‘On the Edge’ exhibition

We don’t get national glass exhibitions here in Wales very often so this was a big treat. There were lots of pieces I liked but the cast glass was what I went for. Working by myself and seeing other glass makers rarely I forget how wonderful and varied the work can be, and there is nothing like seeing the real thing, photos just aren’t the same. The show continues at Swansea Waterfront Museum until the end of May, so if you can get there go and take a look. Ray Collins has posted lots of photos here  http://glassartswansea.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/on-the-edge-5-april-31-may-09/ and here http://glassartbyraycollins.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/glass-exhibition-in-swansea/

There was a peice by Joseph Harrington called ‘I See’ which used the lost ice technique to make the mould, you can see this and more of his work here http://www.josephharrington.co.uk/3.html frm_data1=2&frm_data1_type=large He has some photographs of his salt & ice sculptures at St Pancras which are worth looking at to. I didn’t get a decent photo so can’t show an image, but I had been interested in the the technique after hearing a Bullseye lecture on glass casting at the Welsh School of Architectural glass in February so it was useful seeing the end result.  He uses salt to erode the ice and this results in interesting textures and opacity in the glass.

The work I’m showing isn’t necessarily the best but its what I found most interesting and it would be difficult to choose a favourite as they were all very different, but I did like this a lot! 

Parallel Verve-Fiaz Elson

Cast glass-Fiaz Elson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pieces by Chinks Grylls were as interesting for their reflection as the glass themselves, they had been mounted on hinges so that the glass could be angled to change the way the reflection fell and really did appear to be a reflexion of a blood red sunset.

Chinks Grylls

Glass panels Chinks Grylls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I had thought of this title, the glass has been painted & sandblasted. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sea Shushed-Mary Mackey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

detail of In Sea-Shushed Secret Places- Mary Mackey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 3 light boxes by Debbie Dawson, they were the only leaded pieces in the exhibition, one of which wasn’t lit.

 

Like a door opening- Debbie Dawson

Turner Prize 2009

Good news, Roger Hiorns has been short listed for the 2009 Turner prize, fingers crossed!

Read more about it here http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/apr/28/turner-prize-shortlist

 

and feast your eyes on this photo taken from the Guardian, I love it.

 

Time

 

Pwll-Y-Myn

I haven’t posted for ages, not because I’m working on my glass but because I have been working on the garden (more later), allotment and helping my son Aaron to decorate while my partner made the curtains, Aaron and his family moved recently. Amelie (Grandaughter age5) has a pink room (of course) she decorated foam butterflies with glitter and they are now flying all over her walls, this was a success.   The sitting room less so but I’ll not go into that. I have also helped start a Stitch n’ Bitch group with my partner & daughter, this is going well and I have started to get involved with a local ‘Transition Town’ group so I haven’t been ‘losicking.  Although I have  taken time out to look at some local architecture that I thought people might be interested in,  these photos are of some houses in Peterston Super Ely that I thought were Art Deco but turned out to be something else.  This is what The Buildings of Wales (Glamorgan) says about them p515

Wyndham Park (or Glyn Cory Garden Village)

  “John & Reginald Cory, the coal magnates, began a garden village here in 1909…    

… a most surprising terrace of ten flat-roofed houses,nos. 1-10 Pwll-Y-Myn Crescent. Each house has a turret feature, canted window bays, and a tympanum of brightly coloured mosaic over the front door. Sadly, only one house retains its original fenestration. Who was the architect of this paradoxically early essay in the modernistic?”

I think the green windows are original

 

another view

 

 

 

 

 

 

and possibly the best bit, the doors with their mosaic tympanum, only one house holder has interferred with this, they put a porch over the front.

 

 

 

 

The final 2 doors look original but what were the other two thinking of?

 

 

 

 

I keep thinking, where does the time go?  I still haven’t got my head around text/image layout on WordPress. Does anyone know more about these houses?

Wedding panels

I promised some friends 2 panels for a wedding present. This was sometime ago but I have become bogged down in the designs, the biggest problem has been the text. They want people to really have to look to be able to read the text and I’m not getting this right. 

 

This is Valeria’s panel its based on a Monarch butterfly wing, Valeria is Mexican. The poem will be etched onto a second sheet of glass in front of the fused panel or if I decide to encapsulate the frit I will etch onto the front, I’ll have to use a dremel for this, I wish I still had access to acid. The verse is taken from ‘Te Quiro’ by Mario Benedetti.

si te quiero es porque sos

mi amor mi cómplice y todo

y en la calle codo a codo

somos mucho más que dos

 (translation)

If I love you, it’s because you are

my love my accomplice and all

and in the street elbow to elbow [arm in arm]

we are much more than two

 

Derek’s panel is based on a heat map of the city of York, Valeria & Derek live there, they were married there and Derek studied at York university so it seems fitting.

His text is taken from a Philip Larkin poem, I can’t make up my mind which verse to use.

Side by side, their faces blurred,

The earl and countess lie in stone,

Their proper habits vaguely shown

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,

And that faint hint of the absurd–

The little dogs under their feet.

 or

Time has transfigured them into

Untruth. The stone finality

They hardly meant has come to be

Their final blazon, and to prove

Our almost-instinct almost true:

What will survive of us is love.

 

Both poems were read at the wedding and are very beautiful. I hope to finish them by the end of April so will show the final panels here. I have also decided the text will follow the black & cobalt lines.