It is with sadness we report the death of master architectural stained glass artist, Sir Brian Clarke DLitt, Hon FRIBA, who passed away on 1 July at the age of 71 after a short illness.
Clarke was noted for integrating his medium within architecture and was one of the most important contemporary artists working in stained glass, with his contribution to the arts ultimately recognised by his knighthood in 2024.
Born in Oldham, Lancashire on 2 July 1953, into a working class family, he won a scholarship to study at Oldham School of Arts and Crafts in 1965. Following a subsequent two years at Burnley College of Art, Clarke joined the architectural stained glass course at North Devon College of Art and Design in 1970.
Following a travelling fellowship to study medieval and contemporary stained glass in Italy, France and West Germany, Clarke designed 20 windows for the Church of St Lawrence, Longridge, in 1975, which are considered his first mature works in glass.
As well as curating and showing work at many exhibitions over the years, Clarke undertook many prestigious stained glass commissions in the UK and overseas. He collaborated with renowned architect Norman Foster on various projects, including a large stained glass window for the Al-Faisliah Center in Riyadh in 2000.
In 2012 Clarke was appointed Honorary Liveryman by the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Master Glass Painters.
Marking Clarke’s 70th birthday was the exhibition ‘Brian Clarke: A Great Light’, held at Damien hirst’s Newport Street Gallery (9 June 2023-7 January 2024). The show featured a selection of his works made since 2002, including ‘Ardath’ (‘Blooming Meadow’), a 450-square-foot glass artwork made from three layers of glass and without lead cames (see image).
His final work was the monumental stained glass installation ‘Concordia’ at Bahrain International Airport, which he unveiled earlier this year.
Find out more about Brian Clarke and his art via the website.
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.
Me at the workbench.
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!
‘Stag Hunting’ illustrates my sense of humour and lampworking style. Photo: Artist.
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!
‘Family Wars’. Photo: J Turnock.
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.
‘Cultural Exchange’ is in the North Lands Creative collection. Photo: D. McLachlan.
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.
‘Glory Whole’ celebrates lampworking.
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.
‘Circle of Life Nessie Style’ was entered for a Scottish Glass Society exhibition. Photo: S. Lay.
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.
‘Thistle Family at Teacake Barbecue’ was entered in a Scottish Glass Society exhibition. Photo: S. Lay.
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!
These 20 pairs of lampworked glass figures were made to celebrate 30 years of Glass Creations. Photo: Artist.
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.
‘Ode to Scientific Glass 4’ is one of a series of impractical designs. Photo: Artist.
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!
Carolin Zibulka explains how her family’s secret glass ‘lavacoating’ technique is evolving as she develops her practice, reinforcing her connection with her father and viewers’ connections with her art.
From an early age, glass was more than just a material to me – it was a medium full of secrets and memories. My father, a skilled craftsman with great dedication and inventive spirit, spent many years developing a unique technique, which he passed on to me in 2020. What began as practical know-how became the foundation for my own artistic exploration of material, form, and meaning. Building on his method, I refined the process and shaped it into an independent artistic technique that I call ‘lavacoating’. What emerged was not only a new form of expression but also a generational connection – a creative lineage that unites tradition, intuition, and invention.
The origin of lavacoating
Lavacoating is more than just a technique – it is a connection between past and present, craftsmanship and free expression, father and daughter. The process begins on the reverse side of glass: I apply various materials layer by layer, each one requiring at least 24 hours to dry. Only at the very end is the piece sealed – and turned around. That moment when the image reveals itself for the first time is always an act of discovery. I see the result just as everyone else does – without knowing until that point exactly how depth, structure, and colour will ultimately interact. This trust in the process, combined with skilled precision and inner intuition, lies at the core of my work.
Carolin Zibulka uses a painstaking process to create her art.
Intuition meets structure
My work rarely begins with fixed sketches or plans. Most often, I start with an inner atmosphere, a feeling, or a colour mood. The creation unfolds slowly and organically – with pauses, redirection, and moments of surprise. Often, it feels as though the material itself guides me, suggesting paths I hadn’t intended.
‘Mystic Forest’ measures 30x45cm.
An invitation to interpretation
My art isn’t about conveying a clear message. Instead, I see my pieces as open spaces, full of associations, memories, and emotional resonance. Every viewer brings their own meanings, stories, and feelings. That’s what fascinates me about art: this quiet, often intimate, dialogue between artwork and person.
