Glass artists are invited to submit work for an upcoming Glass Art Society (GAS) exhibition focusing on sustainability.
The event, called Trace, will feature as part of the 2021 Virtual GAS Conference. It will showcase work that comments on current global environmental issues, work that uses sustainable materials, such as upcycled glass, or work made using sustainable processes/practices.
Trace is an open submission, juried exhibition and all artwork must be submitted via online application. The 2021 jury panel includes members of GAS’s Green Committee. The 2021 professional jurors are Amber Cowan (USA),Candice-Elena Greer (UK), Frederik Rombach (Belgium) and Juli Bolaños-Durman (Scotland). The jurors will choose the works for inclusion in the show and select the recipients of awards and prizes.
The Green exhibition will be launched during the virtual conference, which takes place from 20-22 May 2021.
As a special concession for this first year, application is free to all. In the future, there will be a small fee for non-members of GAS.
Applications must be submitted by the deadline of 21 March 2021 and artists will be notified of selection by late March 2021.
GAS encourages the sale of artwork during the exhibition but, while GAS will assist in connecting buyers to artists, artists will be responsible for handling sales and shipping.
Work can be marked ‘Not for Sale’ if you prefer.
Artwork must feature glass as the primary element and will be selected on the basis of originality, intentionality and the innovative use of glass. The call is open to artists working in any form of glassmaking or video works documenting glass-related performance pieces.
Artists may submit work individually or as a group piece, but not both. Only one work of art may be submitted.
Further information and the online application form are available via this link.
Sculptor Emily Williams has developed her own way of hand torching glass, which, to her, is a way of drawing with space and light. Her glass coral reef sculptures draw attention to this hidden, fragile world. CGS Glass Network digital’s editor, Linda Banks, finds out more.
What led you to start working with glass? With a long background in sculpture, I have always explored new media. I have worked for decades specialising in woodworking, metal fabrication, and metal casting. At a certain point, I was really looking for a life-changing journey as a sculptor. I needed a medium that possessed the immediacy of drawing. Hand-torched glass seemed to solve all the problems that I found with the opacity of wood and metal. Glass is luminous. For me, hand torching glass is an immediate form of drawing with space and light.
Petal, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper.
What glass techniques have you used in your career and why do you have a preference for hand torch work today? Back in the 1970s, as a high school student in Virginia Beach, my father got me to sign up for a stained glass course. He thought I could decorate the house for him with custom lamp shades and windows! I made some stained glass, but really did not pursue it in any way beyond the class.
Around 2007, I became interested in glass casting and mould making. I cast glass using open face moulds, reservoir moulds, and pate de verre moulds. I enjoyed it for a while, but really became bored with the time-consuming processes of mould making.
Eventually, I circled back to the idea of glass flameworking. When I first became interested in glass in 2007, I stocked up on some books, such as Contemporary Lampworking Part 1 and Part 2 as well as The Penland Book of Glass. Initially, I really vacillated between cast glass and flameworking. Flameworking just seemed so overwhelming to me. Years later, when I went back into these books, I had an epiphany when I saw the work of Susan Plum in The Penland Book of Glass. I thought, “That’s the glass process I want to use – it’s immediate, spontaneous, experimental, unpredictable, surprising…”
Glass Seaweed, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper.
Since beginning hand-torched glass, I have used a variety of glass torches. As my process has evolved, I have acquired more torches and specialised tools. I have a large glass bench torch and have experimented with glass blowing. I have collected a variety of hand torches as well. Most of the time, I use a combination of a large bench torch and a Smith Little Torch. Depending on the sculpture, I work borosilicate glass rods in the bench torch and the mini hand torch. I have a preference for the Smith Little Torch and borosilicate colours that work well with that torch’s chemistry. The mini torch is lightweight and easy to manoeuvre. Its functionality is really enhanced by using a four-and-a-half-inch custom tip, which allows me to go deeper into a glass form.
Can you tell us something about how you developed your special glass working methods for your latest work? It has been a long road to get to this point! As I developed my ideas for this glass working process, I explored different plant and marine life forms. Initially, I created some organic forms based on wintering plant structures, dried plant petals and vines. As these pieces evolved, I became more interested, not only in the complex structures, but also in capturing a sense of movement. Using only a bench torch to achieve these types of forms is really not possible for me. In order to fully fuse the glass rods properly, you have to be able to work three-dimensionally and be able to completely fuse each element. This means sometimes reaching deep inside a forest of glass!
