Launched in 2016, the Loewe Foundation’s Craft Prize is a prestigious international event celebrating the best in modern craft across a range of disciplines, including glass. Entries are now invited for the 2026 competition.
There is a €50,000 award for the winning entry as the Loewe Foundation wishes to celebrate and support working artists whose talent, vision and will to innovate set new standards of excellence in craftsmanship. There will also be €5,000 for any works given a Special Mention.
A total of 30 shortlisted pieces will be chosen by a jury comprised of 13 leading figures from the world of design, architecture, journalism and museum curatorship, including Kunimasa Aoki, whose clay sculpture won the 2025 Craft Prize.
The works created by the winner and finalists will be exhibited at the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2026 in Singapore in the spring of 2026, as well as in the exhibition catalogue.
The application deadline is 30 October 2025.
Finalists in the 2025 Craft Prize working with glass can be viewed here.
Find out more about the competition and apply via this link.
Image shows Scott Chaseling’s glass piece, ‘Beyond a Slippery Grip’ (front, left) and Caroline Broadhead’s ‘Hollow Stripe Chain’ necklace, made using tiny Japanese glass beads (front, centre), alongside other finalist artworks from the 2025 competition.
Ruth Dresman loves to celebrate the joy of the natural world in her distinctive artwork. Here she describes her contemporary glass practice, which has evolved from an initial focus on glassblowing to the painstaking process of sandblasting.
I came across hot glass by surprise. I was a student on a Foundation course at Salisbury College when I visited the Scilly Isles and the opportunity arose to see, smell and drop a blob of the stuff.
I had never met any material so beautiful, dangerous, difficult or compelling. I found my direction that weekend and enrolled on the 3-Dimensional Design course at Farnham, Surrey. In the first year it offered a full-time glass course.
My mother was a sculptor, so I grew up drawing, painting and making things. As a consequence of this, I had developed my drawing skills. It was at Farnham that visiting tutor John Maltby entered the glass department as he was curious about what was happening there. On seeing my sketchbooks he questioned why didn’t I combine the rich figurative imagery from them with my blown glass. Other visiting tutors were Annette Meech and Christopher Williams from The Glasshouse in Covent Garden, London, where I spent two years as the studio assistant after graduating. (Incidentally, the post in those days was called ‘boy’).
Work in progress.
So, I spent five years working full time with hot glass, but I realised that, because of the lengthy decoration process involved in my work, I would only require intermittent time in front of the furnace. I’d been developing skills at the sandblaster, weaving my imagery in and around 3D forms.
I began experimenting with Graal – something I still do. It gives the glass the opportunity to ‘speak again’ by softening and distorting my crisp images into more fluid and gentle shapes.
These days, I hire furnace time for glass blowing. I direct the blowing and make up part of the team with the exceptionally skilled Neil Wilkin, based in Wales, or Sonja Klingler, based in Somerset, with whom I have a rewarding, long-term working relationship. In contrast, the sandblasting is done very quietly and painstakingly in my modest workshop at home.
Collaborative working with Neil Wilkin, one of the talented glassblowers who creates my bowls to my design, ready for me to decorate. Photo: Roberta Mason.
Glass gives me the opportunity to communicate visually and to share the joy and beauty seen in the natural world. I’m writing this in August, and my garden is growing abundantly, overwhelming paths and sheds, so I have to swim through the soft leaves. This generosity and unsuppressible energy fills me with delight and floods me with the inspiration to celebrate it in my work.
I enjoy teaching at home, at the Glass Hub, or at Bild-Werk Frauenau Summer School in Germany. Sandblasting is quite a simple technique to grasp so I like to help my students to fine-tune their design elements and to work in a methodical way. My visual reference is renewed by the different ways of seeing that my students bring to the courses, be they plumbers or PhD students.
Years ago, I was lucky enough to be selected by Newell Brands and Sorrell as one of a small group of makers to supply individual, unique work for the former Queen’s present collection. This connection endorses the value and skill of my work, which reassures new buyers that my work is special.
Photo by Mark Pickthall.
