If you are looking to develop your glass practice with new training, equipment or travel, why not apply for funding from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST)?
QEST awards scholarship and apprenticeship funding of up to £18,000 to talented and aspiring craftspeople working in a broad range of skills, such as glassblowing, farriery, jewellery design, silversmithing, dry stone walling, cheese maturing, sculpture and more.
Its next application round is open from 10 January – 14 February 2022.
Many glass artists have made successful applications in the past and been supported both with funding and new opportunities to market and exhibit their work. Read about some of them here.
QEST celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2020 and since 1990 has awarded over £5 million to 650 individuals working in over 130 different crafts.
A directory of all past alumni can be seen on the QEST website, along with more details on how to apply. There are two application rounds each year – in January and July.
Three ‘How To Apply’ sessions will be held on Zoom to give advice and tips on the application process:
Scholarship sessions: 12 January 2022 04:00pm London Register in advance for this meeting via this link.
31 January 2022 04:00pm London Register in advance for this meeting via this link.
Apprenticeship session: 20 January 2022 04:00pm London Register in advance for this meeting via this link.
Are you a glass artist based in the North East of England? If so, you can apply for a bursary to support your practice via the National Glass Centre (NGC).
The current Glass Prize exhibition on show at the NGC is part of a wider project supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation, which includes two Glass Prize bursaries.
These are open to applications from artists who specialise in glass and who are either based in Sunderland, or in the wider North East (Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne & Wear and Teesside), and have a connection to Sunderland through their practice.
The two bursaries will enable artists to develop their practice. This may be achieved by investing in studio time, equipment, materials, mentoring or travel (or a combination of approaches).
Each bursary totals £4,750.
The bursaries are not open to students and applicants must be able to undertake and complete work relating to the bursary between 1 February and 31 March 2022.
Applications will be assessed by a panel led by Julia Stephenson, Head of Arts, NGC. The NGC reserves the right to acquire an example of the work created as a result of the bursary for its collection at no extra cost.
If appropriate, the NCG may wish to display work resulting from the bursary.
Applications for the NGC Glass Prize Bursary must be submitted by midnight on Sunday 16 January 2022.
Germany’s Glasmuseum Lette is launching a new exhibition on 8 January 2022, entitled ‘Fernweh’. The term Fernweh means ‘wanderlust’, representing a strong longing to leave familiar surroundings and set off into the big wide world.
However, getting away has become complicated during the coronavirus pandemic, with all the travel restrictions, entry rules and quarantine regulations. Those who have travelled over the past two years have usually chosen destinations closer to home. So, the museum feels the sense of Fernweh is undiminished!
As a result, Fernweh has inspired the creation of a new exhibition, with works selected from the collection of the Ernsting Foundation. A wide range of different sculptures, objects, vessels and wall installations have been chosen, with each, sometimes whimsically, sometimes more thoughtfully, alluding to other countries and cultures and evokes associations with Fernweh. The exhibition aims to be an enjoyable journey to worlds both near and far.
Even before the term Fernweh became common, people experienced the painful longing for far-off places. Goethe, for example, paraphrased it in 1822 as a ‘feeling of flight’, a ‘longing for far-off places’ and ‘reverse homesickness’. With the concept of the ‘blue flower’, Romantic literature created a concrete symbol for this yearning, for the search for the unattainable and the infinite.
The word Fernweh first appeared in literature around 1835, in a travel account by the famous writer and landscape architect Hermann Prince of Pückler-Muskau. He wrote that he “never suffers from homesickness (Heimweh) but rather from Fernweh”.
In the twentieth century, the tourism industry seized on the concept, using targeted advertising with enticing images of tourist destinations around the world. It has thus become important to the international economy.
But Fernweh is not just about the urge to travel, as science has discovered. It may simply reflect the desire for a change of scenery or some variety and colour in an otherwise grey day-to-day life. Some may feel a diffuse restlessness, while others are unhappy and depressed. Travel promises an escape but, when it is not possible, books, the theatre or museum exhibitions offer the promise of fantasy worlds. Therefore scientists refer to Fernweh as an important ‘cultural technique for staying at home’.