In the beginning, I used a National hand torch and did some amazingly complex work. The National hand torch was not easy to use, and the burns could be ferocious! Eventually, I began using the Smith Little Torch, but the standard tips were very small. So, I found a Hornet custom tip and it was a huge improvement. The Smith torch is light and can fit into the small areas where the National torch could not go.
Brain Coral, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper.
After creating a few marine life forms, I became fascinated with different types of corals and seaweeds. I never run out of excitement for the magical patterns, colours and forms found in a coral reef. Brain coral, long tentacle plate corals, feather stars, and even water itself, continue to inspire my work. Currently, I am moving into creating a series of smaller, more complex sculptures that explore colour, such as pink Gorgonian Coral, green seaweed, Red Coral and Fan Coral.
Pink Long Tentacle Plate Coral, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper
What is your favourite tool or piece of equipment and why? My favourite tool is the Smith Little Torch because it is so versatile. I can adjust the torch flame to fuse from fairly thick rods down to super-thin rods of 2mm. The torch can be equipped with a variety of tips for different types of fusing jobs, from flat to highly dimensional objects. The torch is lightweight and easy to control. I have used a variety of bench torches and larger hand torches, but I prefer working with this mini torch.
Your current work focuses on glass reefs. What drove you to this subject? I cannot say one single event or thing led me to my current work in creating ocean life forms. It was a culmination of many things, such as living on the water, drawing, reading, exploring historical scientific illustrations and scientific glass models. I am also interested in aquatic photography and video that examines the rich underwater diversity of marine life found in reefs. I am not a diver but I do dive into a lot of historical archives at the Biodiversity Heritage Library at the Smithsonian. Through their archives, I can access historical illustrations, some dating back centuries. I use these to study the complex biology of different marine life species.
Years ago, I created my first glass marine life form. The idea was to capture the transparency of the form and its visual movement. This stark skeletal form of a jellyfish had tentacles that seemed to rise and sway in space, as if in water. These ideas of glass linear forms suggesting movement are still prevalent in every glass work that I make.
Jellyfish, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper.
Do you have a favourite piece? Why is it your favourite? I really do not have favourite sculptures. But one work that I come back to again and again, in terms of form and colour, is the Pink Long Tentacle Plate Coral. The profuse pattern of the tentacles and the circular form give me a lot of ideas for future works. Another work is the Large Brain Coral that I made years ago. The sheer scale and intricacy of that sculpture was a huge challenge. It really tested my skills for engineering the physical strength of the glass to achieve a large, voluminous form. The intricate structural patterns that I developed are based on the meander pattern found in brain corals. The pattern of small tentacles that cover the form mimic the behaviour of a feeding brain coral. Click this link to see a video of the fusing process used when completing that glass sculpture.
Where do you show and sell your work? I have shown my glass sculpture in art museums, art centres, galleries and glass art auctions. A few museums have purchased my work, including The LaGrange Art Museum and the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, Kansas. I have also sold in the Glass Society Auction in Chicago, The Liberty Glass Art Museum Auction in Philadelphia, and the Urban Glass Gala Auction in Brooklyn, New York. Generally, I sell my work through my website at www.emilywilliamssculpture.com. In addition, people contact me for special commission work. I have completed commissions for individual collectors and the LaGrange Art Museum as well. Recently, I added an online store to my website to showcase glass sculptures of different marine life in varying sizes, colours and price ranges. At this time, I am focusing on pink and green seaweeds, as well as various species in bright colours.
Water, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper.
Do you have a career highlight? While I am a professional artist, with a decades-long career as a sculptor, I am also a university professor. I have taught Sculpture, 3D Design, and Visual Arts lecture courses since 1989. Beyond teaching, my greatest career highlight has been moving into the medium of torched glass. I have never felt more satisfied as a sculptor! The process, the glass material, and the community of glass artists is very fulfilling.
A great moment for me was showing the Pink Long Tentacle Plate Coral in the travelling exhibit Lifeforms 2016 at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Corning, New York. I was able to show my work alongside other glass artists whose work I truly admire. This exhibit also coincided with the 2016 GAS Conference at the Corning Museum, which also featured the amazing Blaschka exhibit of scientific glass models and exquisite drawings of marine life forms, Fragile Legacy.
