7 December 2011

Name:

Victoria Scholes

Which field of glass art do you work in? 

Kiln formed glass and mixed media

How do you describe your style of work?

Sculpture and installation

Describe the set of tools you use?

The usual kiln and mould-making tools. But I often have to improvise to fulfill a particular project.

Where did you study?

Wolverhampton University

Describe your first encounter with glass.

Manchester City Art Gallery showed some finish post-war glass including artists such as Oiva Toikka and Marku Salo. I was enchanted, even though glass as a profession wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye at the time.

Who inspires you as an artist?

All kinds of thing; weirdness, the bizarre, magic.  I love the poetry of Anne Carson.  Snippets of visual imagery.  Medieval painted wooden sculpture. I am a magpie when it comes to inspiration.

Who would you like to see interviewed?

Jan Hein van Stiphout

What are you working on right now?

An installation inspired by Midsummer (and a bit of madness) for Macclesfield’s annual festival, Barnaby.  Plus some stuff exploring weirdness again, but it’s too early to tell you much about it.

What is the address of your website?

www.victoriascholes.com

24/11/11

Name

Denise mt Basso

Which field of glass art do you work in?

Architectural Glass art + Architectural Mosaic concept.

How do you describe your style of work?

a bridge between the Past and the Present

Describe the set of tools you use?

Glass + anything useful. Techniques: from sandblasting to acid etching, to sticking, to leading, to printing, … to smashing! And, most importantly, Vision.

Where did you study?

My degree in Public Art & Design at Chelsea School of Art, my MA in Art in Architecture at UEL (AHRC award).

Describe your first encounter with glass.

Just out of coincidence, one of my big paintings on canvas was temporarly positioned tilted against the bay window. The pigments at that point started to “optically vibrate:, they were so intense and shimmery that the eye couldn’t stand its power. That was when I first thought about the glass medium.

Who inspires you as an artist?

Rothko. German Expressionism. Daniel Libeskind. Golden section. Monks calligraphy and old typography. The wind.

What are you working on right now?

30 m² Architectural Glass installation for City School in Sheffield.

What is the address of your website?

www.bradleybasso.com

Between 1997 and 2006 I thought of myself as a glass blower. I began my studies at the Buckinghamshire College in High Wycombe intending to be a potter but very rapidly became seduced by glass. By the turn of the millennium I was living and working in London as assistant to glass artist Steven Newell and had invested in a variety of glassblowing tools, a good proportion of them handmade items by the legendary tool maker Ivan Smith. I also managed to acquire a gigantic pair of jacks by Muranese tool maker Carlo Dona.

I was very proud of these tools. Each morning as I arrived at work I would take a piece of fine emery paper and polish them to keep them free of rust and corrosion. Then I would gently heat the blades of the jacks in the gloryhole and coat them with beeswax ready for the start of the day.

By 2006 I was based in Singapore and transitioning from being a glassblower to being a glass engraver. Although I’ve had far more success as an artist working in this medium I’ve never felt the same way about my engraving tools. Somehow they lack the romance of the glassblowing tools. I’ve never met anyone who has had a drill hand made for them after all.

Also there is the factor that drill bits wear out frequently. I will use many in the course of creating any artwork. Drill bits in terms of glass engraving are usually diamond or stone burrs. I tend only to use diamond and have a preference for very small ball ended burrs. I have only very rarely found a use for the cylinders and other shapes available.

Quality of diamond burrs is often an issue now that I am based in Singapore. Although they can be found in many hardware stores they tend to wear out almost immediately. I tend to stockpile large numbers of burrs when ever I visit the UK.

Despite the lack of romance with my tools if anyone criticises them, and this has happened, I do get upset. Why should anyone criticise my tools? Perhaps criticise is the wrong choice of words but my choice of engraving drill is not standard and has raised a few eyebrows over the years.

The vast majority of professional engravers will use a flexible drive, or an actual dentist drill. My drill, chosen initially as a cheap tool to use to add my signature to artworks is a cheap and cheerful Minicraft drill.

Minicraft is a kind of down market Dremel. According to the information that comes in the box they are used primarily as a tool for fettling Airfix model kits and adding names and addresses to personal property as a sort of home security measure. They work fine in terms of glass engraving though and are so cheap that at one point I bought ten to conduct classes with. Each pen sized drill has a fixed speed motor which could seem problematic, but a variable speed transformer can be used to slow them down and allow for a range of expressive marks to be made on the glass.

