A travelling exhibition to raise awareness of the diminishing wild salmon and steelhead fish populations, called ‘The Salmon School’, has returned to The Museum of Glass in Tacoma in the US.
Organized by artist Joseph Rossano and curated by Benedict Heywood, the show is an international, multimedia traveling art performance and exhibition designed to motivate communities to tackle the issues facing salmon populations, and therefore, address climate change. The installation features a life-size school of close to 600 mirrored salmon-like forms, sculpted from molten glass by concerned artists from around the world, and accompanied by first-hand video accounts from renowned scientists, artists, and indigenous peoples. These fragile forms of mirrored glass reflect not only the environment on which the fish depend, but also the viewer: both the cause of the problems confronting salmon today and the solution.
The Salmon School was created and first exhibited in 2019 at Bellevue Arts Museum. At the time, the project was a collaboration between the Museum of Glass, Bellevue Arts Museum, Hilltop Artists, Schack Art Center, Trout Unlimited, Glacier Peak Institute, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The exhibition, informed by tribal elders from the Upper Skagit Tribe, quantified the diminished state of wild salmon and steelhead populations on the Skagit River.
In November 2021, the project was a keynote presentation at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UN COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. In partnership with the Missing Salmon Alliance, other wild Atlantic salmon NGOs, and the River Clyde Foundation, eDNA workshops took place on the regenerated River Clyde, where Glasgow is situated.
Rossano commented on the opportunity to exhibit the project in front of world leaders at the conference: “My intention with my work has always been to make meaningful statements that combine material and location, offering a relatable context for the viewer. The idea of exhibiting 0.1% of all the wild Atlantic salmon left in the North Atlantic over the heads of 100% of the individuals who could make a difference for wild salmon and humans was a massive undertaking. Now that it has happened, another level of importance has been added to the project — along with the potential to make real change in the world.”
Subsequently, The Salmon School began to travel. In the summer of 2022, it was exhibited at Balmoral Castle, the private Scottish residence of the British Royal Family. It was the first work of contemporary sculpture to be exhibited at that historic site. With the support of the Balmoral Estate and the River Dee Trust, eDNA collection took place on the River Dee. In winter 2023, with the support of the Atlantic Salmon Trust, the exhibition was displayed at The Macallan Distillery in Speyside, Scotland.
Exhibition curator Benedict Heywood stated, “The Salmon School is a worldwide art and science collaboration aiming to highlight the imminent threat to wild salmon across the Northern hemisphere. As was demonstrated by its inclusion in the United Nations COP26 conference in 2021, the threat of extinction for wild salmon is indicative of the wider impact of the climate crisis. Wild salmon need what we need: cold, clean water. It has been a privilege to so closely work with Joseph Rossano, Museum of Glass, and so many partners and concerned individuals in Europe and North America to realize this artwork and science program. A charismatic sculptural installation of living mirrors that asks the viewer to look and reflect on their own actions in the real world, The Salmon School is an exemplar of the concept that art can change lives.”
The Salmon School continues to offer perspective on the sustainability issues facing wild salmon today, as it returns to the Museum of Glass. Visitors will find an interactive educational experience, and one that is unique to the Museum, as the installation is composed to respond to each distinctive space it occupies.
The Museum of Glass Education Department has partnered with Foss Waterway Seaport and Tacoma Public Schools to offer an education programme to primary school children, sending salmon tanks to schools and allowing students to raise and then release salmon in Swan Creek while learning about the importance of salmon within the ecosystem.
The Salmon School will be on view at Museum of Glass until Autumn 2024.
The Museum of Glass is at 1801 Dock Street, Tacoma, WA 98402, US.
Image: Detail of ‘The Salmon School’ by Joseph Gregory Rossano. Blown and mirrored glass. Photo: C B Bell, courtesy of the artist and Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA.
Glass artists from the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand region have been acknowledged in the recent World Crafts Council Asia Pacific Region Craft Masters Awards 2023 (WCC APR Craft Masters Awards), hosted in Dongyang, China.
The Australian recipients who work in glass are Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM and Kirstie Rea.
An international jury of 11 members evaluated each application based on five endorsement criteria: extraordinary contribution to field, sustainable practice, international recognition, continuous learning and international collaboration.
Winners included nine craftspeople from Central Asia, nine from the South Pacific (Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific islands), seven from South Asia, eight from West Asia (including Dadash Mehravary Solut from Iran, who is a glass painter), seven from Southeast Asia and 20 from East Asia.