The Fernweh exhibition opens at 14.00 on 8 January 2022. Address: Glasmuseum Lette, Letter Berg 38, D-48653 Coesfeld, Germany. Website: http://www.glasmuseum-lette.de/en/
In accordance with current regulations in the State of North-Rhine Westphalia, the 2G or 2G+ rule applies at the Glasmuseum and Glasdepot (2G: admission only with proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or recovery, 2G+: a negative PCR test is also required).
Image: One of the artworks showing at the Fernweh exhibition, ‘The perimeter of air’ (2014), by Vittoria Parrinello. Photo by the artist.
Danish curator and art historian Mikkel Elming will join Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, the contemporary glass museum in Ebeltoft, Denmark, on 1 January 2022.
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft is a private, self-financing institution established and directed by the Foundation for the Collection of Contemporary, International Glass Art. The museum aims to present the best in contemporary, international glass art through an ambitious exhibition programme.
It holds a unique collection of glass art from around the world, as well as having a professionally-run glassblowing studio on site.
Elming has been involved with Aarhus’ contemporary art scene for a number of years. He was co-creator and leader of Regelbau 411 and Foreningen for Samtidskunst (The Association for Contemporary Art).
Speaking of his new role, Elming commented, “I am very much looking forward to working together with the museum’s skilled team and many voluntary helpers. Glasmuseet Ebeltoft offers a wide range of unique experiences, and together we will create an even more exciting and alluring museum.
“In developing the museum, we will be focusing on sustainability, digital opportunities and on exploring new approaches to working with artists and glass. I am very excited and can’t wait to get started.”
Chairman of the Museum Foundation’s Board, Henning Kovsted, added, “Mikkel Elming is a rising star on the contemporary Danish art scene, and we are proud that he will be the next Director of the museum. We are welcoming the new generation’s view on the museum’s practice and we are convinced that Glasmuseet Ebeltoft will continue the current positive development under Mikkel’s leadership.”
Mikkel Elming has an MA in History of Art from Aarhus University. He is experienced as a curator, project manager and art communicator.
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft was inaugurated in 1986 and is considered one of the world leaders in its field. It is under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II.
Image: Mikkel Elming, who will take over as director of the museum on 1 January 2022.
Glass artist Laura Quinn worked with fashion designer Helen Hayes to create an elegant dress that featured a striking collar made from glass rods. This project is run by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI) and the Council of Irish Fashion Designers (CIFD).
Each year, under the remit of the project, craftspeople and fashion designers are paired to create new, and even unlikely, collaborative wearable pieces. This initiative is the brainchild of Edmund Shanahan, chair of the Council of Irish Fashion Designers (CIFD), whose vision was for ‘designers and craftspersons to appreciate each other’s skills and to explore new ways to develop and present their work’.
This is the third year that the project has run, and one of the eight collaborative pairs this time included glass artist and Contemporary Glass Society member, Laura Quinn, who was paired with Dublin-based fashion designer, Helen Hayes.
All of Laura’s and Helen’s design conversations happened over video calls, both because the collaboration was carried out during lockdown and also because they were in different geographical locations.
The pair posted material samples and templates back and forth between the UK and Ireland before proceeding to make the final piece. Both remarked on how difficult it was to gauge the colour and tone of their materials over a computer screen, so this process relied on being able to see and feel the glass and ribbon fabric in real life.
To combine their aesthetic, making skill and design, Laura and Helen sought to find commonalities in their work. Using linear materials such as the ribbons and glass rods, they considered how the materials related to the human form. They took into account the movement and undulation of the ribbon and glass as they wrapped around the body, showing off the way both materials played with light. This was the inspiration for the wearable piece they designed.
The design process, featuring Laura’s glass rods on the template.
Laura used lampworking to create the glass element of the look. The glass was combined with her digitally-designed, and waterjet cut, silicone rubber elements, which allowed the structure to be flexible around the moving body.
Each glass component was designed to slot in and out of the silicone, enabling repair and replacement, as well as bespoke fitting to the wearer.
Flexibility and adaptability are key design elements in most of Laura’s work, and here they allowed the glass section to be adapted to fit the model. Through video calls, Laura directed Helen on how to adjust the fit of the glass structure so it could be worn comfortably by model Katie Geoghegan.