Tools and secrets
When asked about my favourite tool, I usually respond with a smile. This is not because I don’t want to answer – but because my technique, the exact ingredients, and the process itself are a small family secret. It’s like a recipe handed down and further developed across generations. This secrecy is part of the magic – it preserves the uniqueness of my work and keeps the connection to my father alive.
‘Flowing Nature’ (30x45cm).
My favourite piece: ‘Aqua Mystique’
A piece that holds special meaning for me is ‘Aqua Mystique’. It’s the deepest image I’ve created so far – in every sense. The structure, the way light moves through it, the colour transitions between water and light – everything came together in a way that even surprised me. Aqua Mystique represents a turning point in my artistic journey, a moment of trusting the invisible during the process.
‘Aqua Mystique’ (30x45cm).
Exhibitions, presence and encounters
Since 2023, my work has been shown at international glass events, art markets, and group exhibitions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. In 2024, I was invited to join the artist roster of Gallery O in Essen – a significant milestone in my artistic development. A special highlight awaits in autumn 2025, when my piece ‘Azure’ will be part of the 5th International Biennale of Glass at the National Gallery Kvadrat 500 (18 September – 30 November 2025) in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is a great honour to be included in this prestigious exhibition. I will be in Sofia from 18-20 September to present my work in person and chat with visitors.
‘Azure’ will be exhibited at the 5th International Biennale of Glass in Bulgaria this autumn.
In addition, further international collaborations are in the works – including a promising project linked to Australia, which will be officially announced soon.
Talking to visitors on the stand at Glassexpo Zutphen 2023. Photo: Tim Neldner.
Looking ahead
This year, I aim to further establish myself as a glass artist and share my work – which is still relatively new and lesser-known – with a broader audience. It’s important to me to make my technique more visible and bring my art into wider national and international spaces. At the same time, I’m thinking about how lavacoating could evolve – perhaps through new formats, the integration of light, or collaborative projects with other artists.
Many ideas are still taking shape – and that’s what makes the process exciting. One long-term goal particularly close to my heart is to organise an exhibition in complete darkness – in collaboration with other female glass artists. Early planning for this is already underway, and I look forward to turning this project into reality, step by step.
A selection of glass artworks on display in the studio.
And finally…
To me, glass is not just a material – it’s a mirror for emotion, memory, and movement. Each piece contains a spark of origin, an echo of the voices that have shaped me. And perhaps that’s the greatest gift my work offers: it creates connection – quiet, profound, and human.
Discover more about Carolin Zibulka via her website: https://lavacoating.de and Instagram: @3d_glassart_kleve
Main feature image: ‘Nebula’ was created using Carolin’s secret lavacoating technique. All photos courtesy of the artist.
The Architectural Glass Centre at Swansea College of Art, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) is offering new glass painting masterclasses by Jonathan Cooke in September 2025.
Jonathan tailors his teaching to the individual, and his masterclasses are lively and inspiring. These specialist masterclasses will be limited to nine participants and are suitable both as an introduction to glass painting and for more experienced glass painters looking to extend their repertoire.
Silver Stain and Enamels Masterclass: 28th-29th September: £250.00
What’s included:
Offer of a pre-course discussion with Jonathan by email and/or phone on any aspect of the course or planned project to ensure best use of teaching time.
All tuition, access to tools and materials, use of kilns and technical support.
The courses focus on technique, and there will be the opportunity to complete a small piece (approximately A5).
A copy of Jonathan’s classic ‘Time and Temperature’, 2nd edition.
The opportunity to purchase Oster Ancient Stains at a special promotional price.
The Architectural Glass Centre address is: Room AA – 108 B The Alex Design Exchange, Swansea College of Art, Alexandra Road, Swansea, SA1 5DX, Wales, UK.
Image: Detail of one of Jonathan Cooke’s painted panels.
Among the 22 grants awarded in the latest round of awards from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) are two scholarships for glass artists Theo Brooks and Karlyn Sutherland.
Theo Brooks is the 2025 QEST Adrian Blundell Scholar. With support from QEST, he will undertake four advanced courses to refine his hot glass techniques: chandelier making with Fabiano Zanchi, ‘Trick Cups’ with Marc Barreda at The Glass Hub, ‘Sculpting Inside the Bubble’ with Martin Janecký, and a specialist class with Jason Christian and Aya Oki at Tulsa Glassblowing School. These experiences will build his skills in hot sculpting, pattern making, and Venetian techniques, enabling him to develop a new body of sculptural work inspired by his Cypriot heritage and south London roots.