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello OAM is a contemporary urban based Aboriginal (Arrernte) glass artist, who creates traditionally inspired works that pay tribute to traditional weavers and provide recognition for ancient cultural practices through the contemporary medium of glass.
Jenni is a major figure in Indigenous art in Australia and continues to work with and inspire many fellow and emerging artists. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the creative and visual arts in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022.
‘Bush Flower Bicornual: Banksia and Bottlebrush with Grasses’ (2021), by Jenni Kemarre Martiniello OAM, features hot blown glass with murrine. Photo: Sabbia Gallery.
Kirstie Rea has been practising for over 30 years and her work is held in some of the world’s most important public and private contemporary art collections. She says, “At the core of my practice lies the desire to seek an understanding of our often tenuous connections to place. Walking in places beyond urban environments, seeking solitude and distance, photography and writing have become tools to inform my making.”
Kirstie has taught internationally at the Australian National University Glass Workshop, in United States at Pilchuck Glass School, the Corning Studio, and Pittsburgh Glass Centre; North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland, and Vetroricerca School in Italy. In 2009, Kirstie was awarded Honorary Life Membership of Ausglass, the national organisation of Australian glass artists.
Works by both Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM and Kirstie Rea are held by Sabbia Gallery.
Sabbia Gallery is at: Ground Floor, 609 Elizabeth Street, Redfern, NSW 2016, Australia.
Main image: Kirstie Rea’s ‘What remains’ (2019), folded glass, plinth. Photo: David Paterson.
A book outlining how the Stourbridge Glass Museum turned from a dream into reality has been published by writer and broadcaster Graham Fisher MBE FRGS. Graham is well-known to many in the glass sector, having become a Trustee of the fledgling British Glass Foundation (BGF) in 2011 and later joining the jury panel for the International Festival of Glass, held in Stourbridge in 2015.
Stourbridge Glass Museum: how it came into being provides a comprehensive and absorbing account of how Stourbridge Glass Museum was created on the vandalised and burnt-out site of the former Stuart Glassworks in Wordsley, in the heart of the historic Stourbridge Glass Quarter in the West Midlands.
The book covers the 13 years from the BGF’s formation to manage the project through to the official opening of a brand-new, purpose-built, canal-side facility in 2023. The site is designed to conserve and promote both the heritage and the future of local glassmaking for generations to come.
The publication includes a Foreword by Lynn Boleyn MBE, secretary and business manager at the BGF.
Graham Knowles, chairman of the BGF, commented, “Graham has captured the essence of creating what we consider is a ‘People’s Museum’ from the relics of a former glassmaking site that, more than 20 years after its closure, is still regarded locally with great affection. His latest book is a fascinating narrative in its own right, but his recording of how we arrived here will doubtless prove of immense value to researchers and historians yet to be born.”
The BGF was formed in response to uncertainty over the future of the internationally renowned Stourbridge Glass collection, following the loss of its former home at Broadfield House in Kingswinford. In addition to successfully creating the new facility to display the collection, BGF has since become an umbrella organisation representing the wider interests of glassmaking in general, and around Stourbridge in particular.
All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the BGF. It is available at RRP £10.00 from Amazon, Stourbridge Glass Museum or direct from the author (+£2.50 p&p). For further information, contact Graham via email: grahamfisher@me.com
Stourbridge Glass Museum; how it came into being is published by Sparrow Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7399212-2-4, 56pp, softback, illustrated in full colour.
The organisers of the British Glass Biennale have announced several new prizes for the 2024 event. This brings the total number of prizes to 14 at the next Biennale. The new prizes are as follows:
The Glass Society Award: ‘Connection’ Winner £2,500 Runner Up £1,000 You are free to interpret this theme in any way you want.
The Bullseye Living Edge Award: This award is for the best piece (or set) made exclusively of Bullseye glass. The winner will be selected by Bullseye Glass Ltd and receive £5,000 of Bullseye products (glass only) redeemable through Warm Glass UK.
The Glass Lab Award 2024: The Glass Lab is in its fifth year of running artist residences and scholarships at The Glass Foundry in Stroud, UK. Formed to promote collaboration, diversity and innovation in the field of glass, the Glass Lab exhibited the work of eight artists in residence working in glass in the 2022 Biennale. This award will go to a student showing technical skill and knowledge in the material. The winner will receive: five days of studio time at The Glass Foundry; one-to-one support from expert staff; £1,500 towards travel, accommodation and materials.