Helen created the dress using over 500 metres of ribbon, stitched to create a pleated effect. This pleating is the signature of Helen’s work. The result is a stunning look that uses linear materials, both glass rods and ribbon, that play with light as they undulate around the body.
The use of fine ribbon and glass rods created an elegant silhouette that shimmered in the light.
Laura said of the experience, “Normally I shy away from colour, focusing mainly on clear glass in my work, because there is just so much for me to explore with the optic effects of glass alone. But this collaboration has given me the confidence to start to include colour in my work, whilst keeping the overall form streamlined to explore how the glass interacts differently with light.
“Working with Helen was such a joy, and the outcome of the project is better than either of us expected. It has reminded me that, even though it’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own bubble of making, there is great merit in working collaboratively with other people. Getting a fresh eye from a non-glass maker has helped to give me a new perspective on my practice.”
The final look went on display for the first time at the CIFD Autumn/Winter 2021 runway show. It was well received and was subsequently picked up by various fashion journalists in high-profile newspapers and magazines.
Maggie Napier’s glass featured in a millinery collaboration with Wendy Louise Designs.
Fellow Irish glass artist, and County Down-based lampworker, Maggie Napier, also had her glass featured in a collaboration with milliner Wendy Louise Designs. Maggie created intricate, bright and beautiful glass elements using her lampworking techniques to adorn the headpiece.
Laura’s works ‘Flop Lights II and III’ have also been selected for the National Glass Centre Glass Prize 2021. These are two illuminated glass sculptures that play on the fragility of glass by making it flexible and highly tactile. The forms are soft, flexible and durable, allowing the audience to touch, squeeze and squish, and challenging their perceived constraints of glass.
Laura’s Flop Lights II & III feature glass and silicone.
The pieces comprise 1,300 individually lampworked glass components that fit, interchangeably, into a waterjet-cut silicone framework. The combination of materials plays with the light from its central body, creating refractive, reflective and fibre optic effects. These artworks are on display now as part of the show, which runs until 13 March 2022. The National Glass Centre is at Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL, UK.
All the participants for the fifth edition of the Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass 2022 have been selected.
Around 400 artists from all over the world applied to take part in this important event for contemporary glass in Europe, which was last held in 2014.
In total, the seven-member jury examined over 700 objects for the exhibition and, in a multi-stage process, selected around 100 works by 89 artists. These will be exhibited from 10 April to 25 September 2022 at the Veste Coburg and in the European Museum for Modern Glass in Rödental, Germany. The winners will be announced on 9 April 2022.
The Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass 2022 will present a Europe-wide overview of current trends and developments in contemporary glass art. The range of techniques and artistic design is wide. Many works are dedicated to socially relevant issues or address sustainability and climate change.
The nominees are: Giampaolo Amoruso, Galia Amsel, Sahar Baharymoghaddam, Veronika Beckh, Æsa Björk, Juli Bolaños-Durman, Péter Borkovics, Heike Brachlow, Effie Burns, Ned Cantrell, Anna Carlgren, Mathilde Caylou, Keeryong Choi, Katharine Coleman, Vanessa Cutler, Lukas Derow, Maria Bang Espersen, Sally Fawkes, Lena Feldmann, Carrie Fertig, Dominic Fonde, Ulla Forsell, Shige Fujishiro, Giuliano Gaigher, Hannah Gibson, Hartmann Greb, Mathieu Grodet, Wilfried Grootens, Jens Gussek, Iris Haschek, Adam Hejduk, Masami Hirohata, Palo Macho & Jana Hojstričová, Jochen Holz, Petr Hora, Krista Israel, Angela Jarman, Dafna Kaffeman, Saman Kalantari, Micha Karlslund, Morten Klitgaard, Maria Koshenkova, Remigijus Kriukas, Marzena Krzeminska Baluch, Zuzana Kubelková, Juliette Leperlier, James Lethbridge, Susan Liebold, Kristína Ligačová, Alison Lowry, Joanna Manousis, Markus Marschmann, James Maskrey, Gayle Matthias, Melanie Möglich, Sadhbh Mowlds, Jan Mytny, Tracy Nicholls, Fredrik Nielsen, Jagoda Nowak-Bieganowska, Stig Persson, Anne Petters, Vendulka Prchalová, Cornelius Réer, Colin Reid, Gerhard Ribka, Sebastian Richter, Anne-Lise Riond Sibony, Judith Röder, Susanne Roewer, Torsten Rötzsch, Tiina Sarapu, Cathryn Shilling, Wilken Skurk, Bibi Smit, Petr Stanický, Nancy Sutcliffe, Veronika Suter, Karlyn Sutherland, Ayako Tani, Aline Thibault, Michaela Tkadleček, Kristiina Uslar, Sylvie Vandenhoucke, Aleš Vašíček, Sofia Villamarin, Zac Weinberg, Jinya Zhao, and Jeff Zimmer.