Theo first discovered glass while studying Three-Dimensional Design at UCA Farnham. He went on to work in several UK studios before apprenticing with maestro Simon Moore in hot glass, and later in Paris, France, with Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg in glass cutting. He has since studied for an MFA at Bowling Green State University in the US, held a studio technician role at Temple University in Philadelphia, and exhibited internationally across Europe, the USA, and China. Theo’s practice reimagines ancient Cypriot artefacts in contemporary forms, using the fluidity of glass to explore cultural identity.
Speaking about the award, Theo commented, “Hot glass is unlike any other medium. Its extreme temperatures, radiating heat and glow, combined with its translucency and refractive qualities, give you a world of opportunities to explore. I am lucky to be able to use this material to translate aspects of my cultures. Through QEST, I hope this broadens my ideas and skill sets to continue pushing my practice.”
Karlyn Sutherland receives a QEST Scholarship to advance her kiln-formed glass skills.
Karlyn works primarily with kiln-formed, fused glass. Her practice explores the connection between hand-making and a human sense of place, particularly how light, shadow and atmosphere influence experience and memories of a space. For Karlyn, making is a contemplative process, an essential tool in exploring and strengthening her own relationship with, and understanding of, place.
Drawn to the material for its ability to hold and transform light, Karlyn uses layered planes of translucent, semi-translucent and opaque sheet glass to create subtle optical illusions that suggest depth, folds and surface shifts. Her current series includes wall pieces and furniture prototypes, each one meticulously hand-cut, assembled and kiln-fused. Once cooled, the glass is shaped using hand-held grinding tools and finished by hand on a lapping plate with specialist abrasives to achieve its final surface.
QEST funding will support Karlyn to undertake a short course titled ‘Essence’ and one-to-one training with Jessica Loughlin, an internationally recognised artist known for her minimalist aesthetic and focus on light. Both opportunities will deepen Karlyn’s technical and conceptual approach to kiln-formed glass.
Wall art made by Karlyn Sutherland.
Karlyn explained, “Much of my existing glass-making knowledge and skills have been acquired on an ad hoc basis, and, though they’ve served me well, I feel that I have taken them as far as I can within my current practice. I’m extremely grateful to have received a QEST Scholarship – it’s an invaluable opportunity to gain highly-specific experience and knowledge that will allow me to really push my work forwards in new directions.”
These and all the other grants are made possible through the generous support of QEST’s donors – Trusts and Foundations, Liveries, Royal Warrant-holding companies, organisations, and individuals.
The next QEST grant round will open on 9 July and close on 13 August. Grants are available for education and training, with Scholarships up to £18,000, Emerging Maker grants of up to £10,000, and up to £12,000 towards an apprentice’s salary.
All UK school-age children are invited to draw a doodle in a free competition that will see the winning entry transformed into a glass artwork.
This year’s theme is ‘wild UK plant life and fungi’. The winning picture will be recreated in glass by renowned artist Allister Malcolm, in a live event at Stourbridge Glass Museum on 23 August 2025.
The competition is a partnership between The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers, Allister Malcolm Glass and Stourbridge Glass Museum.
The Museum states, “Last year’s entries were truly inspiring, and we look forward to seeing even more brilliant designs this year.”
The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Monday 21 July 2025.
The winner and runner-up artworks will be displayed at Stourbridge Glass Museum before the winning piece is sent to the child’s school for display.
Stourbridge Glass Museum’s new exhibition, ‘Strike a Match’, celebrates the dynamic collaboration and individual expressions of glassblowing artists Elliot Walker and Bethany Wood. With nearly three decades of combined experience, the pair began their shared journey nearly 10 years ago in a Stourbridge studio. Their partnership has since taken them across various locations, ultimately returning to the iconic Red House Glass Cone in the heart of the Black Country – a site rich in glassmaking history.
This exhibition is both a tribute to their shared practice and an exploration of their distinctive artistic voices. From early collaborations to evolved solo works, Strike a Match showcases a broad spectrum of glassmaking techniques, including intricately sculpted still lifes, conceptual installations, and luminous molten paintings. The result is a vibrant reflection of two artists united by craft, vision, and a deep respect for material.
The exhibition is on from 21 June – 8 November 2025.