The Glass Painters and Glaziers Award: This £1,000 award is for a piece of glass art that features the use of traditional or modern techniques that could include painting, staining, enamelling, leading, copper foiling, laminating or fusing in a broadly two-dimensional format. It is open to all artists, including students.
Read more about the Biennale entry requirements and other prizes here.
As many of you know, the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) has been involved with the International Festival of Glass (IFOG) since its inception. As 2024 marks the last festival to be held at the Ruskin Glass Centre in Stourbridge, before the Glass Art Society takes over for the 2026 event, the theme of the regular CGS open exhibition will be ‘Thanks for the Memory’.
The exhibition will be on show at the IFOG from 23 August to 28 September 2024 and is sponsored by Mark Holford and Alan J Poole.
“As our time at the Ruskin Centre comes to an end and we look forward to the next era of the Festival, let’s celebrate the amazing journey we have all had,” says CGS chair, Susan Purser Hope. “Memories are magical moments that we treasure, so join us in our last Postcard Show at this venue and create a small treasure full of memories.”
CGS members are invited to be part of a fantastic and fun fundraising show. This exhibition always gains a great deal of coverage and many pieces are sold.
‘Thanks for the Memory’ is an unselected show open to all CGS members worldwide. However, space is limited, so acceptance is on a first come, first served basis, until the maximum number that can be displayed is reached.
To confirm your place, you need to fill in a registration form by 31 March 2024. The actual work must be delivered at the beginning of August 2024. Register via this link.
The brief:
Make a piece of glass no more than 15 x 11 cm in any direction and less that 2 cm deep.
Pieces will be shown in display cases in the Ruskin Centre, Stourbridge, resting on small shelves. Please note, lighting is restricted.
To make it fun and challenging, all pieces of work will be sold for £50, £75 or £100, with the artists retaining 50% of the sale price.
CGS members should email images of work to: admin@cgs.org.uk as soon as they are available, as these will be used to promote the event.
In addition, there will be prizes:
The People’s Prize – £300, sponsored by Mark Holford.
Best in Show – £300, sponsored by Alan J Poole.
2 x Runner’s Up – £100 each, sponsored by Mark Holford.
If you are not yet a member of CGS and would like to take part in this exhibition, why not join now?
London researcher and glass artist Lulu Harrison has won the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) 2023 Heritage Crafts Sustainability Award.
Lulu, a 2023 QEST Scholar, has been recognised for her sustainable processes in incorporating waste from local fishing industries to create glass pieces.
The award, which was introduced in 2023, recognises makers who have made a change to their materials or processes or innovated in another way to measurably reduce their impact on the environment within the last 12 months.
She was officially recognised at a Winners’ Reception at the Vicars’ Hall, Windsor Castle, in November 2023, where she was awarded the £2,000 prize.
Lulu was one of 66 applicants who applied for the award and the judges were delighted at the number of applications received, as well as the quality and variety, which collectively highlighted the role that craft can play in building a more sustainable future for all.
Lulu impressed the judges with her approach to glassmaking, which utilises both historic techniques and scientific development, and replaces highly processed/transported materials with local, abundant, invasive or waste materials.
It was during her MA in Materials Futures at Central Saint Martin’s that Lulu first learned that calcium carbonate (shell) is one of the main components used in soda-lime glass making. Since then, she has used this knowledge to create collections using shellfish waste from the Cornish fishing industry and the River Thames.
In the last 12 months, Lulu has been training with historical glass expert Dr Chloe Duckworth, testing glass recipes made from silica, alkali and calcium sources with a maximum of three ingredients in each batch.
All the materials were sourced locally to Newcastle and were either in abundance, invasive or collected as waste from a local industry, such as waste wood ash and fish bones from a local restaurant. They have achieved lower (and therefore less energy intensive) melting temperatures than a typical raw glass batch. In addition Lulu has also furthered her knowledge about how natural impurities from raw materials can be used to colour glass as a non-hazardous alternative to metal oxides.
Lulu said she was “over the moon” to be named the winner. “It’s an incredible honour to be the first recipient of this award, and it means so much to me to be recognised for my craft, which is quite niche,” she commented. “My true passion is working with regional materials and working on a more local level inspired by ancient processes, showing the world how glass can be made in a different way.
“As a keen cold-water swimmer, I’ve always loved the sea and I’m interested in working with different coastal communities and coastal plants/shell types to create new glass recipes.”
Lulu said she aims to put the prize money towards setting up her own studio and creating new work.
