larger and heavier chunks of glass requires support from separating materials to protect them from the heat required to fuse everything together without destroying the fragile forms inside.

 

Hannah Gibson

Hannah Gibson is an internationally renowned glass artist; and geologist, based near London.  Capturing the nostalgic imagery of childhood, exposing hidden narratives, through cast sculptural glass stands at the core of her work.  Studying for an MA in glass at the University for The Creative Arts in Farnham, Hannah began working on her current body of work, Recycling Narratives, Whispering Sweet Nothings.  Passionate about sustainability and recycling, using predominantly recycled glass and found objects, Sweet Nothings are a series of cast glass figures whispering Sweet Nothings to one another.

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Nanu Hodson

"Growing up in the UK in an Indian family, I found my life straddling two very different cultures, trying to amalgamate them while maintaining their individual identities.  To further complicate things, I was actually born in Kenya and my family migrated to the UK when I was very young.  My parents brought me here to ensure I grew up in a stable environment, with opportunities in education, employment and life which I may not have had in Kenya.  Being new to glass art, I am exploring different techniques and processes and hope to use pattern and colour to explore the ways in which art portrays people and cultures from around the world.  Historically the Paisley design stems from Indian embroidery motifs, handed down through generations of families.  It is a stylised depiction of a mango, the national fruit of India.  Although it is of Indian origin, the Paisley was named in Scotland which to me represents the changing nature of design and how it can be translated across cultures.  ‘Design Migration’ uses the colours of the rainbow to imply the Utopia that people strive to reach when they migrate around the globe.  This is particularly relevant in today’s war-torn and environmentally impacted world, where refugees are seeking a better life for their families and willing to risk everything to reach safety and security."

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Susan Purser Hope

"I love the therapeutic power of colour to soothe or excite and I chose the magical material of glass because it is such a dynamic and demanding material; tough yet fragile, opaque or transparent and always with the ability to surprise and challenge.  It enchanted me and I left my career as a Commercial Interior Architect to retrain and become  a contemporary fused glass artist.  I create unique, hard crafted artworks which are often wall hung.  Recently my work has been organised into collections where I review pivotal periods of my life, often interpreting meaning through the symmetry of pattern making.  During the pandemic and locked out of my studio, I focused on developing smaller pieces of glass, making work that is precious, affordable and which is intended to raise people’s spirits.  I love glass with a passion and aim through my work to make it easily accessible and joyful for all.  Working with fused glass gives me the chance to handle and to communicate with this glorious material and to continually challenge myself.  It provides the opportunity to work with a variety of different glass elements plus a range of techniques.  One of the best Christmas presents I ever received as a child was a stencil set with its cork mats, mini bottles of paint, brush and a range of stencils.  This memory came back to me during the confines of lockdown whilst exploring some of the craft supplies online and I was spurred into buying a number of custom cut stencils.  Working from home enabled me to work on a smaller scale.  How far could I enhance each original cut-out stencil and transform it into a small handcrafted wonder of colourful textured glass?  I wanted them to be joyful, fun and affordable whilst stretching myself artistically.  I have used coloured glass elements, frits, stringers and glass paint and then fused them together over several kiln firings. The finished glass piece is mounted onto a coordinating coloured back panel and framed.  Finally I have covered the frame with a complimentary handmade marbled paper."

 

Morag Reekie

Morag studied Sculpture at Sheffield Hallam University using mixed media and graduated in 2002 with a BA Hons Fine Art Sculpture.  For the last couple of years Morag has been working with her father, glass artist David Reekie, as an apprentice/labourer and has been producing her own work.  "Working with glass as my medium is always interesting.  Using the lost wax technique I am able to create my own unique forms using wax giving me the capability to sculpt with the detail I require.  Casting them in glass makes the forms permanent with the addition of vast range of colours, characteristics and textures that glass provides.  I like to add found objects or other props to my work.  Transforming them into a piece of art, changing their purpose and giving them a new lease of life.  In doing so, I want  my pieces of sculpture to tell their own stories.  My objective is to inspire thought in the meaning and to make people smile!"

 

Rebecca Rowland-Chandler

Encapsulating the beauty of rugged landscapes from Iceland to East Anglia, Rebecca Rowland-Chandler translates the natural world into glass, researching its’ fluid materiality and combining the organic with the geometric.  She meticulously arranging glass frits to create rich surface design, building up shade and tone, utilising jewel-like colours, bold patterns, and expressive mark-making.  She graduated from University for the Creative Arts three years ago and currently works from her home studio in North London.  "The glass I have submitted is inspired by Iceland’s otherworldly and elemental landscape, focusing on its vivid, jewel-like colours, and dynamic contrasts.  My homeware collections are abstractions of the landscape, in which the natural world has been broken down into pure colour and flowing pattern.  I work primarily with fused glass, meticulously arranging glass frits in a highly controlled manner to create bold, fluid and expressive patterns and mark-making, then fully fusing each piece to 804 degrees.  Tablemats can be exhibited in dining sets (pairs) or as individual statement table features in a range of different sizes."

 

Susan Sinclair

"I began working with glass in 2009 for the range of colours it afforded and because glass connects me with our history, having been used for personal and architectural adornment for over a thousand years.  My background in archaeology and interest in the natural world inform my art. Much of my work is comprised of functional objects, such as vessels or bowls.  I predominantly use opaque glass for greater colour saturation, blending glass powders for custom effects.  Using heat and gravity, I create the final shape, always looking to bend the glass in an interesting way.  I also make objects using pâte de verre techniques.  I create as an expression of what I am feeling, or as a challenge to make something I have not attempted before (often with many false starts).  I am always thrilled when someone looks at one of my creations and sees something special they can connect with."

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Kathryn Webley

"I am a fused glass artist creating canal inspired work from my narrowboat floating studio ‘The Pod’.  My journey to glass was led by the waterways.  I originally trained in Sculpture and when I started living on the canals, I was fascinated by the patterns and reflections in the water and the associated flora of the canal bank.  The properties of fluidity and transparency of glass appealed to me as the ideal material to represent the canal scenes I love. I create collections of sculptural and wall art representing the changing scenes I observe from the towpath of my home, ‘The Chesterfield Canal’. Some work depicts the nature as seen on a canal side stroll; some mirrors the more abstract patterns of this canal flora reflected in the water.    Through much research and experimentation; I have developed a personal style where I use coloured glass powders in the same way that a painter uses oils.  I mix the powders to create my own canal colour palette.  I then use the layering technique of glass fusing to create a three-dimensional depth to landscape scenes.  I am fascinated by the ‘corridor of nature’ that canals can create in an urban environment.  My latest body of work is based upon the canal side in the former colliery site of Manton, Worksop: the beauty of nature ‘rewilding’ this post-industrial landscape."

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