Although I am my own fiercest critic, my favourite piece is usually the one that I’ve just finished. I’ll peel away the protective film, rinse the dust and allow daylight to bring its magic to my arrangement of colour and form that was conceived weeks before in front of a glowing glory hole.
My production rate is slow, which makes me far from prolific. I sell my work directly but also with Rachel Bebb Contemporary in Hampshire and Moorwood Art in Somerset. In addition, I sometimes show at Matthew Burt’s showroom in Salisbury, with my pieces placed for display on his exquisite furniture. I also undertake commissions and architectural projects. I really enjoy involving others in the creative process and realising their ideas.
In conclusion, I’d like to mention the tutors’ ‘visitors book’ at Bild-Werk Frauenau, which is a reflection of the open-minded and sometimes chaotic intensity of the Summer School. No creative tutor is going to just write their name, which makes this book a kaleidoscope of uninhibited, arty joy. As someone who also trains horses, for my contribution I drew two horses, representing hot and cold glass, ‘cantering upsides’, with me balancing a foot on each. Often, in the glass world, these horses move apart from each other, but, under my weight, they can come together, willingly and naturally, to great effect.
Me with my other passion – my horses. Photo: Claire Johnston.
A celebration of contemporary glass art inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons violin concerto is taking place at Pyramid Gallery, York, this autumn.
The Gallery will be transformed into a vibrant celebration of glass representing the four seasons in this latest exhibition in partnership with the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS). Taking place from 6 September to 1 November 2025, the event will showcase the work of 26 glass artist members of CGS from across the UK, each exploring the enduring beauty and drama of Vivaldi’s iconic concertos, 300 years after they were first composed.
Layne Rowe’s ‘Acorn’ will be featured in The Four Seasons exhibition.
Artists featured in the show are: Ali Robertson, Alison Vincent, Caroline Reed, Cathryn Shilling, Deborah Timperley, Elizabeth Sinková, Frans Wesselman, Gail Turbutt, Helen Bower, Helen Restorick, Helen Slater Stokes, Janette Garthwaite, Jane Yarnall, Kate Pasvol, Kerry Roffe, Layne Rowe, Lydia Swann, Nour El Huda Awad, Pamela Fyvie, Pascale Penfold, Priya Laxmi, Rosie Deegan, Stephanie Else, Suzie Smith, Valerie Bernardini, and Wendy Newhofer.
Cathryn Shilling’s ‘Hoarfrost’. Photo: Agata Pec.
This is a unique opportunity to experience the changing moods and colours of the seasons through the expressive possibilities of contemporary glass. Using an array of traditional and modern techniques – from glassblowing, kiln forming and fusing, to mosaic, stained glass, casting and pâte de verre – the exhibition demonstrates the incredible diversity and innovation found across today’s glassmaking community.
Helen Slater Stokes’ artwork is called ‘Memories’. Photo: the artist.
Special events
To mark the launch of The Four Seasons, a preview event will be held on Friday 5 September, featuring a free artist talk at The Belfry Hall, 52A Stonegate, York, from 4–5pm, where four of the exhibiting artists will discuss their creative processes and seasonal inspirations. Please book for the talk via this link. Prior to the talk, guests are invited to preview the exhibition from 2.30pm, with complimentary drinks and nibbles.
There will also be a private view at Pyramid Gallery on Saturday 6 September from 11am–3pm, offering buyers and collectors the first opportunity to purchase works from the exhibition while enjoying refreshments.
Commenting on this latest collaboration, CGS Chair Sarah Brown said, “The Contemporary Glass Society is delighted to return to the Pyramid Gallery for an exhibition this year. I’m so pleased that we can bring a variety of members’ work to York. Sharing a snapshot of the breadth of creativity within glass making with the general public and providing platforms for makers to sell their work is a key part of our mission in supporting makers at all stages of their careers and promoting glass as a creative material and preserving the history of working in glass.”
Glass sculptors Colin Reid, Karen Browning and Rebecca Newnham are taking part in the ‘One Island, Many Visions’ event in Portland this autumn.