The competition is organised in cooperation with the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Munich, and is funded by Oberfrankenstiftung, the City of Coburg, SÜC Coburg, Denk Keramische Werkstätten and the Barbara Achilles-Stiftung.
Are you struggling to find a unique Christmas gift for a special friend or relative? Why not browse the latest selection of bespoke glasswork on offer from members of the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS)?
Each piece in this exhibition is available to buy direct from the artist, with prices ranging from a very reasonable £50 to £500 – hence the title ‘A is for Affordable Part 2’.
The CGS launched this initiative to help glass artists showcase and sell their beautiful wares in 2020 and it was such a success that it is being repeated in 2021.
Click here and scroll down to browse the selection of gifts and decorative pieces available from 57 glass artists, each of whom has worked with love and care to create them. Click on each image to discover more information about the artwork and how you can purchase it. Don’t wait too long, or it may be gone!
Purchase a piece of gorgeousness to either keep for yourself or to give as a gift. In addition to owning a handmade artwork, you will be helping a small business or artist to carry on being creative.
‘A is for Affordable Part 2’ runs until 6 January 2022.
Glass artists Verity Pulford and Pratibha Mistry are showcasing their newly developed contemporary glass work at The Biscuit Factory gallery in Newcastle, UK.
Verity Pulford and Pratibha Mistry have a joint exhibition of glass on display at The Biscuit Factory.
These artists are inspired by the micro and macro worlds. These starting points have allowed them to create fascinating and thought-provoking work, pushing at the boundaries of what is possible with the material of glass.
Both glass artists draw inspiration from the biological world.
Verity Pulford’s ‘Blue algae bowls’ installation. Photo: Stephen Heaton.
Verity’s collection is most closely influenced by the organic structures of algae, funghi, lichen, moss and ferns.
In contrast, Pratibha’s compositions convey the sinister beauty of detrimental cellular transformations that she has observed in her experiences in laboratory research and microscopy.
View their collections at The Biscuit Factory, 16 Stoddart Street, Newcastle, NE2 1AN.
The exhibition is on now and continues until late January 2022. Find out more here.
Work can be purchased by contacting the gallery sales team on Tel: 0191 261 1103 or Email: art@thebiscuitfactory.com, as the collection is not yet available to purchase online.
The Contemporary Glass Society is also running a series of exhibitions in conjunction with The Biscuit Factory, featuring a changing line-up of CGS members. See the current batch of featured artists and artworks here.
Main image: Pratibha Mistry’s pate de verre piece, ‘Melanoma infiltration’, (2020) is on show at The Biscuit Factory. Photo: Pratibha Mistry.
The revered Corning Museum of Glass in the USA is inviting submissions to be considered for inclusion in the next edition of the respected New Glass Review 42.
The museum states: “We have absolutely missed seeing your work over the last year. Diving into your innovations in form, technique, concept, and more through the process of New Glass Review is the highlight of our year and the energy that fuels our work. There is nothing more thrilling than seeing the work of contemporary glassmakers and knowing that each day, each month, each year holds new discoveries and new commentaries.”
New Glass Review presents an international survey of contemporary glass. New Glass Review 42 is open for works made in the period January 2020 and January 2022. Submissions should use glass, and can also be video works in which glass plays a fundamental role, as well as video documentation of performances using glass. Selected entries will be published in the autumn of 2022.
Congratulations to several Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) members who have won medals in the Sixth Chinese Craft Glass Competition and Exhibition.
Owing to COVID-19 restrictions in China, this year’s awards ceremony has had to be cancelled and international artists were not required to send their artworks to the show.
