Celebrating 35 years of creating glass

Ian Pearson looks back over his long career in scientific glassblowing and creative lampworking with his characteristic frank and humorous style.

My business, Glass Creations, is celebrating trading for 35 years. I commemorated this fact earlier this year by writing 35 blogs, each 350 words long, all of which can be seen on my website. It is a lot to ask anyone to read them all, so the following is a summary.

First an overview of my involvement in glass. I was trained as a scientific glassblower in 1970 by my uncle at his business, Scientific Glassware Specialists in Thorton Heath, South London. My first introduction to artist lampworking was making fish using uranium glass. This glass was supplied by Plowden and Thompson, which was once owned by Barbara and Richard Beadman, who recently popped into my studio on their way to Shetland!

I wanted to travel the world, so I left my uncle to work in Oldham at the Scientific Glassblowing Company. It was here that I discovered my love of making glass abstract sculptures from scrap glass, which is very fashionable now since it’s known as recycling glass!

I moved back to the South and worked for Jencons Scientific Ltd in Hemel Hempstead. Here there seemed to be a growing market for glass parties where glass flowers made by ‘moonlighting’ scientific glassblowers sold well.

In 1981 I was employed by the Nuclear Power establishment in Caithness, Dounreay, Scotland. I was in charge of their scientific glassblowing department for many years. It was while making glass presentation pieces for retiring members of staff that the idea of having my own business emerged.

In 1990, my wife Maureen and I set up Glass Creations in a small building next to Thurso River. The location is important since, over time, we realised that the river flooded and has done at least 14 times. I have given up insuring the building as no insurer can offer reasonable rates. I work with oxygen and propane cylinders, naked flames, fragile glass items and the workshop is open to the public. All this is insured, but ingress of water? No such luck.

In 1989 my mother-in-law died, leaving some money that we invested in buying the building where I still work. It cost £5,000 for a building the size of a double garage, which offered space for a burner and cabinets full of my products. The business address was, and remains, Thurso Glass Studio, and we set it up as a tourist attraction. It took us years to establish what worked and what didn’t. Our opening hours were 10am until 5pm, then 7pm until 10pm daily, seven days a week, plus at other times by appointment. Many days I was working until 2am and once or twice I feel asleep at the flame. The smell of burning flesh is prominent when it’s your nose that is getting burnt!

Our plan was that I would make glass ‘stuff’ and Maureen would sell it – ideally from the studio. The space was divided into half for the workshop and half for the showroom. We also went to craft fairs in Aberdeen and Glenrothes, as well as travelling all around Caithness and Sutherland. We attended several trade fairs at Aviemore and, during the first few years, our turnover was close to the VAT limit. Yet, we had a bank overdraft, so we were not actually making money. It was fortunate I had a ‘real’ job at the same time.

What was I making? Glass thistles sold well, as did anything Scottish, but not to tourists with backpacks or who were travelling on buses. I enjoy commissions and special products, and it is this approach that has kept my flame alive. Living near the coast with its fishing connections means glass fish (remember those uranium glass fish?) are popular. Associated with that are other sea creatures. Once I did seal a real lobster in a glass tube, but was reported to the SSPCA for cruelty to lobsters. Promised not to do that again.

In 2005 my wife Maureen died, but I was determined to continue with the business. I needed to keep that flame alight. The Glass Creations logo was incorporated into Maureen’s headstone, and I made an entwined, double glass heart sculpture that was placed on her coffin at her funeral. I now realise that I have manged the business on my own longer than I did with Maureen.

For the 30th anniversary of Glass Creations, I made 20 small sculptures, each consisting of a couple of figures. The series was titled ‘Connections’, and I placed them all around Maureen’s grave for a photoshoot!

The COVID-19 situation gave me a bonus of a grant from the local council, who supported businesses on condition they supplied a set of recent accounts. It was then that I realised the importance of having an accountant. I have had the same one for 35 years!

I could ramble on about the things I have made, but it’s better to visit my website, in particular my favourite section at https://glasscreationsirp.co.uk/quirky/ . There you will see: weird figures without body parts and body parts on their own; there are objects sealed in glass and household items twisted into transport. The list is endless, and I am currently working on pieces that promote scientific glass, but the twist is that they are not functional. I feel at this stage in my career I am entitled to do just what I feel, without judgement.

My chosen method for glass working – lampworking – allows me to make anything I want. Whatever is in my head I can produce in glass. In 1993 the Scottish Glass Society awarded me a trophy labelled ‘Oddball of the Year’. I was the only entry, methinks, and it’s never been presented again! Maybe we are all oddballs!