This is a collaborative project featuring the work of 27 sculptors who have created a variety of work in response to the landscape of the Tout Quarry Sculpture Park and Nature Reserve in Portland, Dorset, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
As well as exhibitions at both the sculpture park and Drill Hall Gallery in Portland (from 6 September to 31 October 2025), there is a symposium on 27 and 28 September, plus community events.
One Island, Many Visions is a partnership between members of the Royal Society of Sculptors and the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust (PSQT). Tout Quarry Sculpture Park launched in 1983, hosting artists’ residencies by established and emerging creators making both temporary and permanent work in response to the labyrinths and gullies created when the 40-acre site was an active quarry.
Continuing this tradition, the One Island, Many Visions artists have spent 18 months on residencies and research in the area gaining inspiration for their creations. The results are both physical artworks and concepts including sound, movement, poetry and performance. Some are site-specific installations, both subtle interventions and more traditional methods of making using casting, carving and assemblage.
Colin Reid’s piece ‘Early Morning Wren’ combines textures cast from the rocks in Tout Quarry with an image derived from a recording of the soundscape in the quarry in the early dawn. The sound is expressed as a spectrogram, etched inside the glass. The piece references both the ancient, enduring quality of the rocks and the fleeting, transient nature of the lives lived there. The piece is a collaboration with sound artist Rob Godman who made the recording on which the spectrogram is based.
Speaking about her installation, Dorset-based Karen Browning said, “I see Portland as a vessel, the extraction of stone removing the core. In my piece, cast from recycled Portland stone dust and lit with a noble gas-filled (helium) blown glass tube, the internal texture is constructed from casts of rocks and fissures from the island. The light from the plasma tube suggests sunset over the sea when viewed from Portland Bill. The core of the vessel glows with this light, this time referencing Portland’s long maritime history.”
One of the light wells made by Rebecca Newnham as part of her Regeneration series, in which some of the names of plant species of the area are etched. This one is ‘Tout Quarry Plant Profile at Winter Solstice’ and measures 40cm diameter.
Rebecca Newnham’s work considers the quarry as a site of ecological regeneration, focusing on the plants found there at the summer and winter solstices. She reflects on how the quarry was abandoned following the extraction of valuable Portland stone, and that it embodied absence following extraction. Over time, it has become a rich habitat for nature.
She states, “The quarry and the work I have created in response offer a vision of hope and demonstrate healing. My work takes the form of two wall panels and two light wells, each reflecting an experience of place and time. Glass embodies traces of some of the 500 species of plants that we observed mid-winter 2024 and mid-summer 2025. Their names are engraved inside the light wells.
“I am delighted to have spent time with naturalist Bob Ford. I can’t imagine anyone is more knowledgeable about the plants and creatures that are found in Tout Quarry. It has been a pleasure to learn from him, and he is speaking in the symposium too. Do join us if you can.”
Symposium
Tout Quarry displays change naturally through flora and fauna, and weather patterns that gauge what survives and what is in decline. The quarry acts as a barometer for these climate changes. The two-day symposium will raise debate, awareness and engagement with these issues. It focuses on art and nature, with speakers including David Buckland, Founder/Director of the Cape Farewell project on climate change, naturalist Bob Ford, artists Chris Drury and Phoebe Cummings, art historian Gill Hedley, and PSQT Director Hannah Sofaer.
The community events comprise artist-led workshops, demonstrations, performance, a coach trip, and artists-in-conversation spotlights, some with public participation. For more details of these, follow @oneislandmanyvisions on Instagram.
One Island, Many Visions is supported by PSQT, The Arts Society Wessex Area, Bath University, Dorset Dry Stone Walling, Albion Stone, and Russell Sach. Admission is free but donations are welcome.
Venues: Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust (PSQT): Drill Hall Gallery, Easton Street, Portland DT5 1BW (open Thursdays to Sundays 11am-4pm) and Tout Quarry Sculpture Park & Nature Reserve (open all hours).
One of Merseyside’s most treasured cultural landmarks, The World of Glass (TWOG), is celebrating its 25th anniversary but facing imminent closure unless £50,000 is raised by 22 September 2025.