Judges for the Sustainability Award included renowned environmental craft advocate Katie Treggiden, founder of Making Design Circular. She stated, “Lulu’s work stood out for her exciting material innovation within a heritage craft practice, because she is using craft to actively do good and make a positive impact (not just reduce her impact), and because the outcome was beautiful and interesting enough to stand on its own two feet.”
Previously, Lulu was also the first awardee of the Cockpit Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers Bursary, giving her a subsidised studio at Cockpit in London.
Image: Lulu Harrison’s glass experiments impressed the judges. Photo courtesy of QEST.
Glass artists are among 14 winners of the 2023 Heritage Crafts Awards, which were presented in the auspicious surroundings of St George’s College, Windsor Castle, UK, on 15 November 2023 by Heritage Crafts’ co-chair, Jay Blades MBE.
The inaugural Environmental Sustainability Award, in partnership with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST), was won by Lulu Harrison. Lulu’s journey in glass started during her MA in Materials Futures at Central St Martin’s in London, where she was particularly interested in finding environmentally sustainable materials from the fishing industry. Her project ‘Thames Glass’ incorporated the shell powder of invasive quagga mussels into unique glass batches.
Glassworker Allister Malcolm was highly commended in the Environmental Sustainability Award. He delivered a recent presentation to the Contemporary Glass Society about his journey to become more sustainable, which you can watch on YouTube. Allister summarises the journey so far and his plans for the immediate future to try and secure glassmaking at Stourbridge Glass Museum.
The Heritage Crafts/Marsh Lifetime Achievement award went to Alfred Fisher MBE, who has been involved in stained glass for 71 years. He began his training at James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars, in 1952, working his way up from trainee to Chief Designer. In 1957 he won a Religious Arts Scholarship to study art in churches in Europe, which helped him develop his own distinctive style of window design. Alf is Vice-President of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and Liveryman and Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers. For 20 years he was the advisor on stained glass for the National Trust.
Find out more about all the winners and Heritage Crafts via the website.
Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State, US, is offering a variety of residency opportunities for glass artists in 2024. All applications must be submitted by 8 December 2023, apart from the Emerging Artist in Residence programme, which has a deadline of 12 January 2024.
The Better Together Annual Residency takes place from 8-18 May 2024 and is a collaboration with Better Together and Hilltop Artists to provide Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) artists with use of the facilities to create new work and build community collaboration. Find out more and apply via this link.
The John H Hauberg Fellowship Residency, named after Pilchuck’s co-founder, offers an opportunity for collaboration among a group of a minimum of three – and up to six – established professional artists. The residency runs from 8-17 May 2024. Hauberg Fellows work both individually and as a group to create art that responds to Pilchuck’s natural environment and/or utilises the school’s non-hot glassmaking facilities. Visual artists in all media, as well as writers, poets, art critics and curators are encouraged to submit proposals with a collaborative concept or theme. The intent is to focus on projects and ideas that will inspire creative endeavours long after the fellowship ends. Artists must apply as a group. Find out more and apply via this link.
The Innovation in Image Residency (8-17 May 2024) presents an opportunity for knowledgeable, inventive image makers to come and explore the potential of Pilchuck’s digital imaging lab and print studio and to experiment with new ways to combine imagery and glass. Find out more and apply via this link.
The Emerging Artist in Residence programme takes place from 3 October until 13 November 2024. The 2024 cohort will be artists from around the world, selected by a jury. Applicants must submit a specific project proposal. Applications must be made by 12 January 2024. More details and application via this link.
Make a note to visit the Thelma Hulbert Gallery (THG) this November and December 2023 to see an exhibition of quality contemporary craft and buy your Christmas gifts. ‘Present Makers’ features hand-crafted gift ideas showcasing the talent and innovation of contemporary craftspeople and designer-makers from the South West region of the UK.
This year’s event shines a spotlight on glass through the gallery’s collaboration with the Contemporary Glass Society.
Selected glass artists taking part include: Roberta Ayles, Madeline Bunyan, Catherine Dunstan, Rachael Durkan, Oriel Hicks, Susan Kinley, Ian Palfrey, Steve Robinson, Susan Sinclair, Wendy Wood, Robyn Coetzee, Claire Hall, Maggie Hamlyn Williams, Jane Hester, Susan Purser Hope and Amy Whittingham.
Other crafts represented include jewellery, ceramics, textiles, prints and wood, as well as a range of unique Christmas cards and decorations.
The exhibition and sale of work are on from 11 November until 23 December 2023. The gallery is open from Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm and admission is free.