The theme for the Institute of Conservation (ICON) Stained Glass Group’s 2025 conference is ‘Removed, Remodelled, Relocated: The movement of stained glass from its original setting to places new’.
Scheduled for Friday 3 and Saturday 4 October 2025, at Cantebury Catherdral Lodge in the UK, the meeting comprises two days of lectures and discussions on this theme, plus a guided tour of the Cathedral and conservation studios. Members and non-members are welcome to attend.
The movement of stained glass from its original setting to places new is not a recent phenomenon. Stained glass windows have been bought, sold, shipped, traded, copied, and counterfeited for centuries. However, the upswing in the closure of historic buildings and places of worship has led to an increased risk to stained glass both in the UK and worldwide. Where windows are not lost entirely, they are being dismantled, reworked, resold, and relocated. Though often ensuring their continued existence, these interventions have far-reaching implications for the stained glass pieces involved. Their condition, context, historical significance, and inherent meaning are all susceptible to change.
Esteemed professionals from all over the world – including the UK, Europe, America and Japan – will discuss the challenges, solutions, and opportunities presented by these situations for medieval, modern, and composite stained glass in a series of lectures.
Early bird tickets are available now until 18 July 2025 at 5pm. Ticket price includes the £18 entrance fee to the Cathedral Precincts and Cathedral building.
There is also a Stained Glass Group Buffet Dinner and Quiz on the Friday night for £30 extra, providing a fun evening and chance to network.
Recent finalist in the prestigious Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2025, Australian contemporary glass master Scott Chaseling explains his process and inspirations.
My path into the world of glass began unexpectedly. Fresh out of art school with a sculpture degree, I found myself unemployed. It was during this period of uncertainty that a chance encounter with a fellow graduate changed everything. He mentioned securing a traineeship at Adelaide’s Jam Factory Craft and Design Centre. Intrigued, yet operating in a pre-internet era with little concrete knowledge of the medium, I applied. It was a leap into the unknown. What started as a practical response to unemployment became a profound, lifelong engagement with a material possessing unique properties of light, form, and transformation.
‘Delicate Delicious’ features a range of glass techniques.
My practice has never settled on a single technique. I’ve explored the painterly discipline of reverse glass painting, the layered construction of fusing, the dynamic physicality of glassblowing, and the precise refinement of cold work. Each offers distinct possibilities. My current work synthesises these methods: reverse paintings form the conceptual and visual core; fused layers build the structural and narrative foundation; blown elements introduce volume and presence; cold work provides the final articulation. An area yet unexplored is lead lighting – its interplay of structure and coloured light holds significant appeal and is a planned focus for the coming year.
Overhanging glass strips have a feel of modelling clay on this piece, ‘Dance Like All’s Watching’.
My creative process is methodical, beginning with drawing for the reverse glass painting. This phase demands careful planning, as the image must be conceived and executed in reverse – a necessary mental and technical discipline. Once the painted narrative is complete and sealed beneath the glass, the physical construction of the supporting tile begins. This stage builds upon the initial imagery, adding layers of meaning and form. Finally, to emphasise the overall composition and narrative, I incorporate sculpted additions. These elements are applied towards the end, serving as deliberate counterpoints and accents to the primary form.
A series of reverse-painted glass tiles with patterned additions on top, ready for forming into 3D vessels.
Above all, I aim to convey ‘joy’. If a piece elicits a smile, a moment of delight, or a sense of uncomplicated pleasure in the viewer, I consider it successful. In a complex world, the capacity of crafted objects to evoke simple, positive emotion feels increasingly significant. My work is an invitation to experience that lightness and visual pleasure.
‘The Thinker Over-thinking’ features a reverse-painted figure and sculptural addition.
Tools are extensions of intent. When blowing glass directly from the furnace, a pad of wet newspaper remains indispensable. Its humble nature belies its remarkable versatility: it shapes, cools, and protects the molten material with immediate responsiveness. Conversely, when initiating a piece through reverse painting, the paintbrush becomes paramount. It is the primary instrument for translating the initial vision onto the glass surface, each stroke laying the groundwork for the entire piece.
‘Wavy Gravy Train’ stands about 20cm high.
Favourite pieces are often tied to moments of discovery. Currently, that distinction belongs to a small pot, the first successful outcome in developing a new series. Its emergence felt less like a predetermined result and more like a rewarding convergence of intention, material, and process. It embodies the satisfaction of finding a solution through making and retains the spark of its unexpected success.
