The Lathe Riders brought cold work into the limelight at this year’s Glass Art Society conference in Berlin. For the first time in history, cold work got centre stage as the opening demo at a GAS conference.
Scrolling through the abyss of my digital addiction frustrates me. I need to un-frame my mind. This unrelenting pressure to ‘create content’ is driving me up the wall. Maybe I’ve found a way to do it.
The United Nations declared 2022 the International Year of Glass. Countless events, and activities across the globe took place throughout the year, celebrating glass in all its glory — from science, sustainability, industry and technology, to art, history and culture.
It’s not often when one gets a phone call out of the blue where the conversation kicks off around light, optics and sculpture. I answered this call at the beginning of December, to imagine a sculpture which encapsulates lights, camera and action for the Silwerskermfees 2022.
A sluice of possibilities opened at this first international cold workers get-together! Through sharing, doing and conversing we explored the juncture between tradition and craftsmanship, and the freedom to do what you want.
It is truly a proud moment to be recognised on this grand international platform for contemporary glass, to be one of the voices intertwining the world of glass and future, twenty-first century art.
One thing I have learned from the international glass community is that it is a family with weird cousins, uncles and aunts, some might be scary and others timid or bombastic, everyone differently unique but all are giving, supportive and believe in the magic of glass and its future
Pocket Lenses developed over years. They have become an analogue synonym of our digitally engaged society. Lenses were a natural conclusion to the work I do. Sculpting solid (and sometimes blown) glass by grinding and polishing I invoke light to do crazy things. Light is all around us. It is the substance (or wave) that informs us of our surrounding, bouncing off everything we see.
This idea of an alternate reality inside your pocket is not new. Most of us are aquatinted with that digital version – the dumbfone.
It is that time of year again when one checks the mailbox more regularly. Problem is that you find all those bills first and then… with great anticipation the latest copy of New Glass Review is there!