Archives: Artists

Nature and flora have always been the soul of my artistic inspiration. A fleeting movement or a sudden apparition settles within me and sparks the creative process—much like a simple fruit transforming through natural drying. In my work, I explore the interplay of opposites: mass and fragility, a core and its protective shell, an imprint and its container. The heaviness of a solid block contrasts with the delicate resistance of a thin layer of glass. The shell holds the core, leaving a mark that reveals their shared essence. Rough and silky textures create striking contrasts, while a surprising play of polychromes produces an intensity of color that shifts and transforms with the light.

My practice is driven by materials, using a process of experimentation, technique development, and learning through making. Colour plays a central role in my work, helping to strengthen themes and push narrative possibilities. I draw inspiration from a wide range of creative disciplines, including fashion, architecture, brutalist design, nature, and everyday observations, allowing ideas to emerge through cross-disciplinary exploration. At the core of my practice are lampworked and blown glass alongside copper metalwork, which I combine to create sculptural, wearable pieces. The contrast between glass and metal reflects my interest in balancing fragility and strength, while the concept of containment is a recurring theme throughout my work, explored through form, structure, and the relationship between object and body. Influenced by the bold forms and raw honesty of Brutalism, I am drawn to strong silhouettes and structural elements that inform both the aesthetic and construction of my pieces. Through colour, material, and making, I create work that communicates stories, evokes emotion, and encourages engagement between the object, wearer, and viewer.

Finding inspiration in botanical forms, surface-pattern and the human figure, Alison Mac Cormaic employs mosaic to investigate the intersection between nature and culture. She uses Mexican smalti, a unique, handmade, opaque glass with a luminous natural resonance. Building on intuitive colour responses, her work explores the joyful juxtaposition of colour blocks, with the selection, matching and rearranging of elements always a significant element in her process. Exploring a strong agency of personal drawings and mark making, she creates work developed from observation, with a rapidly drawn line or contour often informing a whole mosaic.

Recently I’ve been developing both my enamel-painting and flame working techniques to produce pieces that combine both disciplines. I find that flame working in particular allows me to represent the fragility and complexity of botanical forms against fairly robust kiln-formed backgrounds.

My current practice is focussed on stained glass and kiln-formed glass powders.