‘Lush Lingers Longer’ is a combination of reverse painting and added sculptural elements.
My work primarily reaches audiences through artist-run exhibitions and selected competitions. These platforms foster direct engagement and dialogue within the craft community. While I am currently unrepresented by a commercial gallery, these avenues provide vital visibility and connection.
‘Black Teeth Smile’ features sandwiched fused glass additions.
A recent significant milestone was participation in the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in Madrid. The experience stands out due to the Foundation’s profound respect for the makers. The organisers’ deep understanding of craft as a rigorous, professional discipline, and the exceptional level of curation, made it deeply validating. It was a meaningful recognition on an international stage.
Looking forward, the core of my practice remains constant: to keep making. This is the essential priority. The studio is where exploration happens – whether integrating lead lighting, refining existing techniques or discovering new combinations. The direction emerges organically from the process itself, driven by continuous engagement with the material and the evolving ideas it inspires. The work continues.
Scott Chaseling working in the studio.
Find out more and follow Scott Chaseling via Instagram: @scottchaseling
Main feature image: ‘Cost Curl’ features reverse painting and fused, blown and etched glass. All photos courtesy of the artist.
Katharine Coleman MBE, revered glass engraver and member of the Contemporary Glass Society’s (CGS) board, shows us how much the art world has changed since the organisation was established and puts the case for greater collaboration with glass artists from across the European continent.
Hooray! This year the CGS New Graduate Review magazine will invite applications from glass course graduates at colleges throughout Europe for the first time. As a CGS board member I am delighted that CGS is now looking farther afield for members and participants in its many activities – maybe soon even beyond the constraints of geographical Europe.
Looking back
When CGS was founded 28 years ago, mobile phones were in their infancy and if one submitted an image to a gallery or exhibition, it had to be as a 35mm slide or transparency (see the picture, for the very young!)
Photographic slides were once the only way to submit work to a gallery or exhibition. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
Seeing others’ work was limited to visiting exhibitions and obtaining access to printed material. A duplicate slide cost some £10 to £15. Galleries seldom returned them. Conferences were particularly popular as it gave so many of us a chance to see a wider range of other artists’ work. Conference talks were peppered with interruptions caused by clattering slides falling out of the projector, or slides accidentally being placed in the carousel upside down – the subject of great frustration and much merriment.
It was hard to show work in galleries if one didn’t have a degree from a university glass course or images to show the gallery. It was expensive to send galleries slides speculatively, so first I would ring them to ask if they would like to see my glass. The conversation would go as follows: “Oh hello, I wonder if you would be interested in showing or selling my work?”; “Well, possibly, who are you?”; “Katharine Coleman”; “Never heard of you or seen your work. Were you at the Royal College?”; “No.”; “Any other glass courses? Which college?”; “Morley College.”; “Never heard of it – what sort of work do you do?”; “I’m a glass engraver.” At that point the phone went down – EVERYWHERE – except at Art in Action, near Waterperry, Oxfordshire. My lucky break came when I was shortlisted for the 2003 Jerwood Prize for Glass. Few of us had such lucky breaks.
Without Facebook or Instagram to promote our work, and without online banking, it was very tough selling work too! Hiring a MEPOS ‘card swiper’ cost over £500 for a week at Chelsea Craft Fair or Art in Action. Banking was a headache and insurance was expensive.
Now, in 2025, we have more of a chance with our images – wonderful, digital imagery, with the concomitant joys of Adobe for cropping, correcting blur, contrast and faulty focus, superb camera lighting and easy, free internet for sending images all over the world. There is now such a gulf between that age of slides and print and our age of digital images, PowerPoint, the internet, Facebook, Instagram and Zoom.
This gulf is occasionally apparent when work alarmingly like that of the 1990s appears in international exhibitions (as happened at the last Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass), with jurists sufficiently young that they are not familiar with pre-digital images and reference books on glass from the previous two decades are seldom consulted. Helen Maurer won the Jerwood Prize: Glass in 2003 with glass objects placed on an overhead projector to produce magical scenes above them. Then the Third Prize at Coburg in 2022 went to an artist placing glass on overhead projectors with the images thrown onto the wall behind them. But we should agree that all things are cyclical.