I’ve always operated on the basis of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and I don’t feel inclined to upgrade to a more expensive drill. My little drill has been operating for almost ten years now and as it works  simply by plugging into a wall socket – there is no motor to hang up or compressor to attach- it has allowed me to engrave glass in China, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore and many places around the UK. I simply put it in my bag and off I go. This would still be possible with a dentist drill but not nearly so easy.

The tools people use will sometimes depend simply on what is available to them to use. I recall once visiting a glass factory in China and being stunned to see golf ball sized diamond burrs stuffed into power drills. They were being used to incise deep lines into centimetre thick sheets of glass. Having only ever been exposed to tiny delicate engraved items this was a shock to see, although not as shocking as the fact that no eye or respiratory protection was used in any way, shape or form. Sensible health and safety practises simply did not exist.

Bizarrely the most useful tool I employ in terms of glass engraving is a cocktail stick, or now that I am in Asia a satay stick.

Several years ago I was exhibiting at a fair called Art in Action in which artists are invited to sell their wares and demonstrate their skills. Also exhibiting was renowned glass engraver Tracy Sheppard. Tracy explained to me that she will mark out her drawing on the glass in marker pens, pretty much as all glass engravers will, and then take a cocktail stick or toothpick and wet the end. This tool can then be used to refine the pen lines, shaving them down to a fine, delicate precise mark that is exactly what she requires.

It seems so obvious, so simple, and so elegant. It’s a technique I’ve used for years now and is something I pass on to all my students.

Tools do not have to be complex or expensive or extremely specialised. As this example shows, the best tool can sometimes be a real surprise.

]]> http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/the-right-tool-for-the-job/feed/ 0 dominicfondeglass http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/interview-karlin-rushbrooke/ http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/interview-karlin-rushbrooke/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:51:46 +0000 dominicfondeglass http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/?p=269 ]]> Today’s date

23/11/2011

Name

Karlin Rushbrooke

Which field of glass art do you work in?

Blown, engraved, constructed

How do you describe your style of work?

Amateurish but unique

Describe the set of tools you use?

From steel jacks to U.V. glue

Where did you study?

Stourbridge College of Art

Describe your first encounter with glass.

Probably the other side of a rubber teat when I was 6 months old.(Yes in those distant days they were glass bottles)

Who inspires you as an artist?

Samuel Beckett, and more recently I am deeply impressed and envious of William Morris (who sells his stuff upwards of $25k a piece).

What are you working on right now?

Since I am currently on a sabbatical from glass, my next job is moving a small barn and building a fully insulated timber extension in its place.

What is the address of your website?

Not quite finished yet.

Other Days, Other Eyes, by Bob Shaw. Published by Macmillan

Other Days, Other Eyes is a science fiction story by Bob Shaw that explores a fictional type of glass through which light travels very slowly. The thicker the glass the more slowly light emerges.

This may sound a rather odd pretext for a story of any description. It’s certainly among the more esoteric of SF ideas and in truth, when read as a novel it’s slightly unsatisfying in terms of its narrative. This is due to the fact that this work was apparently never conceived as a novel. Instead it was cobbled together from a selection of short stories all of which deal in someway with the concept of slow glass.

Of course it’s the concept of slow glass that is reason for the inclusion in these pages. Glass, as I have said many times, is so utterly integral to our world that we are barely aware of how it has shaped our ideas and responses. The motion of looking out of a window with glass in it happens a billion times a day around the world yet we never give a moment’s thought to the act. In Other Days, Other Eyes, this act of looking, perception, and the impact of what is seen are explored in a variety of poetic vignettes that range from the comical to the brutally dark.

In the first chapter of the story the glass is being developed as a safety material to be employed in the windshields of cars and other forms of transport. As the light passing through it is slowed, perception of events witnessed through the glass is delayed. As a result drivers of cars don’t see oncoming vehicles until it is to late to avoid them. Later in the story we encounter a “farm for glass” on the shore of an idyllic lake where huge sheets of glass have been arranged to capture the light and therefore the view. The intended market is an inner city apartment but the farmer cannot bear to sell his wares as they contain glimpses of his deceased wife and child.

Glass is intimately connected with the way we perceive the world, whether through lenses, windows, telescopes, TV screens or imaginary devices such as crystal balls. Other Days, Other Eyes is a work that while flawed as a narrative does explore these concepts. Its science fiction as a thought experiment and does not waste time with anything as silly as an alien invasion. Furthermore in its exploration of perception it asks some searching questions about what it means to be an empathetic human being. If you can find a copy, I believe its sadly out of print, its worth the effort to read.

