Glass diary

Zest private view

2009-07-16T10:56:00.003+01:00

Three (rather yellowish) pictures of my exhibition just as the private view was beginning. In one of them you can just see that I am dressed to match one of the blow-up photographs. I thought these looked very good. Lots of compliments from all who came, but the red dots were very sparse. It's early days, of course, and probably largely a non-buying guest list. Perhaps the architects and interior designers come during the day.

Exhibition preview

2009-07-14T14:14:00.000+01:00

Just 4 of something like 30 pieces that are going into my show at Zest opening tomorrow. Having a solo show is pretty scary - and a very great deal of work. Just signing and packing them all up and loading the car took a whole day. There are some pieces I am very happy with and some that are quite nice. But one just doesn't know how it'll be received.

Close-ups

2009-07-07T14:08:00.004+01:00

My collaborator at Blink Art has been working on details of my glass to create abstract pictures. I'm completely thrilled with the results. Top one and last one are in the exhibition, the larger one blown up to 1 metre wide - I have to say, they look fabulous.

Glass in Majorca

2009-06-27T13:06:00.003+01:00

A furnace near Palma (same as anywhere else - output not inspiring), a crucifix in a bottle (never seen that before) and some apothecary jars in the monastery in Valldemossa where Chopin and George Sand stayed in the winter of 1853 (read her book while there and was struck by how little she said about him). A holiday that had nothing to do with glass - but you can always find something to do with glass to log wherever you go.

Corning

2009-06-17T17:54:00.003+01:00

I'm back home now; this is my last day at Corning - with the pool I swam in on the one and only sunny day of the whole trip (luckily the Sunday when there were no lectures). The gallery where my swirl piece is showing - where we had a tame little private view. Oh and did I go the wrong way - no I don't think so (that's the Museum of Glass in the background).

Glass Art Society Conference in Corning

2009-06-14T14:54:00.004+01:00

I am still in Corning so these pictures are uploaded unedited (and are rather poor). They're all taken in the Museum of Glass, where the conference was mostly held, and show some random choices from their absolutely stunning collection of glass. The fruit bowl is giant. They have everything there and it has been nice being able to browse about each day, rather than going through a whole collection at one sitting. The technological section was as interesting as the art.

The conference was very good - lots of ideas to take home and absorb. I think the highlight was a fashion show of costumes made with glass - copious imaginative bead work creations, corsets of kiln-cast elements, a bustle made out of a batch bag, a coat with plastic champagne glass stuck to it, a neon crinoline, a cast ballet dress, a glittering pyjama suit with dichroic panels sewn on. The whole thing lasted about an hour with one after another splendid creations and pretty girls (and the occasional chap) flouncing up and down the catwalk as if they were professionals. Fab.

Tonight is the private view of our exhibition, and a gallery here is interested in taking my two pieces after the show if they don't sell (they won't) so at least there will be an after life for them.

Three more sheets

2009-05-24T12:50:00.008+01:00

I like these large sheets (about 2 ft 6 ins by 1 ft 6 ins). At the moment, I have one of them pinned to a window in my studio and it looks lovely as the sun comes round. There's some mileage here but I am not sure what yet. Or where to put them while I am thinking about it. I need a client with imagination who loves colour - they'd look good in a large space built into a dividing wall flanked by safety glass. Or instead of frosted glass in a space where you don't want people to look through a window but you want to let light in. Or over a door instead of leaded glass. Suggestions welcomed.

Autumn Swirl

2009-05-18T19:08:00.005+01:00

The official title of this piece for the 'Same Difference' exhibition - now completely finished and in its stand - is The Colour of Autumn. It's because I didn't completely know what I would be showing when I had to submit my blurb. Perhaps I can change it as the Americans will put 'Color' on the list. Thanks due to three fine craftsmen who helped me with the various stages of this. It's looking good. I can't send the sheet, though. There was a little crack that has to be ground out and I've run out of time. It would certainly have broken in transit.

Abstract painting

2009-05-07T16:22:00.003+01:00

A professional picture of the glass sheet that came about as a result of that disheartening day trying to blow bullion when everything went wrong. If I can pack it up really securely (scary) then it is going to Corning in June. We've now done 2 more which aren't as nice (not professionally photographed either) so that gives me courage.

Got the T-shirt

2009-05-03T14:02:00.004+01:00

The Corning T-shirt design was almost this one, with my piece on it. But in the end another was chosen by a whisker, I was told. However, they're going to make one up specially for me, since the design is already done. Well, that'll be fun - to wear it at the Glass Art Society conference at Corning in June. Someone might notice.

SOFA display

2009-05-01T14:00:00.002+01:00

Returned home to a picture of the display cabinet at SOFA. The one of mine (middle, second row from the bottom) sold and so did another one which doesn't seem to be in this picture. Thrilling that they sold two pieces.

A mirror in Sicily

2009-04-30T13:56:00.003+01:00

This is just an excuse to blog our trip to Sicily, shown here partly through a mirror. Not much other glass - a few Roman remains at Solunto, and lots of lush chandeliers in the baroque churches of Palermo; 100s of them (churches, that is).

Shadows

2009-04-26T13:04:00.002+01:00

These are the shadows a little set of glass plates made on the wall, with the sun streaming in through the opposite window. I am sure something can be done with this effect - preferably in colour.