THG is an award-winning public art gallery hosting an acclaimed programme of contemporary art and craft exhibitions, alongside a permanent collection of artist Thelma Hulbert’s work.
Thelma Hulbert Gallery is at Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Honiton, Devon EX14 1LX, UK. Website: https://www.thelmahulbert.com
Tracey Sheppard has perfected her glass engraving techniques for over forty years. This experience has kept her skilled work in demand throughout her career, with commissions ranging from small objects to architectural projects. Linda Banks finds out more.
What led you to start working with glass?
I happened upon glass engraving by accident. I was studying for a combined degree in English Literature and Fine Art. My drawing tutor noticed that I was obsessed by small detail and interested in textures and tone. He suggested that I should go to the local Adult Education Centre and join a class where I would learn how to engrave glass. I knew nothing about the medium, but within two weeks I was hooked. The tutor, who became my dear friend and mentor, Josephine Harris was inspirational and unfailingly generous, passing on the skills and insights that she in turn had learned from Peter Dreiser at Morley College. Those classes, in a draughty, breezeblock building in Isleworth, were the beginning of a career which, to date, has lasted 43 years.
Tracey has a completed large-scale commissions for religious buildings, including this entrance screen for St Lawrence’s Church, Winchester. Photo: Nick Carter.
What glass techniques have you used and which do you prefer?
Drill engraving was my introduction to the challenge and delight of working with glass. It remains my first love, but I have also explored the myriad possibilities of sandblasting and acid etching. I have been extremely fortunate, working with two maestros. Sally Scott, friend, colleague and master of sandblast gave me the first glimpse of the scope of her medium. A little later, master craftsman Dave Blackwell patiently taught me how to work with black and foil, hand-cutting stencils and applying embossing black in a painterly way. He has broadened and freed my approach. Mixing the three techniques – drill, sandblast and acid etching – has been a revelation! Very exciting and huge fun.
This piece was made for Holy Cross, Binstead. Here Tracey is painting embossing black resist prior to acid etching.
What is your creative approach? Do you draw your ideas out or dive straight in with the materials?
Drawing is essential. Drawing is what drew me to glass! I think through the whole engraving process while I draw, planning which tools to use for each element of a project. Making mistakes and adjusting or erasing them is best done with a spirit-based pen before committing with the drill. Everything is carefully drafted in great detail.
Tracey draws the design on the glass before starting to etch.
As I draw, my ideas develop and grow. The process of moving the pen across and around a vessel helps me to understand and respond to its shape and adapt my design to fit sympathetically.
I love the process and feel of mark making on the lively surface. It is not entirely predictable, and can be unforgiving, but, treated with patience and a light touch, all kinds of miracles happen. Lines can distort, textures magnify, images reflect and refract. It is so exciting.
Drawing is a vital aspect of Tracey’s practice. Her attention to detail is in evidence in this study of a Geranium Phaeum.
What message(s) do you want to convey through your art?
What message do I want to convey? That is a tricky question, and not one with a straightforward simple answer. I hope that each piece I make is ‘fit for purpose’ – that it celebrates the individual, or the occasion, for which it was commissioned. Or, that it captures something of a subject and my particular way of seeing, perhaps drawing the viewers’ eyes to something they may have overlooked. I hope to create worlds within the glass – places of wonder and magic.
Thie ‘Castle Howard’ design was part of a set presented to 10 Downing Street. Photo: Joe Low.
What is your favourite tool or piece of equipment and why?
When my parents asked what I would like for my 21st birthday I asked for a Secco pendant motor! For many years it was my absolute favourite thing in the whole world and still hangs at my bench: my talisman! However, after some protest and resistance, I was converted to a micro-motor which is now the permanent extension to my right hand. I have a mass of burrs – stones, diamonds and polishers – in a dazzling array of shapes, sizes and grades. If I had to choose just four to take to a desert island, they would be a small, fine ball diamond, a rat’s tail diamond, a green cone shaped stone and a flexible polishing wheel. I reckon I could entertain myself with those!
Do you have a favourite piece you have made? Why is it your favourite?
It is impossible to choose one favourite piece from all my years of engraving. There are, however, a few pivotal ones. The first ‘proper ‘piece I ever engraved was a goblet with ivy trailing around it. It taught me what was possible, and how far I had to go.
The Ivy Goblet was Tracey’s first engraved piece.