Further reading

Entry in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia

http://sf-encyclopedia.com/Entry/slow_glass

There are many aspects of glass that are so ingrained in the fabric of our society that we never give a moment of thought to them. I have often run thought experiments with classes of school children on what the world would be like without glass and it rapidly becomes clear that it would be a shockingly different place. No windows to keep out the weather. No lenses for spectacles, telescopes, cameras or microscopes, no TV screens. No mirrors in which to apply makeup.

No mirrors?

Let’s examine this idea in depth. How many times a day do we encounter mirrors? How many times a day do we look in them? If you drive regularly the answer is hundreds, possibly thousands. The wing mirrors and rear view mirrors of a car provide an essential spatial awareness of other traffic. A visit to the dentist will see mirrors stuffed into a your mouth allowing a look at those hard to get at back teeth and if you happen to be working in a large shopping mall mirrors are frequently used to bounce natural light through the vast interiors of buildings.

Of course every morning as we get up, male or female, we look in the mirror. We check our appearance, study our reflection as we apply makeup and shave, and in our structured hierarchical world where good appearance is considered of vital importance we continue to check how we look at regular intervals.

This checking of personal appearance, satisfying ourselves that our observable image matches the idea of ourselves that we wish to portray is perhaps the most influential aspect of the mirror on our daily lives.

Have you ever tried to shave without a mirror? How about applying eye shadow? If you cannot check what your appearance looks like, fashion and personal hygiene would have developed along markedly different lines.

“Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” It takes no effort at all to identify this quote. It is of course the wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, who checks daily with her enchanted mirror to confirm that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. This is not the first story to explore the danger of vanity and the prized asset of physical attractiveness. Starting with Greek mythology we hear the story of Narcissus, who became so entranced by his own reflection that he wasted away, gazing at himself in front of a mirror. Salutary tales but on a day to day basis it is not simply vainty that drives us to look in the mirror. We conform to the requirements of our society and looking in the mirror to make sure we “look right” is an aspect of this.

So the power of a mirror is its ability to reflect visible light and show us our own image. It perhaps sounds ridiculous to state something so obvious but how many of us have ever stopped to consider this? Like so many aspects of glass it is something we are so used to that we never pay it a single moments thought.

It was not always like this though. Mirrors, for a large proportion of human history, were an expensive luxury item.

Prior to the discovery of glass, the most accessible type of mirror would have been a pool of water. Water as we all must have observed has good optical qualities and is perfectly capable of acting as a mirror, so it’s a fallacy to suggest that society could have developed without some form of self perception via reflection. The problem with water is that it is easily disturbed and as soon as the disturbance occurs the image reflected in the water is destroyed. What is needed is something solid and stable. Something more effective.

Archaeologists have uncovered many different types of mirror ranging from polished obsidian to bronze or even gold sheets. The Middle East regions saw many forms of mirror developed though the era of 3000 BC to the 11^th century AD by which time the technology had spread as far as Moorish Spain. Mirrors in China seem to be known from around 500AD onwards.

During all this time a mirror was inevitably expensive. If something is made from a beaten sheet of gold what else could it be? It was not until the 1800’s that the process of applying silver nitrate to a glass form was perfected in Germany that mirrors began to become affordable items and their uses began to proliferate.

Cheap, small mirrors for personal grooming were always going to be useful desirable items and were snapped up with no hesitation at all, but glass has been integral to much scientific advancement and mirrors were to play a part here too. The ability to focus glass through a lens and magnify an object, be it a heavenly body or a bacterium has more than once caused a paradigm shift in the way the human race regards its position in the universe. The oft cited story is Galileo’s use of a telescope to observe the moons of Jupiter and therefore realize that the earth was not the centre of the universe. The inclusion of mirrors in telescopes vastly increased the accuracy and versatility of these instruments. Even the Hubble Space telescope depends on a mirror.

Stepping back in time we can examine one of the major shifts in the way we perceive our world which was the introduction of linear perspective in art, one of the first known examples of which employed a mirror. Linear perspective is the notion that objects at a distance look smaller than those close together and that lines marked through the corners of objects converge on a “vanishing point”. The best example of this is the railway line, the rails of which meet as they arrive at the horizon. In actuality we know that this does not happen yet we see this illusion any time we look into the distance. Representing this was a problem for artists for many centuries. The first known example of a painting with optically accurate linear perspective was created by Filippo Brunelleschi in approximately 1425. Here is a quick summary of the event taken from Wikipedia

“The first known paintings in geometric optical linear perspective were made by Brunelleschi in about 1425. His biographer, Antonio Manetti, described this famous experiment in which Brunelleschi painted two panels; the first of the Florentine Baptistery as viewed frontally from the western portal of the unfinished cathedral, and second the Palazzo Vecchio as seen obliquely from its northwest corner.