Who or what inspires you? I am interested in marine life and different types of plants. A big part of my work is ocean life forms, such as corals and seaweed. Currently, I am working on a large series of glass marine life sculptures featuring brilliant, intense colours. I am awestruck by the patterns and movement that can be suggested in different corals and seaweed glass forms. As mentioned earlier, I am inspired by aquatic photography, historical scientific illustration, and the Blaschka scientific glass models.
I collect photography and historical illustrations while developing an idea for a new work. Right now, I am revisiting some earlier ideas relating to seaweed. Years back, the book An Ocean Garden inspired a large glass seaweed sculpture. The photography made for that book was spectacular and so detailed! Within that book, the Gloiosiphonia verticillaris, Monterey Bay, CA c.1898 inspired the large glass seaweed.
I am currently delving into new, brilliantly coloured glass seaweeds on a smaller scale. When I do research, something might strike me, such as a particular colour, pattern, or sense of movement in how a species poses itself. From that, I begin making a series of drawings, from which I progress into the glass working process. Every glass sculpture evolves from the drawing process.
Nest, hand torched borosilicate glass. Photo: Mike Culpepper.
How has the coronavirus impacted your practice? For the most part, I am pretty much a hermit, so my glass practice is about the same. During the past year, there have been a lot fewer glass exhibits and invitationals. I miss showing my work and interacting with people. Normally, I might be doing a public glass demonstration at least once a year, so I have also missed out on that type of public interaction. This past year, I have invested a lot of time in redesigning my website, adding a new online store, and developing a new online glass course.
And finally… If anyone has any questions, they are welcome to email me through my website’s Contact page. There are plenty of interesting glass articles and videos on my website that explain my glass working processes. For those interested in pursuing glass fusing with a torch, I am now offering the online Glass Fusing with a Hand Torch Course . Click the link to view details about the course and how to sign up.
About the artist
A native of Richmond, Virginia, USA, Emily Williams received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.
She began teaching as Assistant Professor of Art at Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 1989. She has continued teaching at Troy University Online. She has received numerous awards, such as the Fulbright Hays grant to Italy, a number of fellowships in art, plus purchase awards from several museums.
Main feature image: Emily Williams creating a long tentacle plate coral in hand-torched borosilicate glass.
The CGS is running a series of selling exhibitions to showcase its members’ talents in contemporary glass and enable you to purchase directly from the makers. The latest show is ‘A Postcard From…’, a theme chosen by glass collector and enthusiast Alan J Poole. This upbeat theme has been interpreted by over 50 glass artists in their individual styles.
Image: Steven Graham.
Through these difficult times, our minds sometimes wander to happy days, holidays and gatherings, or just places we love to visit. So, take your minds off to distant shores and view inspired, postcard-size work by CGS members
Our Chair, Sue, and Administrator, Pam, are holding a launch evening on Saturday 6 March at 6pm (UK time) to guide you through the gallery of images with their usual humour and enthusiasm. Each piece will be highlighted in turn and some will be presented by the artists themselves, providing an overview of their artworks. The launch evening is restricted so please email Pam if you (and your friends) would like to register to attend on admin@cgs.org.uk .
The show is now open for all to view so you have an opportunity to browse (and buy!) all these diverse contemporary glass art pieces directly from the artists. They are all conveniently postcard-sized and available at affordable prices (£50, £100 or £150). Some have already been sold so take a look now before you miss out!
Seashells By The Seashore. Artist: Fiona Fawcett.
Treat yourself or a loved one – and don’t forget that Mother’s Day is approaching. There is sure to be a beautiful gift that takes your fancy.
Seascape 1. Artist: Claire Hall.
The ‘A Postcard From…’ exhibition continues online until 31 March 2021. Click here to view.
Many CGS members took part in our recent successful online selling show, so we asked renowned glass artist Cathryn Shilling if she would provide the theme for our next inspiring opportunity for members to show and sell their work.