Back in the day, the printed CGS Glass Network journals and the chance to attend conferences made the world of contemporary glass accessible to us new faces. At its first conference at Wolverhampton University, there was a debate about whom the CGS would be for. A well-established glass artist stood up and declared, “We want this society to be for professionals and not all these aspiring artists who are such a pain!” This comment made me shrink with shame as an aspiring artist myself. Thankfully that idea was not taken up. These early conferences were held alongside selected exhibitions and were very well attended.
Now, the expense of taking part in CGS activities is spread more lightly and fairly, with digital imagery, online exhibitions and talks. The double whammy of CGS losing its Arts Council grant in 2012, together with the ever-increasing postage rates, undermined the frequent production of the printed catalogues and membership growth slowed. However, we were saved by the CGS website and, later, the wonderful CGS Zooms that kept us in touch and diverted with regular talks through the miserable years of COVID-19, that helped raise membership numbers. With access to Zoom, meetings no longer require committee members to travel to London at great time and expense. In addition, members can submit images for most exhibitions at no expense, making participation in CGS affordable for all, and the internet has opened up a wider world generally.
Collaboration across Europe
Contact with other European glass artists is vital for the exchange of ideas and technical advice. Many CGS members have attended courses at the Summer Academies at Bild-Werk Frauenau in Bavaria, either as teachers or as students and, through this melting pot, we have made many contacts and firm friends outside the UK. Other CGS members have participated in the Coburg, and other, glass prizes, or shown their work in galleries in the Netherlands and France, though these are fewer in number. Each of these brings the opportunity to extend the network that CGS provides. There is a Dutch glass society, but here in the UK I believe we are the envy of most European artists for the support and stimulation that come from membership of CGS.
Bild-Werk Frauenau Summer Academy 2012, celebrating 25 years of the school. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
The decline in numbers of glass courses at universities here in the UK over the last 15 years alongside the decline of student numbers at glass colleges in mainland Europe is becoming seriously worrying. Minority crafts, such as glass engraving, are shrinking so fast that wheel engraving is now on the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts.
Main door of the Escuela de Los Vidrios de San Ildefonso de la Granja, Segovia, a photo taken in 2007 when teaching a summer school. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
I teach short courses occasionally at Corning Museum of Glass in the US, at Bild-Werk Frauenau and at the glass school at La Granja, near Segovia in Spain. It helps to speak both languages well enough to teach, especially in Spain, where the students have little to no English.
The Museum of Glass at San Ildefonso de La Granja, Segovia, was built as the original La Granja Glass Factory in the 18th century to provide window, table and chandelier glass for the new royal summer palace up in the Guadalajara Mountains, as the location was too high to transport glass to by mule. The factory was disguised as a monastery, with the furnaces under the ‘chapel’ dome. Photo: Katharine Coleman (2007).
In 2013 three of us glass engravers met at Bild-Werk Frauenau (Wilhelm Vernim, Norbert Kalthoff and I) and we were bemoaning the shrinking number of engraving students and classes in glass colleges throughout Europe. We decided to do something about it and invited engravers, teachers and gallerists from Germany, Czechia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, UK, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Finland to a meeting at Bild-Werk that same autumn. This resulted in the formation of a Facebook-based international collective, called the Glass Engraving Network.
September 2013 – the beginnings of the Glass Engraving Network. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
Without a committee, anyone in the network can organise an exhibition. Our first, in 2015, was ‘Gravur on Tour’, a selected touring exhibition of glass museums, which was small enough to pack into a large white hire van that was unpacked and supervised by a group of the participating engravers in each host country: UK (Stourbridge), Belgium (Lommel), Netherlands (Epe), Germany (Rheinbach Glasfachschule, where we held a week-long workshop with the top year in all aspects of cutting and engraving), Czechia (Kamenicky Senov), Estonia (Talinn, hosted by Mare Saare, Professor of Glass at the university), Finland (Riihimaki) and back to Germany’s Bild-Werk Frauenau, with an exhibition and conference at the museum there. The museum directors supervised the selection of the work so the exhibition avoided being dominated by a particular group. The museums were delighted that we produced a high quality bi-lingual (German and English) catalogue, sponsored by advertising, which they could sell alongside our work, and that their galleries were filled with an excellent, ready-made show for two or three months, allowing their staff a break. Sold work was replaced between stages.