The first Baptistery panel was constructed with a hole drilled through the centric vanishing point. Curiously, Brunelleschi intended that it only be observed by the viewer holding the unpainted back of the picture against his/her eye with one hand, and a mirror in the other hand facing and reflecting the painted side. In other words, Brunelleschi wanted his new perspective “realism” to be tested not by comparing the painted image to the actual Baptistery but to its reflection in a mirror according to the Euclidean laws of geometric optics. This feat showed artists for the first time how they might paint their images, no longer merely as flat two-dimensional shapes, but looking more like three-dimensional volumes just as mirrors reflect them. Unfortunately, both panels have since been lost”

Correct linear perspective now underpins all drawings classes from elementary school onwards.

Inevitably the interaction of a mirror with visible light is what defines or affects perception of it and our ideas associated with it. It is there for no wonder that a technology that enables us to see ourselves and also look into the furthest reaches of the universe should become associated with myths, legends, metaphors and even superstitions.

If you break a mirror you will suffer seven years bad luck…vampires have no reflection… chanting the words “bloody Mary” in front of a mirror in a darkened room will cause “bloody Mary” to appear…

In terms of storytelling there is probably no more famous use of a mirror than in Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. This story is preceded by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and it is frequently commented on that the structure of the second story is an inversion, or mirror image of the first. Fiction is frequently a knowing reflection of the real world.

In conclusion, glass mirrors now form part of the consensual reality that we term our society. They aftect our language, our ideas and our apprearance. They have helped us map our universe and assist asst us in having fabulous hair  and smoothly shaved chin.

Mirrors are remarkable. We simply could not do without them

Further reading

Article on Fillippo Brunelleschi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi

Article on mirrors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror#History

]]> http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/mirror-mirror/feed/ 0 dominicfondeglass http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/interview-amy-christie/ http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/interview-amy-christie/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:00:01 +0000 dominicfondeglass http://dominicfondeglass.wordpress.com/?p=258 ]]> Today’s date

9/11/11

Name

Amy Christie

Which field of glass art do you work in?

Jewellery & Artworks

How do you describe your style of work?

I hand make crystal glass jewellery from my studio in East Lothian.  Each piece begins life as raw, uncoloured crystal glass which after being hand blown, I cut and sculpt.  I then layer and fuse the glass with metals and crushed glass to form a glass jewel, which I finish by setting with sterling silver.  My inspiration is taken from nature and I aim to create unique wearable works of art which are eye catching, tactile and versatile.

Describe the set of tools you use?

Occasional hire of a hot shop, kiln, UV bonding lamp, tumbler, a dremel, lots of glue and a surprising amount of cotton buds!

Where did you study?   

A year as a special course student at Edinburgh College of Art 2000/01

Describe your first encounter with glass.

I started engraving on glass while still at school.  While studying for my Higher art, I point blank refused to paint!  My frustrated art teacher suggested my obsession with tonal drawings might be explored in a different dimension on glass.  I was hooked!  Glass has been my medium since then.  I went on to study diamond point engraving under Andrew Lawson Johnston before a period at Edinburgh College of Art experimenting with different hot and cold glass techniques.

Who inspires you as an artist?

Andy Goldsworthy

What are you working on right now?

Since moving back to Scotland at the start of the year, my husband and I have opened a gallery – The Found Gallery – in Dunbar, East Lothian.  We showcase our own work as well as that by UK artists and designer makers.  This is keeping me very busy!  Our new seaside location has been the source of inspiration for Strata, a range of sculptural glass artworks.

What is the address of your website?

www.amychristie.co.uk

9.11.11

Name

Colin Reid

Which field of glass art do you work in?

kilncast

How do you describe your style of work?

sculpture

Describe the set of tools you use?

Kilns, coldworking

Where did you study?

St Martins and Stourbridge

Describe your first encounter with glass.

Waddon Skillcentre, Croydon. Lampwork course in scientific glassblowing 1975

Who inspires you as an artist?

 El Greco, Velasques, Libensky,

What are you working on right now?

Work for upcoming shows and a couple of commissions

What is the address of your website?

www.colinreidglass.co.uk

07/11/11

Name

Katy Woollatt

Which field of glass art do you work in?