Cathryn says: “I have spent a significant amount of time this winter gazing out of my kitchen window into my garden and reflecting on the year that was (or wasn’t as the case may be). Let’s face it, 2021 has not started in the way any of us had hoped for…
“Of course, winter is transient, like any season, but I have to admit that staring into the thickening snow in the midst of another national lockdown, it does feel a little like we are all living in the eternal winter of Narnia… However, even in Narnia, winter came to an end and, as I looked out over my frozen flower beds this week, I noticed the first signs of life returning to my garden in the form of snowdrops and the shoots of ‘soon to be’ daffodils. Surely this is the herald of Spring and a promise of better days to come?
“The remarkable diversity of flora has been a major source of inspiration among glass artists throughout the centuries – from the simplistic interpretations in medieval stained glass, through the cast crystal of Daum and the cameo glass of Gallé, to the cutting edge and contemporary interpretations demonstrated by many of our talented and endlessly resourceful CGS members.
“It is this endless circle of resourcefulness which brings me back to Nature, and how even in the bleakest and coldest of places, nature is able to adapt, spreading colour over barren landscapes, transforming them into a majesty of pattern and colour.
“So, I would like to challenge CGS members to participate in a new online selling exhibition inspired by the incredible diversity of ‘Flora’. This brief is extremely broad. How you choose to interpret it is entirely up to you. My greatest wish is to see as many unique examples on the subject, as there are species of flowers!”
This is an exclusive online selling show for CGS members only. If you are not a member yet, you can join today to benefit from this opportunity.
CGS members please log in to your account and load an image of your piece for sale on the theme of Flora by the deadline of 29 March 2021. This online selling show will take place from 3 April to 5 May 2021.
Renowned glass artist Wayne Cain explains how his father influenced his own resourcefulness in learning and mastering a variety of skills, including stained glass, flameworking and bevelling – skills which have kept him at the top of the creative glass world for decades.
My father was known as a man who could do almost anything. He was a sheet metal mechanic by trade and would often take me with him when he worked on Saturdays, giving me tasks appropriate to my age and paying me 50 cents an hour out of his own pocket.
Wayne Cain and his father, Jacob Wayne Cain, circa 1951.
Soon after moving into our new home, which had just stud walls and insulation upstairs, my father informed my brother and me, aged about 11, that, if we wanted finished bedrooms, we would have to complete them ourselves: “I’ll show you the first step; you have to do the rest.”
Sure enough, he showed us how to hang one sheet of Sheetrock, how to tape one joint, trowel over it with joint compound, and cut and nail one piece of moulding.
I remember so well the emotional impact this had on me. I was quite upset that my father would not help beyond his initial instructions. Until this time, I’d had the impression that everyone worked together to achieve our goals. All of a sudden, I was faced with stud walls, some unfamiliar materials, and a few simple tools.
Another part of me saw the potential in my current situation. I was beginning to envision myself as an adult, someone who, in a few years, would be independent. I sensed that I was beginning to build a human being – myself – and that I could become the person I wanted to be.
The trial-and-error process came quickly and naturally to me: learning to drive a Sheetrock nail so it settled just below the surface without tearing the paper; applying just enough joint compound so the tape joint would end up flush with the finish surface; cutting the correct angle on moulding and sinking a finishing nail just below the surface.
The years I spent finishing off my bedroom stand out to me because I was on my own, doing and thinking. It developed in me a deep sense of self-confidence, knowing that I was developing processes that would help me when faced with the unknown later in life.
My father died of a heart attack when he was 43. I was 17. This devastating and final chapter in our relationship signalled to me that I was truly on my own and that I was responsible for my life.
The following year I was accepted into college. My family did not have money for such excesses, so I took our ladders and a couple of paintbrushes and painted neighbourhood houses, making enough money each summer to pay my way through. This was, in large part, a tribute to my parents for the self-sufficiency they instilled in me.
I thought a lot about how I wanted to live my life. I knew that I would not fit into the corporate world. I knew that I wanted to be compensated for the value of my development and not give it away to someone else. I also thought that one should work, make the money needed, and spend the remainder of their time enjoying the other things life has to offer.
Most importantly, I wanted to self-actualize. I wanted to apply my problem-solving skills to the real world.
Out of college, I thought about becoming a blacksmith, perhaps a copper smith. I was also fascinated by light filtering through treetops, the translucency of nature.
Flameworked flowers bring 3D interest to a stained glass window.