Bookbinding

2009-04-25T15:02:00.005+01:00

The glass connection is the stained glass fragment of a luteplayer in our room at West Dean where we have both been doing a 5-day bookbinding course - the other pictures show me tooling, Stephen paring leather, and our joint display of finished books (my table left, his right). Very satisfying. I'll be using the blue one as my next glass notebook. Strange that the glass shows a lutenist yet neither of us noticed until the last day. Not only that, but the film on Edward James has a shot of the churchyard seen through this very window.

Site visit

2009-04-17T17:18:00.002+01:00

Well, here we are in the reception area of the hospital and here's the wall on which my spinal structure is going to hang. It's good to have seen it like this because it is going to be so different in just 33 weeks time. Both my metal artist and I feel much more confident that it's all going to work now we've seen it. And there's a good 18mm of ply behind the plasterboard so we know fixing it is going to be fine. What a good thing we thought of that weeks ago and not have a shock-horror moment now. After that, we went on to the architect's new offices (light and airy) and talked about lighting. I think it's going to be OK.

Photographer photographing Mark 2

2009-04-06T19:20:00.002+01:00

This is why artists can't take good pictures of their own work. Look at all the equipment! Went up to Dudley today to have the sheet photographed properly and look forward to seeing the results. The blue look on his screen is an illusion. Got a preview glimpse of the catalogue for Corning with my other piece in it (very nearly chosen for the cover) and it did look pretty good I must say.

Opened out cylinder

2009-04-02T16:13:00.005+01:00

This is the cylinder now opened out into a flat sheet with my West Midlands collaborator. We both really like this and I am putting this one forward for the Corning Same Difference exhibition. So why was I so dismal in my 'failure' posting about everything going wrong last time? Just shows that you have to work at things and find an opportunity in something apparently going wrong.

Glass Echoes 2

2009-03-26T11:29:00.006Z

Here's my alcove in the Crypt Gallery - phenomenally hard to photograph. Stephen took these and fellow exhibitor Andrew Graves-Johnston has posted all his photos of Glass Echoes 2 on Flickr. I struggled a bit with the lighting - though it looks better than this. The port-hole at the back was easier to light because I could diffuse it with tracing paper. I think the exhibition was successful, but it is difficult to tell when you are close to it.

Very nearly 100% success

2009-03-17T18:10:00.006Z

I have found my blower at last. Just as I was beginning to lose confidence in my idea because of the fall-out rate and the difficulties inherent in the technique, I spent a day in Cornwall with a team who approached it differently. I've come away with some rondels I really like - and only one of them went a bit wrong (warped in the lehr), but even that one is OK compared to the last 10 or so made in various hotshops. And Cornwall is very pretty, the sun shone, and I had a very pleasant jaunt (I needed to be there the day before to prepare and the day after to collect). I'm not saying the other hotshops I have tried can't do this too, but the real bonus is that we were using lead glass, not soda, and it is just much nicer - twice the price too, a long drive, but certainly worth it.

Failure revisited

2009-03-10T12:37:00.003Z

There's no such thing as 100% failure because ideas arise out of something that didn't work the first time. The West Midlands collaboration continues and after further thought and discussion, this cylinder moderates what happened on my last trip. Ideas for lighting here. But I think we are going to open this out and flatten it to see what that effect is.

Photographs taken up in Dudley yesterday for the Corning exhibition.

100% failure

2009-03-05T10:43:00.003Z

Up to the West Midlands yesterday with 6 of my 'embryo' blanks to blow out for the hospital project. Not a single one worked. The best one - shown left - fell off the paddle and broke just as we were putting it away into the lehr. Another folded and cracked. But not a single one was any good - even to give away as a 'second'. Very disheartening (not to mention time-consuming and expensive). Ah well, win some; lose some.

'Unpolished' Jewellery Exhibition

2009-03-01T16:39:00.004Z

How nice - I am in the Unpolished exhibition of experimental jewellery online at the CGS website. 28 pieces selected (of course one doesn't know how many submissions they had). Still acceptance always feels encouraging.

A 5-day glassblowing course

2009-02-21T12:13:00.004Z

I have just spent 5 days at the Liquid Glass Centre reacquainting myself with hot glass, which I have been missing. We went through all the basics (good for me, if mildly frustrating) and I think I understood something about gathering that I haven't grasped before. The last piece I made (which is still there) might be quite nice, but everything else rather indifferent. A lot of standing about involved, so I watched what was going on in the kiln course in the next room as well. They were making sweets with glass rods, and marbling by combing molten glass inside the kiln.

Valentine field of flowers

2009-02-14T16:28:00.002Z

I ought to have thought, and made one of these with a hearts motif - though possibly that is a bit naff for an exhibition. Here's my third piece for SOFA. So there's a unifying theme now which I think helps them sell each other. It would be chuffing if they did sell.

Secret inside

2009-02-11T15:36:00.006Z

This one has got a bowl inside a bowl inside a globe, and inside you get double colours. But I really wanted that on the outside and forgot that the white opal would block the double illusion effect. I know what to do to get it, though it'll be too late for SOFA New York which is where this one is destined for. Might be effective if you shine a light inside. Or else it'll be a secret effect when you look inside - like a beautiful box with an elaborate interior.