Uta Lauren, the curator of the Finnish National Glass Museum just north of Helsinki at Riihimaki, was very supportive, saying she was keen to show Finnish glass students that “Glass engraving wasn’t just something nasty that the Swedes do!” (sic), so, before our show, we were sponsored to give 10 students several months’ intensive glass engraving tuition. They took to it like proverbial ducks to water. We also have contact with many international artists in South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan – almost every country where contemporary glass engraving is known.
The Glass Engravers Network group who set up the show at Riihimaki and attended the opening in 2019. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
In 2019 we returned to Riihimaki with another ‘Back on Tour’ show. Dr Sven Hauschke , Director of the Veste Coburg in Germany had been so impressed by the quality and energy of our show that in early 2020 he shipped the entire exhibition of 150 pieces to the European Museum of Contemporary Glass at Roedenthal. The show opened in mid-March 2020, just one day before COVID-19 forced the museum to close for over a year, so nobody ever saw our show. A touring show of Spain and France was similarly abandoned the following year and it has taken time to get things going again. Planning and organising these shows takes a good year, so our next exhibition opened in 2023 in the North-Rhine Westphalian Industrial Glass Museum at Gernheim on the River Weser (famous for the Pied Piper and nearby Hamelin). With a glass cone, built as a copy of the Stourbridge cones in 1826 with a surrounding village, Gernheim still makes glass in the cone and runs courses alongside the museum. Our exhibition filled the ‘Old Master’s House’.
The glass cone at Gernheim is still used for making glass. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
We are struggling to show work beyond Germany but, as we regain our post-COVID-19 momentum, our current exhibition is being hosted by the beautiful glass museum at Coesfeld-Lette, not far from Hannover. If you are not familiar with the Ernsting Stiftung Museum at Coesfeld, it is well worth a visit as it hosts the best (and best displayed) collection of Middle and West European studio glass in Europe. The Ernsting family made their fortune in affordable clothing and spent their fortune since 1945 – and continue to do so – on modern glass.
Google Translate is our great communication tool. Despite Brexit, English has replaced French as the lingua franca of modern Europe and European glass and I hope that Brexit and our separation from Europe will soon be a regrettable few years in the past. In 2002, before Czechia became part of the European Union, it was possible to attend symposia to show work and meet engravers from all over Europe, including Russia; my poor, but just adequate, Russian (learned to welcome my son-in-law’s family to his wedding in 2000) allowed us to chat and make good friends. There are some astonishingly gifted artists there, including portrait artist Alexander Fokin, grandson of the famous ballet choreographer. My contact with them continues, despite recent history, and in May 2020 I was invited to a conference at St Petersburg hosted by the State Glass Museum and the Hermitage to give a talk about West European contemporary glass – sadly another event cancelled by COVID-19.
The Russian delegation to the Glass Engraving Symposium at Kamenicky Senov, Czechia in 2002. Alexander Fokin lies front centre and, on his left, Vladimir Makhovetsky, who is based in St Petersburg. Photo: Katharine Coleman.
I hope the invitation to European graduates in the next CGS New Graduate Review will encourage CGS to consider following the Glass Engraving Network’s example and start exhibiting pan-European work in significant museums. Online exhibitions are great, but nothing beats real exhibitions and real exhibitions lead to sales and contact with the outside world. There are more collectors in Europe than the UK.
Sarah Brown, Chair of CGS, concurs with this idea, and the CGS Team aims to push the exhibition possibilities into Europe and beyond. Sarah says, “Our main aim is to elevate and promote the amazing glass produced by our members, building new networks across the world and educating the next generation of glass makers in the infinite creative possibilities that this incredible medium offers.”
This year, I hope there will be graduates from Ukraine, Moscow and St Petersburg joining in with applications for the New Graduate Review, and just as many graduates from Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and of course all the more familiar European countries with glass courses, now that applications via the internet can fly above and beyond political barriers. Good luck to you all! It’s the chance to build a new generation of friends.
Find out more about Katharine Coleman MBE and her work here.
Portrait of Katharine Coleman at her studio (2019) in front of a poster of her piece ‘Goldfishbowls II’. Photo: D. Coleman.‘Canary Wharf Vase’ (2013) features grey over green glass overlaid on clear lead crystal blown to my design by Andy Potter, and wheel engraved by Katharine Coleman. Photo: Ester Segarra.
Main feature image: Degree students – surprisingly happy – at the end of my intensive month’s course in cutting and engraving, part of their first degree. Taken in 2009 at Escuela de los Vidrios, San Ildefonso de La Granja, Spain.
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