This love of light helped me decide, in June 1972, to climb into my 1964 VW bus and drive from Richmond, Virginia, to Rockland, Massachusetts, to the Whittemore-Durgin Glass Company. I remember sleeping in my bus to save every cent I could to buy the basic tools and materials I needed to begin my chosen journey of working with glass.
Starting on the kitchen table, I made stained glass apples, pears, cherries and chickens that stood on one leg, selling them at craft fairs and gift shops. From there, it was ‘Tiffany’ type lampshades, windows – including learning how to repair both – as well as curved shades.
Wayne in front of his studio, a converted buggy barn in the foothills of Central Virginia. A countryside location helps the creativity flow. Photo: Emily White, tintype photographer.
A local plate glass company offered to sell me their 1915 Henry Lang bevelling machines. At the time, I couldn’t find any literature on how to bevel so, once again, I relied on the trial-and-error process.
Holding a piece of glass over rotating iron, stone, cork and felt was not the most exciting pastime. In order to hold my interest, I began grinding and polishing different thicknesses of glass with different angles. I bevelled flash glass, coloured glass, and textured glass and made a display case to carry around. This was in the days before the Internet, when artists walked around with large portfolios. I loved opening it up to clients, who instantly realised that I had something special to offer them.
Wayne taught himself to bevel on antique bevelling machines.
A wonderful thing about being self-taught is that one doesn’t know when to stop. I also developed bevelled glass windows with thicker glass so my windows would ‘hold their own’ when surrounded with oversized wood mouldings. Then it was on to UV-gluing beautiful, deep, rich colours of antique glass behind my bevels, giving them a jewel-like quality. This led to my contemporary bevelling style.
Carving, painting, and fusing soon followed. I loved the experimentation, being able to quickly test an idea by trial and error. When I look over my life’s work, the one thing that really stands out to me is the diversity of styles and techniques. I attribute this, in part, to how comfortable I am with dealing with the unknown and working with a variety of clients who have led me in different directions.
The studio makes commissions for clients across the USA.
Around 10 years ago, I began to renew my interest in the translucency of nature. I was also tired of wrapping each piece of glass in lead and foil, further restricting the light. I started introducing flame-working into my windows. I wanted to work in a painterly way, placing the flame-worked pieces onto the background glass and seeing how each piece of glass looked before permanently attaching the leaves and petals.
Wayne spent years perfecting his flameworking skills to add texture to his glass creations.
Flameworking was a slow, painful process to learn. If you count the time invested working over a flame, squeezing, mashing, and pulling a melting strip of glass, it was also a very expensive process. I know it took years of working in my spare time before I had the various shapes and colours, and a reasonable production time, to begin seeking commissions.
I remember showing a tour of 12-year-old students baskets of my flame-working rejects during a demonstration in my studio. For a second, I thought their eyeballs were going to fall into my collection.
With the ability to form delicate shapes and colours and to work in three dimensions, I was finally able to work in a way that I had envisioned 47 years before.
A wisteria window with whiplash branches and flameworked flowers.
Our latest innovation is creating branches with wire and solder and attaching them to the branches in our window design, adding even more depth to our windows. Suspending leaves and petals out on the ‘branches’ gives a realism that has exceeded all our expectations.
Greater realism is achieved with building up the solder to form trunks and branches on windows.
It is very difficult making a living as an independent artist/craftsperson. Some days, I feel like a corporation reduced down to one individual. It’s not only the expertise that must be constantly developed, but also the peripheral skills, like marketing, selling, website development, purchasing materials, making presentations, taxes, insurance, social media, communication, organisational skills, and working with the people who help us produce our art.
In the early days, people were very secretive about their work: “Don’t take photographs of my work”; “You stole that idea from me”. Now, for the most part, we live in a world where people freely share their ideas. Maybe not their closest secrets, or their client list, but there is an enormous amount of material available to everyone. I am especially fond of YouTube and specialist social media groups where one can share an experience and people from all over the world respond.
The Internet has made it possible for people to commission us from all over America. Working with photographs, email, postal service, and freight companies, we rarely have to leave our studio. This is a far cry from the days when we lugged around large portfolios and glass samples to meet with people who didn’t understand why a commission window cost more than $49.00.
The team works collaboratively: Wayne Cain, John Williams, Scott Graninger and Will White (Wayne’s grandson).
