Glass artist interview with Hassina Khan

Creativity runs in Hassina’s blood, but it was when she discovered glass that she knew she had found her medium. Linda Banks finds out more.

What led you to start working with glass?

I’ve always been a maker: I’d spend hours as a child making furniture and accessories for my dolls’ house; I made my own clothes and knitwear as a student, and then I was a professional stage manager and propmaker. However, I never really found a material that spoke to me.

Then, in 2018, I did a weekend course in stained glass (copper foil) and suddenly I’d found my material. Previously, I’d never been happy with either the processes or my results, but something about glass just felt right. I found cutting it both relatively easy and so satisfying and, while I wasn’t entirely happy with what I created in that session, I could see how it could be improved.

I continued with stained glass as a hobby for a couple of years, making things up as I went along and solving problems as I encountered them. Then I decided I wanted to learn properly. I’ve always worked in the arts sector and the notions of professionalism and doing things well in order to create high quality work are really important to me.

I was accepted onto the MA at the University of Sunderland – completely bonkers since I live in East Suffolk – but the idea of being based in the National Glass Centre appealed to me, and I have childhood connections to Sunderland through my Pakistani heritage.

What other glass techniques have you used, and which do you prefer?

Now I mostly work with kiln-formed glass, specifically fusing and slumping, but my work is still rooted in my stained glass practice. I love designing, playing with colour, and cutting glass. I always hated soldering, so now I use the kiln to join it all together. I also use my kiln to manipulate the glass and create organic, 3D objects rather than the flatter, arguably less fluid, forms of stained glass.

Please tell us more about your creative approach. What message(s) do you want to convey through your art?

The starting point for my work is usually words. I started in theatre and I’ve always been a big reader, so stories and words are how I understand the world. I write short fragments of text about themes and issues that are important to me. I then transliterate these into a fusion of English and Urdu, which reflects my mixed English and Pakistani background. Transliteration is the writing of one language using the characters of another. In my case, instead of writing English words using Roman characters, I write them using Nastaliq characters (a Perso Arabic script). I then further manipulate the text by playing with the scale, rotation and order of the characters to create an abstract composition that speaks to the viewer on a conceptual level rather than words that can be read.

The final work is hand cut in Bullseye glass (two layers), letter by letter, or curve by curve if it’s a complex letterform, and then fused together.

My MA work focussed on the notion of ‘othering’. It was a seven-panel glass poem that listed all the questions people ask that make me feel like I don’t belong, starting with ‘Do not ask me where I’m from’. It was intended to encourage viewers to think about the times they might have othered someone else, or been othered themselves, and I was delighted when it was acquired by Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens so it could have a wider audience [see last photo, below].

I also made a series of works about identity, exploring my experiences of straddling different cultures and the challenges of navigating in-between-ness. They invite viewers to reflect on their own challenges and encourage them to take ownership of their experiences and contributions. In a world where we often feel powerless, these objects aim to remind us that we are both valid and valuable.

My most recent body of work was funded by Firstsite gallery in Colchester, Essex, and explores the word ‘enough’. The works are intended to counter the prevailing narrative that tells us we are ‘not … enough’. We all have our own version of this, and I wanted to create vessels that, in the words of Edmund de Waal, could be ‘vessels to touch and hold, to pass on’, and which would encourage the receiver to let go of their version of not enough and know that they are enough.

What is your favourite tool or piece of equipment and why?

My Toyo glass cutter. Simple, basic. Does what it says on the tin!

Do you have a favourite piece or collection you have made? Why is it your favourite?

I’m really pleased with the latest iteration of the ‘enough’ collection – ‘Enough, All-ways’ [see main feature image]. I wanted to find a way to use the word ‘enough’ several times and after a lot of trial and error involving cutting the word out of paper, scaling it up and down on a photocopier and then stickytaping it together, I finally came up with a design I was happy with. Then it took me about eight hours to cut the glass, but the final piece was far better than I thought it would be.

My other favourite piece is a work called ‘Past and Future’, which explores what we lose when someone close to us dies. It’s a flameworked piece that I made during a residency at the National Glass Centre funded through the Glass Society Prize in 2023. It’s very personal and therefore very precious.

Where do you show and sell your work?

I’ve had a few pieces in exhibitions, including my piece ‘A New Way of Being’, which was selected for the British Glass Biennale in 2024. I’m a member of Suffolk Craft Society and Design Nation, so I‘ve shown through them. I was at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in October 2024 and Blackthorpe Barn at Christmas with my more commercial work, but I haven’t had the confidence to approach any shops or galleries with my work yet. I only graduated in December 2022 and I still feel like I’m at the beginning of my glass journey. However, I’ve told myself that I need to get out there this year!

Where is your creative practice heading next?

There are two pieces of work I want to make this year. I’m really interested in kindness and I want to gather stories of acts of kindness (small or large) and make an installation sharing them. I also want to make a series of objects that focus on the different aspects of identity – the idea that we are all more than just one thing and that these differences balance each other and make a whole.

There I go, telling stories again…

Find out more about Hassina Khan and her work via her website:  www.hassinakhanglass.com or follow her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/hassinakhanglass

Main feature image: ‘Enough, All-ways’ (2024) is part of a series of vessels aimed at countering the prevailing narrative that tells us we are not enough. It is made from hand-cut Bullseye glass and measures 36cm diameter. Photo: Eric Orme.