TWOG has launched a crowdfunding campaign to secure the charity’s future. Rewards for donations include glassblowing experiences, the opportunity to design your own glass masterpiece, to become part of the 25thanniversary glass mural, to enjoy a behind-the-scenes glass heritage experience, or to curate your own exhibition.
TWOG is also scheduled to host the 2026 International Festival of Glass (IFoG) – the first IFoG to be organised by the Glass Art Society.
TWOG points out that it is more than just a museum: “It’s a living tribute to St Helens’ industrial legacy and a vital hub for education, community events, and heritage preservation.” Visitors can find out about the properties of glass, look through periscopes and microscopes, and play with lenses to change the colours in light. In addition, there are displays of contemporary glass from some of the world’s greatest makers.
At time of writing (10 August 2025) the campaign has raised almost £22,000, or 43% of the total needed.
To donate to help save TWOG, visit the crowdfunding page here.
Mixed media artist and CGS board member Linda Norris talks about the importance of community in her practice and how working with glass with disadvantaged people has helped her develop and grow alongside those with whom she collaborates on group projects.
I am an artist based in Wales working in mixed media. Since leaving college in 1982, I have maintained a lively community arts practice alongside developing my own work. When I came to glass in 2012 it was obvious that I needed to incorporate this transformational media into that work, as well as into my studio practice.
I wanted to use my skills for the benefit of others, though I decided early on not to train as an arts therapist. Instead, I wanted to facilitate opportunities for those in underrepresented groups and circumstances to explore and express their own creativity. I wanted people to take part of their own free will and not as part of a clinical therapy programme. (Having said that, I have occassionally worked with people on probation who were obliged to attend my sessions!)
I was motivated by a desire to share the freedom and agency I found in creative activity with others in the community, as well as by the need to fund my own practice and Community Arts fitted the bill. Initially, in the 1980s, I painted murals with women and children in Women’s Aid refuges across Wales. The idea was always to empower people to improve their environment and to find some solace and joy in creative activity and in interacting with others whilst creatively occupied.
Helping primary school children in Crymych, Pembrokeshire, to make glass bowls.
I am fully Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checked, which enables me to work with vulnerable adults and children. I’ve developed my skills in community arts and teaching over many years.
Apart from four years when I was employed as an artist at Kaleidoscope, which was a hostel for young people and a drug project in Kingston-on-Thames, I have always been self-employed and have nearly always had to fundraise for my projects myself. This has not always been easy! At times I have been juggling many different day and evening sessions while writing reports for funders and working on fundraising for future projects, alongside maintaining and promoting my own practice. But it has always been rewarding to see the way people, and relationships, can be transformed and flourish by the simple human activity of creative interaction with materials.
The finished fused and slumped glass bowls made with the primary school children in Pembrokeshire.
Often individuals who have behavioural challenges really find their voice and confidence through the attention I am able to give them. One parent of an autistic boy who was in a mainstream school and who had previously not been given appropriate support or understanding, and therefore had not managed to achieve any task in school (and who I had to insist was included in my project), wrote to me and said what an incredibe experience it had been for him and how he had found hidden talents and been so proud of his achievements. He has a real ability with his hands, which had been overlooked in the busy conventional classroom setting. Very quickly he became my assistant and was showing the kids who had previously bullied him how to cut and arrange glass for fusing.
Cutting and arranging glass with an autistic child, Pembrokeshire. Photo: Linda Norris.
I have developed tools and ways of working with glass that make it accessible and safe for everybody to handle and use. Sometimes I pre-cut shapes of glass, I mix frit powders with a paste made from 50 per cent water and 50 per cent aloe vera gel, which I package into easy-to-hold small bottles with nozzles. If necessary, I pre-fire striking colours so that people can see the colour the glass will be once it is fired, or to soften sharp edges for safety reasons. Having said that, I generally prefer people of all ages and abilities to try to handle the raw material in all its glory, and I find that explaining dangers, and trusting people to take responsibility for themselves, is all part of the empowering experience. Anyone who has ever tried to cut paper with small children using ‘safe’ scissors, will know that properly handled sharp scissors are actually far safer, more effective and result in a better learning opportunity.