There were two sections to the event, the first being the Sixth Creativity Competition and the second the Fifth Flame Working international glass festival.
The following artists won medals in flameworking category: Stewart Hearn and Kathryn Hearn’s ‘Cicada’ won the Gold Medal; Stewart Hearn’s ‘Glacial Erratic’ won the Silver Medal, and CGS member Emma Goring’s ‘Sort Sol Spring’ black vessel won the Bronze Medal.
Winners of Excellence Work medals were CGS member Calum Dawes for ‘Spirit Vessel Pair’; Vanessa Cutler for ‘P2 – Partial Piercings’; CGS member Deborah Timperley, for ‘Pushed Back 2’; Vanessa Cutler for both ‘Chitter Chatter’ and ‘Gender’, plus Tim Spurchise for ‘Watermelon Fish’ and ‘Sea Bear’.
Winners of Selected Work medals were: Tim Spurchise, for ‘Sea Bear’, ‘Sawfish’, ‘Hydra Nautilus’, ‘Pig Fish’, ‘Lung Fish’ and ‘Plague Doctor’; Deborah Timperley, for ‘Transition’, ‘Soft box’, ‘Contained dialogue’, ‘Surface barrier 2’ and ‘Barred within’; Vanessa Cutler, for ‘Mechanics’, ‘Untitled’ and ‘Chaos’; Rita Neumann, for ‘In use’, ‘The blue rag’ and ‘Worn floor cloth’; Maria Koshenkova, for ‘Norwegian Wood’; Frederik Rombach, for ‘Overall’, ‘CB’, ‘ls’ and ‘Emojipil’; Livvy Fink, for ‘Untitled II’; Maria Bacho, for ‘Liquid Wood II Top Glass’; Aoife Soden, for ‘Cortisol Level-Fight or Flight’; Soden, for ‘Healing Hands’; CGS member Silvia Zimerman, for ‘Fabrics’ and ‘Flying and falling napkins’; Hale Feriha Hendekcigil, for ‘Lost Blue’; Boris Shpeizman, for ‘Pink M16’ and ‘Tears’; Chuchen Song, for ‘Immersing’, ‘Untitled’, ‘Invisible Boundary #2’, ‘Internal/External’ and ‘The Silent Night #3’; Hale, for ‘A thousand eyes’, Ana Laura Quintana, for ‘Reticulate petals’; Feriha, for ‘The Mother’; Maria Bacho, for ‘Diamor’, plus CGS member Juliette Leperlier, for ‘Phloème VIII’.
Boris Shpeizman’s ‘Ice Age Group’.
The artists listed below won medals in the Sixth Creativity Competition:
These artists all won Bronze medals: Boris Shpeizman, for ‘Ice Age Group’ and ‘Glass Armor’; Teresa Apud, for ‘Nuevo Comienzo’; CGS member Yoshico Okada, for ‘Clair de lune (I)’; CGS member Carole Gray, for ‘Patchwork 1’, plus Tingting Zhao, for ‘Four Treasures of the Study’.
‘Clair de lune (I)’ by Yoshico Okada.
The Excellence Work medal winners were: Teresa Apud, for ‘Reencuentro’ and ‘Nosotras’; Chuchen Song, for ‘Internal/External’; Calum Dawes, for ‘Spirit Vessel 1’, and Boris Shpeizman, for ‘Ice Age Grasshopper’.
Selected Work medal winners were: Livvy Fink, for ‘Untitled I’; Calum Dawes, for ‘Spirit Vessel 2’; Boris Shpeizman, for ‘Lollipop Man’ and ‘Thompson’; Juliette Leperlier, for ‘Phloème II’ and ‘Phloème IV’; CGS member Yoshico Okada, for ‘Shifting memories IV’ and ‘Distance Between’; Emma Goring, for ‘Sort Sol-Spring’; Hale Feriha Hendekcigil, for ‘Touch’ and ‘Maud Lewis’; Aoife Soden, for ‘Going Under (Dry Drowning)’; Silvia Zimerman, for ‘Circle of Life’ and ‘Folded Shirts’; plus CGS member Carole Gray, for ‘Corona (Chaos)’.
Main feature image: ‘Cicada’ (2021), by Stewart Hearn and Kathryn Hearn, which won the Gold Medal.
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