Glass Making Visitors

Scott Benefield & Andrea Spencer called into Rosedale with their travelling studio on their return journey to Northern Ireland.

Lovely people, amazing travelling glass makers and expert van packers, as well as many many other accolades too numerous to mention !

Have a look at what they make here.

http://craftni.org/directory/maker/scott-benefield

http://craftni.org/directory/maker/andrea-spencer

Studio Exhibition October – Graal Goblets

The Studio Exhibiiton opens to the public on 24th October. (PV 23rd)

‘Graal’ is the Swedish for grail and derives from the mediaeval Latin for ‘gradalis’ meaning bowl or chalice.

Developed in 1916, by the master glassmakers at Orrefors, it is still one of the most technically
challenging of all hot glass techniques.
An overlay is made, cooled, decorated with engraving and sand carving, reheated, picked up on the blowing iron and made into a goblet. We will be making these generously sized white & clear
goblets with new complex patterns.

Below images of the second stage of the process the pick up through to making.

Overlay and embryo making to come soon.

 

Embryos in the kiln ready for pick up

On the Blowing Iron

Heating in to smooth the textured sand engraving

Marvering the embryo

Air blown into embryo

Stem Foot & Punty added

Almost finished

Into the Lehr to cool overnight.

Habsburg exhibition reveals Holy Roman emperors’ taste in bling | Culture | The Guardian

“Most of the objects have no functional value whatsoever. They’re designed just to be beautiful. “This is a wow show,” said Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam.”

Well that resonates with me !

via Habsburg exhibition reveals Holy Roman emperors’ taste in bling | Culture | The Guardian.

Lecture Friday 8th April – York

For visual arts practitioners as part of York Open Studios. Bar Lane Studios @2.30pm.

Enjoy sharing my experiences and the creativity of business with creative souls. It’ll be interesting to see who comes along from York St Johns Uni & York College as well as the makers and artists of York.

Craft Matters

Find some inspiring quotes here from Craft Champions about the value of craft and hosted by the Crafts Council.

This is taken f rom the Craft Matters web site. I particularly like what Grayson Perry had to say…. but I would !

Follow the link sand see what else the great and good have to say and how you can participate in Craft Matters by signing up to say why craft matters to you.

GLASSROOM – Pukeberg Sweden Nov 10

Stephen is off to Sweden for a few days glass making as part if this interesting project info below. Its a heady mix of teams with designers, skilled glass makers working together experimentally.

“Glassroom is a nordic glass project. Our vision is to conform a concerted association for artists and designers and open up a joint hotshop at Pukeberg in 2011. We aim to create a non-traditional movement, which stimulates experiment and development, where craftsmanship serve as a powerful and valued tool. We want to make the glass available for both the creators and the public and strive to be the home of personal, mindblowing glass that leaves room for both reflection and evolution”

for more info see here www.glassroom.se/

info@glassroom.se

fredag 12 november
08-12.30 workshop 3: silent caos
Morgan Persson – studioglasblåsare
Steven Gillies – glasblåsarmästare
Julie Kausland Shirani – elev Kosta Glasskola
Anette Gulbæk – studioglasblåsare
Liselotte Henriksen – formgivare
Wilke Adolfsson – glasblåsarmästare
Lars Hellsten – formgivare/glaskonstnär

Studio Glass at York Art Gallery

Thanks to Helen at York Museums Trust who showed us their collection of early UK studio glass, including works by Pauline Solven, George Elliott and Sam Herman.

So different to studio glass today but still each piece still has a real sense of the excitement of the maker and the a strong sense of integrity within the work. Good to see and handle pieces that are only usually seen in print.

Origin 2010, Craft

The purple walled garden of Craft.

The makers made an excellent show of work, as usual…. sadly for exhibitors and visitors alike the physical conditions, location and context of the show did not enhance the value of the work.

Pity the professional crafts people showing work in these conditions… It’s hard as a crafts person not to be grateful for every one of the few opportunities offered to us by the ‘powers’ that be, but this incarnation of the brand that is ‘Origin’ I believe does the experience and ‘offer’ of professional contemporary craft no service.  Oh dear. Do so desperately want it all to be brilliant and represent craft well as a valued, meaningful element within our consumer culture……. much much more to say but will stop there !

Garth Clark – Palace and Cottage

This an inspiring podcast from the American Craft Council Conference in October 2009 “Creating a New Craft Culture”.

Garth sets a cat amongst the ACC pigeons, indeed amongst all long established Craft Instutitions and asks some powerful questions and makes some keen observations.

There too, were many good comments from the floor challenging makers to rethink their role in looking after themselves, and not waiting for ‘mom & pop’ (the established craft institutions) to do it for them.

Perhaps for too long, makers have hoped that their relative councils will somehow help to make life just a bit easier, but in reality for the vast majority, the councils have succeeded in marginalising craft further from main stream consumer culture, abandoning, confusing and undermining a craft language that may have helped people new to craft to connect with its values, creative, cultural, social and economic, and therefore, fewer people have confidently purchased craft

As a maker who works to fill my ‘rice bowl’ as well as working to fund the ‘spirit’ work, Garth Clarks words have a particular resonance.

Have a listen here and many of the other podcasts are also very interesting for those of us interested in the politics of craft and the future of craft.

Thank you Mr Clark.

Stephen Bayley

like very much what Mr Bayley has to say about making things….. but I would !

read the full article here