A child working with an aloe vera frit pen on the Narberth School Quilt. Photo: Linda Norris.
Over the years I have developed these practical skills, as well as skills in organising my own time, taking initiative, documenting projects, and working with people of all ages who are living in all kinds of circumstances. I have worked with people with autism, dementia, as well as mental and physical health challenges of all types. I have adapted and learned from my students and developed safe and effective ways of communicating across language and speech challenges, plus developed ways of working that always enable the participants to do the work themselves.
As in everything, communication is key! I have learned other languages (including Makaton), I have learned to listen to every form of communication, not just verbal. I have found effective ways to give people choices and facilitate meaningful, creative activity across the community. I have worked in schools and other institutions and I have taken the activity to the participants in locations where they feel safe.
I have collaborated with teachers, health and social care workers, probation officers, parents and carers, and occasionally with other artists. In particular, I have collaborated with writers. For one project in Ysgol Ger Y Llan, a Welsh language school, I worked with Welsh writer, Damian Walford Davies, to develop some text for a window I was making with a group of hard-to-reach children for the school library. The theme was Y Môr (The Sea), so to engage them in the project and introduce them to glass, I got each of the children to make glass fish badges before starting work on the window. Damian turned up with hand-outs and paper to write on, but the children were completely intimidated by the idea of writing, so we drew around the badges they had made as a way of getting them to come up with words they associated with the sea. Once the paper was covered in expressive pen marks the children were able to write some words and a bilingual poem was formed.
One of the children’s drawings that helped them find words about the sea to be used in the window project.The fused glass badges made at the start of the project. The completed window at Letterston CP School, Pembrokeshire. Photo: Linda Norris.
For several years, I worked as art and craft tutor with young adults with autism and complex learning needs for Ruskin Mill Trust at their Pembrokeshire farm college, Coleg Plas Dwbl. Ruskin Mill Trust takes a Rudolf Steiner-inspired approach to teaching craft, and the Pedagogy of Craft it has developed as a method of learning through craft as an integrated body/mind learning and therapeutic experience, resonated with me.
I have always learned a lot from my community practice and this has fed into my own work. Sometimes I have learned new techniques in order to facilitate a project and sometimes I have developed new ideas that I have used in my own work. In another part of my practice, Rachel Phillips and I work together to make architectural glass as Studio Melyn. In 2017 we were commissioned to make an internal screen wall for Bro Cerwyn, a health and social care setting in Pembrokeshire, and I worked with local school children to develop the design. I led some drawing workshops where we went out into the landscape and the children learned to draw the landscape from life. The pupils had been expecting to design using photographs and computers, so to go outside was a revelation to them! We returned to the classroom and made prints from ferns and leaves which Rachel and I later incorporated directly into our design.
Design workshops at Ysgol y Frenni, Crymych in 2017.‘Cysgod y Coed’ window at Bro Cwm Cerwyn, Crymych, Pembrokeshire, made by Studio Melyn in 2017. Photo: Linda Norris.
In recent years the boundary between my own practice and my community projects has become less distinct. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns I worked with poet, Emma Baines, on a project called ‘Bards ’n’ Shards’, where I was commissioned by Narberth Museum to make work inspired by poems written by the participants in online creative writing workshops. These pieces were gifted to the participants on completion of the project in a gesture democratising the commissioning process. Some of these pieces are currently on show in Aberystwyth Arts Centre as part of the Re:Made exhibition.
The Re:Made exhibition is on show at Aberytwyth Arts Centre until 12 October 2025. Photo: Linda Norris.
Following on from this I developed my piece, Fragment Dresser (see main feature image for a detail of this installation), made of cup-, jug- and teapot-shaped flat glass, which I engraved with fragments of poems inspired by ceramic shards found by the workshop participants on their daily walks.
Projected light highlights the dresser and glass objects of ‘Fragment Dresser’ by Linda Norris (2023). Photo: John Sunderland.