It was a huge honour to be commissioned to engrave two panels for the Epiphany Chapel in Winchester Cathedral. The project introduced me to the delights of working with, and for, a committee and how to carefully research and approach designing for an ancient and venerable setting.
A detail of the Epiphany Chapel design at Winchester Cathedral. Photo: Nick Carter.
I have always loved lettering and designing and executing the ‘Benedictus Plate’ just confirmed it as a subject area for future ventures.
Architectural subjects have been a rich vein for me to mine. The challenges of textures, structures and perspective are fascinating and absorbing.
The ‘Sissinghurst Bowl’ is a piece made simply for the joy of engraving, allowed me the opportunity to play with perspective and to endeavour to capture what the late, great John Piper called ‘the spirit of place’.
Tracey at work on the ‘Sissinghurst Bowl’.
Mixing sandblast and drill with acid etching on the doors for All Saints Fulham – the first time I had experimented with this cocktail – was hugely exciting and simply left me wanting more…
Where do you show and sell your work?
I have been fortunate and have worked to commission almost constantly throughout my career. Working with a patron is a fascinating and rewarding process and can lead to challenges and changes of direction in process and technique, design and execution. It is also an exercise in trust and I relish it.
I have exhibited in a variety of places, taking part in all Guild of Glass Engravers National Exhibitions since I joined in 1982, and participated in many Branch shows. My own Open Studio events are an exciting way to exhibit work and immerse visitors in my working environment. I have also shown at the Art Workers’ Guild and in various commercial galleries, particularly Rachel Bebb Contemporary. Any opportunity to exhibit engraved glass and to show what is possible in this wonderful medium should be embraced.
Engraved doors at St Thomas Church, Lymington. Photo: Nick Carter.
What advice would you give to someone starting out on a career in glass?
There are so many different aspects to the world of glass. I am not really qualified to give advice on career paths, but my own experience has been that focusing on a technique and pushing it – not being afraid to meet new challenges head on – has brought me opportunities and stretched me, which is always good. Never say no!
Do you have a career highlight?
Career highlights? Oh, my goodness! I have had such fun! It was wonderful to be made a Fellow of the Guild of Glass Engravers and to be elected a Brother of the Art Workers’ Guild. In both cases, this was affirmation that I was heading in the right direction. The various architectural projects have been immensely exciting. The commission from the Historic Royal Palaces to make a piece for our late Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, was right up there. And I was utterly thrilled to be awarded Heritage Crafts Maker of the Year 2021.
However, every project is exciting. The moment when I of hand over a completed piece to a patron and receive positive feedback…That is mustard!
Where is your glass practice heading next?
I really enjoy the opportunity to pass on the skills that I have learnt. Teaching, both in the local Adult and Community Learning Centre and at West Dean College is immensely satisfying. Watching beginners grow in confidence, and seeing more accomplished engravers push their own boundaries, is a deeply rewarding experience. It is something which I would like the chance to do more of in the coming years. I believe it is vital to pass on expertise to keep this craft, and so many others, alive.
Where am I going now? I have no idea. The phone might ring, or an email might sail into the Inbox. I just hope to keep on meeting new challenges and opportunities and to continue scratching away.
About the artist
Tracey Sheppard at work. Photo: Michael Butters
Tracey Sheppard began engraving at evening classes in 1980 while studying for her English Literature and Fine Art degree. She was accepted as a Craft Member by the Guild of Glass Engravers in 1982. She was awarded Highly Commended as a First Time Exhibitor in the National Exhibition in 1983, elected Fellow of the Guild Glass Engravers in 1987and served as chairman from 1998 to 2002. She became Guild President in 2013.
Tracey was elected Brother of the Art Workers Guild (AWG) in 1996 and was Master of the AWG in 2021.
She enjoys working on a variety of scales, from small, personal, commemorative and presentation pieces to architectural installations. Her engraving may be seen in a large number of public buildings, private houses and places of worship, including the cathedrals of Winchester, Bristol and Portsmouth, Romsey Abbey and the Minster at Ilminster.
Tracey has a passion for plants and enjoys drawing and engraving botanical subjects. She is also drawn to the challenges of textural variations and perspective in architectural studies.
She was commissioned to engrave carafes, a jug and tumblers as part of a suite of glasses presented by The Glass Engraving Trust to Number 10 Downing Street.
A fascination with lettering design, spaces and flow has led her to produce many works that combine words with imagery. She received the Christopher Russell Lettering Prize, presented at the Guild of Glass Engravers National Exhibitions, in 1998, 2004, 2012 and 2015.
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