In my shop, everyone has the power of influence. If someone has an idea, a quick study is made, and we all share our thoughts. It is the same process I learned when finishing my bedroom. Thinking and doing, trial and error. Every line, every colour is carefully considered. We take risks – a lot of them – always hoping to discover something new.
We never use the word ‘mistake’. Our brains move so rapidly: we just know if something is not right. We work intuitively. There are billions of neurons in this three-pound organ between our ears, processing information in milliseconds. It is the “control tower” of our being, providing split-second insight that we often call creativity.
Wayne Cain letting his creativity flow on a new design.
In my studio, we harness this gift by giving it the time and space needed to function with the least amount of interference. Insights that take flight into the conscious are quickly written down and later transferred to a large sheet of pattern paper. From there, they find their place in the many categories and flowcharts we use to organise our work.
All of us in the studio work the same way. I may be the only one taking notes, but I am constantly listening and encouraging the free flow of ideas that provide the basis of our creativity. It is also the reason why everyone here deserves the right to sign each of our creations.
Flameworked flowers detail on a window for a residential property in Ohio.
Our working relationship has also given us a new language, one that is often unspoken, where thoughts are quickly communicated in many different ways. I often think of it as communicating in a negative space, like the negative space in a work of art: powerful once discovered.
I believe that working in this way is very human. This is the way we have evolved over thousands of years to manage a complicated, ever-changing world. It also accounts for our needs for diversity, community, and good communication skills.
The other trait I believe necessary to succeed as an artist/craftsperson is perseverance. There are certainly less difficult ways to make a living, and we are all too often seduced by easier jobs, higher pay, and benefits. But there is nothing as fulfilling as assuming responsibility for your own development, then making a living based on what makes you unique.
Written by Wayne Cain
Main feature photo: Wayne Cain applying flame worked flowers and leaves to a design.
The CGS is working with The Design Trust to offer a new course on Social Media for absolute beginners, with a 50% discount on the course fee for CGS members. (If you are not yet a member you can join up now).
So, if you want to learn more about how to use Facebook or Instagram, get more followers on Pinterest or dabble with TikTok, then this online course will help you to get started.
The sessions are run by Patricia van den Akker, the Director of The Design Trust and an award-winning creative business adviser, and her colleague Anne-Marie Shepherd. Anne-Marie is responsible for social media at The Design Trust and was the Marketing & Social Media Manager for Made, London’s contemporary craft fair.
The course comprises a series of four online sessions on Fridays 12th, 19th, 26th February and 5th March, each from 10am – 12.30pm (UK time). If you are unable to join these sessions live, they will be recorded and posted in a private hub that you can access until September 2021, enabling you to take the course at your own pace.
The sessions promise to be super practical, with clear, step-by-step instructions on how to get started, plus how to get followers and engagement (often more important!). It will also cover how to use these social media tools to increase your profile and credibility, plus drive traffic to your website to get more online sales and commissions.
As a CGS member you’ll get 50% off the regular price of this course, and only pay £75.00 (incl. VAT) – rather than £149.00 – for the entire course.
A tribute to the life and work of this influential architectural glass sculptor, by Keith Cummings.
The sad news of the death of the sculptor and teacher Harry Seager represents a great loss to all who knew him. He was an original, influential sculptor, teacher and mentor and, over an active working life of over 50 years, he touched many lives.
Although he used glass as a sculptural material in his glass and steel constructions some time before the studio glass movement was established, he provided an enduring example and benchmark for the generations of students who graduated from the glass courses which proliferated in his wake.
His pieces managed to be both monumental and playful at the same time. The sinuous, linear steel structures supported and shaped the precisely-cut glass sheets into rhythmic forms that belied their enormous weight and the great engineering expertise that went into them.
Born in Birmingham in 1931, Harry was initially drawn to science, but settled on art, and attended Birmingham School of Art to study sculpture. After college, and two years’ National Service, he began producing site-specific works for buildings in a variety of materials.
He became a lecturer at Stourbridge College of Art in 1961, teaching the new Fine Art course, and offering the new Diploma in Art and Design in 1967.
Harry started experimenting with sheet glass as a material in the early 1960s, drawing on the examples set by the Russian constructivists. Initially he used resins to bond sheets together, but graduated to complex steel armatures, which enabled works to be re-assembled and repaired.