This work has, in turn, gone on to inspire a community project undertaken by ceramic artist, Sizanne Lanchbury, which is currently on show alongside my own work in Re:Made at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
One of the things I have valued, and actively engaged with, since I started working in glass is the community that exists among glass makers and artists who work with glass. The generosity of spirit and cameradery of my fellow artists has been an inspiration in itself. In 2023 I formed Broken Home, a collective of women who work with glass and want to use the medium to illuminate social and political issues, specifically the growing plague of domestic violence and coercion experienced primarily by women across continents. In 2023 we made No Place Like Home, a collaborative work which was shown at the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge. The Collective has recently expanded and we are currently working on our proposal for a new work to be shown at The Glass Art Museum of Alcorcón (MAVA) in Madrid in 2026.
Broken Home Collective working in the studio of Silvia Levenson (2023). Photo: Paolo Sacchi.‘No Place Like Home’ by Broken Home Collective (2023). Photo: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd.Linda’s screenprinted and painted glass cups showing X-rays of intimate partner violence, part of ‘Broken Home’ (2024). Photo: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd.
As an artist, my work is all about connection: connection with place, with others, with our histories and landscapes. As a transformational medium, glass has given me new ways to express ideas and evoke feeling in my work, and I take delight in the technical challenges. As a community arts practitioner it offers a myriad of possibilities. The making process is absorbing; people can see that they can change the material by applying heat, by fusing it together, by kiln forming and engraving… They can learn about change and control, about fragility and strength and chemical properties and, above all, they can have fun playing with transparency and colour and make something beautiful in the process.
The Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) invites members and non-members to a Glass in Wales symposium, to be held at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Saturday 13 September 2025 (09.30 – 17.30).
The symposium offers glass makers and others interested in glass the opportunity to get together, hear speakers, network and share ideas and information. In addition, you are welcome to bring a piece of glass work to display and discuss in a roundtable conversation.
Members of CGS and the British Society of Master Glass Painters (BSMGP), plus students, pay a reduced rate to attend.
Outline Programme:
09.30 Registration (coffees available in Arts Centre Café)
10.00 Welcome by CGS /BSMGP
10.30 Speaker and Q&A: ‘Unearthing Connection’. Linda Norris will talk about her recent work (some of which is currently on show in Aberystwyth Arts Centre) using glass and glaze to investigate aspects of archaeology and illuminate overlooked craft in society.
11.30 Coffee break (Arts Centre Café)
12.00 Pecha Kucha (members of CGS and BSMGP talk about an aspect of their practice. Each presentation is 7 minutes and participants will show 10 images of their work). If you would like to apply to speak at the Pecha Kucha, please apply here.
13.00 Lunch (Arts Centre Café or bring a packed lunch)
14.00 Speaker and Q&A: Verity Pulford will talk about recent developments in her practice.
15.00 Speaker and Q&A: ‘Staying Positive and Making Things Happen’. Catrin Jones will talk about the background and process of making glass artworks for the public realm, remaining adaptable, the challenges involved in working to a brief, a budget and to a deadline, culminating in her most recent project for ‘The Leri’, a new cancer unit for Bronglais hospital, Aberystwyth.
16.00 Tea and Roundtable discussion
17.00 Summary
17.30 Optional tour to see The Leri, Catrin’s commission at Bronglais Hospital
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.
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I began experimenting with Graal – something I still do. It gives the glass the opportunity to ‘speak again’ by softening and distorting my crisp images into more fluid and gentle shapes.
I enjoy teaching at home, at the Glass Hub, or at Bild-Werk Frauenau Summer School in Germany. Sandblasting is quite a simple technique to grasp so I like to help my students to fine-tune their design elements and to work in a methodical way. My visual reference is renewed by the different ways of seeing that my students bring to the courses, be they plumbers or PhD students.
In conclusion, I’d like to mention the tutors’ ‘visitors book’ at Bild-Werk Frauenau, which is a reflection of the open-minded and sometimes chaotic intensity of the Summer School. No creative tutor is going to just write their name, which makes this book a kaleidoscope of uninhibited, arty joy. As someone who also trains horses, for my contribution I drew two horses, representing hot and cold glass, ‘cantering upsides’, with me balancing a foot on each. Often, in the glass world, these horses move apart from each other, but, under my weight, they can come together, willingly and naturally, to great effect.