Lampworking and glass blowing

How do you describe your style of work?

I am fairly temperamental with my style of work as everything new I discover seems to send me on a new path, but recurring themes are the human form, patterns found in sea life and the ocean, creature like forms, and I also sometimes like to work with bright colours and bold patterns. Most of the item’s I make are sculptural rather than functional, and I tend to use muted blues and darker colours rather than bright fun colours giving my work a more serious edge.

Describe the set of tools you use?

For lampworking I use a Nortel minor Burner torch and various shaping tools, the torch requires a mix of propane and oxygen to make it so hot. When glass blowing I rent a studio and use equipment such as a furnace and heating device, blowing iron to collect the glass, and a newspaper and other tools for shaping. I also use a sandblaster for etching.

Where did you study?

I studied for my degree at Manchester Metropolitan University and then later went on to spend a year at the International Glass Centre in Brierley Hill.

Describe your first encounter with glass.

The first time I worked with blown glass I remember it being very frustrating. It looked so easy to do when we were being shown by our tutor but you can’t understand how the glass moves until you try to manipulate it yourself. The hot glass didn’t do what I wanted it to and I had to resist the temptation to touch it even though I knew it was so hot!

Who inspires you as an artist?

The artist that most inspires me I think is Bertil Vallien, I am fascinated by his massive sculptures and I think he is a real pioneer in glass in the way he creates objects through the technique of sand-casting, it particularly interests me as his sculptures have so much technical skill. I also love the work of Antony Gormley as I am interested in artists that are inspired by the human form.

Who would you like to see interviewed?

Bertil Vallien of course, I would like to know his secrets as many of my attempts at sand casted sculptures have not turned out well! I would like to read interviews on some glass artists that have been making glass for a long time and built up a good business from their art, like Peter Layton or Bob Crooks.

What are you working on right now?

At the moment I am working on some smaller pieces made of lots of tiny lamp-worked components that will be built up to make a finished sculpture. I began making some ‘creatures’ that were similar while at university so I am hoping to develop my original idea which was based on sea creatures and plants. I am mainly working in lampworking at the moment although I have also been working on a range of blown pieces with patterns etched into them, such as skylines and swallows.

What is the address of your website?

www.Katywoollattglass.com

7/11/11

Name

Sarah Blood

Which field of glass art do you work in?

Flameworking and neon with mixed media.

How do you describe your style of work?

Neon and mixed media sculpture that questions the definition of strength and permanence through the use of different densities of materials such as concrete and clay is contrasted being combined with the perceived fragility of glass, inert gas, and light. The forms are inspired by science, geometric abstraction, and post-minimalist sensibilities, while evoking personal and human qualities.

Describe the set of tools you use?

Ribbon burner, bench burners and hand torches to melt and bent the glass.  A bombarder is used to fill the tubes with neon.

The mixed media element is different every new piece of work. But reoccurring tools are press molds, casting molds and jigs.

Where did you study?

2008                        Pratt Arts Center Seattle, USA. Natural Forms, Advanced Flameworking
2006                        Pilchuck Glass School Seattle, USA. Spirit Light, Neon and sandcasting
2005                        The Glass Furnace, Istanbul, Turkey. Neon and Flameworking

2003 – 2004           University of Sunderland UK. Masters Degree, emphasis Glass
2001-2002             Durham University UK. GLEAM  Graduate Business Programme
1995-1999               University of Sunderland UK. BA(hons) 3D Design, (Glass, Architectural Glass &
Ceramics)
1993-1994               De Montfort University Leicester, UK.  Certificate of Arts and Design Foundation

Describe your first encounter with glass.

It was on a tour around Dartington Crystal while I was on holiday, I think I was about 10 years old. I thought Glass blowing was just about the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

Who inspires you as an artist?

Eva Hesse has been a huge influence on the way I approach my work. I also like the work of Tara Donovan, Richard Sera and Warren Langley

What are you working on right now?

I’ve been very fortunate this year to be exhibiting and making new work pretty much non stop. I’ve just come to the end of my exhibition commitments for this year, so at the moment, I’m sorting out my studio, giving it a good clean, catching up on admin, updating my blog and website, all the things I wish I had an assistant for!

I have a couple of commissions coming up in the new year, both are with artists who are undertaking residencies in scientific research departments, which I’m looking forward to.

Next year is the 100^th anniversary of neon lighting, so it’s an exciting time for us neon artists. Hopefully I’ll be as busy next year as I have been this year.

What is the address of your website?

http://www.sarahblood.com