He was represented by the Gimpel Fils gallery between the 1960s and the 1980s, which brought his work to an international audience, and much acclaim. He is also represented in many public and private collections, including the Victoria and Albert museum.
In his later years, he used glass more sparingly, working in a wide variety of materials and scales. He never lost his enthusiasm and love of life and people, which made him a delightful person to know.
He was busy in his studio to the end, leaving ambitious pieces unfinished when he was cut down by this cruel virus.
He loved his home and family and was married to his wife Marie for 58 years. He leaves her, their daughter Rebecca, and two grandchildren, Misty and Alice. Their beloved son Rueben pre-deceased him. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
By Keith Cummings
Photo: Harry Seager with one of his iconic layered glass sculptures, photographed by Lily Olley.
Six art works exploring new ways of engaging with the materiality of glass in the digital era have been commissioned as part of the ‘Glass, Meet the Future’ (GMTF) film festival 2021.
The seven artists awarded are Alison Lowry and Jayne Cherry (Northern Ireland), Flora de Bechi (Scotland), Griet Beyaert (England), Juli Bolaños-Durman (Scotland/Costa Rica), Madeline Rile Smith (USA) and Simone Fezer (Germany).
Their contributions will form part of the core GMTF schedule alongside new film entries, a publication and podcast.
Unique in approach, each project has been selected for its resonance with core human emotions and the intangible relationship with the material of glass and film.
Alison Lowry and Jayne Cherry’s work will reflect on the numerous State- and religious-run institutions that operated in Ireland between the 18th and late 20th centuries, incarcerating mothers and their children. Their collaborative, site-responsive work will be a visceral experience, using a glasswork as the investment object to provide a cognitive dissonance for the viewer.
Flora de Bechi’s work, entitled ‘Glass into the mould, light into the camera, body into space’ is rooted in research and experiences gathered whilst on residency at North Lands Creative in 2019. The film features a poetic imagining of the hollow space of the Grey Cairns of Camster as both a camera and mould. A digital artist’s book will accompany the work.
Griet Beyaert’s ‘Remote Glass Sound Workshop’ will explore the question, ‘What do you hear when you think about the future?’ This will later be realised as a short film and glass sound piece using the collaborative soundbite submissions of participants.
Juli Bolaños-Durman will explore how the visceral bond between the maker, community and material permeates the creative process, guiding it to become something raw and precious at the same time. Juli is interested to explore human curiosity and the instinctual need to play and create.
A performance-based work by Madeline Rile Smith will highlight communal acts of creation and collective action involving hot glass and textile-inspired processes. This unspoken film will document a story of social currency, communal effort, and interpersonal connection in the glass studio.
The performance work will form a narrative exploring The universal existence of structures and the interaction of human beings with them, their similarities and differences, and the connectedness of everything, will be the narrative behind a performance work of Simone Fezer. It will focus on restriction, adaptation, reflection, perspectives, and the complex layering of reality.
Speaking about the artists’ work selected for GMTF 2021, Karen Phillips, Director of North Lands Creative, said, “The festival commissions feel genuinely human, different and empathetic. It’s this fighting spirit and determination from the artists to gain back some cohesion that we can all resonate with right now.
“We are following what is happening all over the world related to Covid-19 and the impact it has on artists, the arts, the cultural landscape and to life globally. With physical mobility still on pause, in response we see proposals for solidarity arising. The six key commissions chosen have deep-reaching, hard-hitting, topical themes at the heart of their projects, and a COVID-19-adjacent element.
“Proving that out of adversity comes creativity, Glass, Meet the Future 2021, hopes to invite dialogue, prompt questions, and drive analysis and contemplation of life and the world as we know it, the artists commissions will be particularly interesting in the festival’s second year given the unique challenges and limitations faced by all.
“We are delighted that we could provide artists with the opportunity to produce new work covering a range of geographical areas, approaches and audiences.”
Supported through British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland as part of the UK in Japan and working alongside North Lands Creative, GMTF 2021 will deliver a programme of physical and online events taking place internationally throughout the year. Project partners are the Toyama Institute of Glass Art with Toyama Glass Art Museum in Japan and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.
Alongside the new commissioned work, GMTF 2021 will showcase a cross section of international diverse short films using glass as the predominant feature.
The Glass, Meet the Future Festival 2021 takes place from 20 March-4 April 2021, and continues in Japan in October 2021.
Leading glass artist and educator, Keith Cummings, pays tribute to one of the great innovators of the contemporary glass world.
Sam Herman, one of the major pioneers of the British Studio Glass movement, sadly died on 29 November 2020. As a maker, teacher and powerful apostle of hot glass forming, his influence on the development of the British Studio glass movement has been long lasting and truly revolutionary.
As one of the original students of Harvey Littleton’s glass course at the University of Madison-Wisconsin in the early 1960’s, he experienced first-hand the development of the small furnace at Wisconsin by Harvey Littleton and Dominic Labino. This allowed art students to actively shape the glass themselves, and to use glass as a genuinely creative studio material for the first time. It also placed glass in American colleges as a Fine Art material.
There were only a few courses in glass design at British art schools at this time, all of which saw glass as part of a strict design process in which students’ designs were realised by skilled, industrially trained craftsmen.
When Sam Herman came to Britain in 1966 (after graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Glass), bringing with him an exhibition of glass work by Wisconsin students, his impact during visits to Edinburgh, Stourbridge, and the Royal College of Art demonstrated both a new way of making and a new way of seeing glass as a vehicle for creative education. His personal example, and his refreshingly direct way of talking about his work, set in motion the entire first wave of British studio glass makers, including Pauline Solven, Karlin Rushbrooke, and George Elliott.
He was invited to teach at the Royal College of Art, becoming head of the glass department from 1967 to 1974, during which time he led the first group of students who were able to work hot glass from the new, Wisconsin-style furnaces.
In 1969 he helped to establish the Glasshouse in London which provided glass studios for rent, and also as an outlet for their work. His joint exhibition in 1971, with the jeweller Gerda Flöckinger in the Victoria and Albert Museum, further established his growing global reputation and signalled that studio glass in Britain had come of age.
He worked and exhibited across the world during his long, rich and productive life and career.
He was always unmistakably American in his strong, direct approach to teaching and making; he never stopped experimenting and encouraged his students to do the same. He nevertheless chose to settle in Britain, and remained a lifelong presence.
The recent book about him, edited by Rollo Campbell, with a foreward by the Marquess of Queensberry, is a fitting testament to his life and work.
By Keith Cummings
Feature image: Sam Herman, Free Blown Bottle (1971). 260mm high x 180mm wide. From Dan Klein & Alan J Poole’s collection, now at the National Museums of Scotland.
Art, craft and design exhibition organisers are finding new ways to overcome the limitations imposed by lockdowns and tier restrictions to bring art and design to buyers.
One solution is the Crafting a Difference show, taking place from 20 January until 2 April 2021, which is a physical exhibition that offers the option to view the gallery virtually from your computer.
Curated by Brian Kennedy, Crafting a Difference features five prestigious galleries showcasing over 200 works by 70 artists, displayed across five floors of SoShiro’s flagship London atelier, housed in a magnificent Marylebone townhouse.
Among those exhibiting is London’s Vessel Gallery, which is displaying work by a variety of top glass artists, including Baldwin & Guggisberg, Bethany Wood, Chris Day, Claire Malet, Enemark & Thompson, Fredrik Nielsen, James Lethbridge, Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert, Jo Taylor, Laura Hart, Liam Reeves, Maarten Vrolijk, Morten Klitgaard, Nina Casson McGarva and Vanessa Hogge.
Also featuring glass artists are the Ting Ying gallery, with collaborative work by Vezzini & Chen, plus pieces by Zhao Jinya, as well as the MADEINBRITALY gallery, which has mixed media work including glass by Rosa Nguyen.
The event has been orchestrated to coincide with the virtual fairs The London Art Fair and Collect 2021.
The SoShiro space, at 23 Welbeck Street, London W1G 8DZ, offers a mix of gallery-style rooms but also shows works placed within a home environment.
The exhibition is not only available to view online but has been filmed for viewing, offering a virtual, interactive tour as well. The hope is that, if restrictions are relaxed, the event will be able to open its doors for ‘exclusive by appointment’ in-person visits before it closes on 2 April.
View all works for sale and full exhibition catalogue
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Stourbridge College 1965?