European Glass 1

With my family living overseas, it's only natural that we've visited Europe regularly and especially since I started my glass studies, I've been making an effort to visit as much glass events, galleries and studio's as possible, when I'm there.

When we were there a few years ago, we took our children to Venice. For us (hubby and I) it was like coming full circle, as we had been here on our honeymoon. We have a small glass piece of a man/woman embrace (about 20cm high) that we bought from the glass blowers on Murano.

Murano glass embrace.

It was my (our) first experience of a hot shop. Looking back after all these years , the work that those glass blowers do is far removed from the glitz and glam of renowned glass artists.

The number of "workhorses" far outweighs the number of famous glass maestro's like the Lino Tagliapietra's of this world, who wows audiences around the world with his virtusos technique and understanding of the traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques. He has been a king pin in a new renaissance in glassblowing and contemporary studio glassmaking and has been pivotal in helping to raise the international standards of glass craftsmanship.

For the normal workers,glass blowing on a popular tourist island like Murano it's a cut throat business. There are many hot shops and glass studios on the island and they all vie for business: the more people visit YOUR hotshop for a demonstration, the more people will possibly buy YOUR souvenirs. And there are just so many hot shops one will visit ! These people work for hard earned bread and butter and have to turn out the same little souvenirs over and over again. The Tourist industry is a great job creator.

While we were there with the family, we wanted a souvenire just like any other tourist, but couldn't afford something really spectacular. So eventually we decided on one of the typical tourist souvenirs that are made with the millions in Venice: the Murano Glass Sweets. We all chose a personal favourite and they're a reminder of a family holiday with a difference.

Chihuly

Chihuly - the biggest name in the development of modern studio glass and definitely the deciding factor to pursue a dream of working with warm glass.

mint museum

My family still lives oveseas and when we planned a visit at the end of my last year of my studies, I was totally excited to see that our visit would coincide with the exhibition:

My children and I crossed the channel (our families live in Belgium and hubby stayed) and while my 2 sons decided to paint London red, my daughter and I set off by train to Kew to see my "idol's" work in real life!

Even though the weather was typical English (wet and misty), it was the experience of a lifetime to walk through the spectacular installations and feel like a kid looking for colourfull Easter eggs between the greenery of the conservatories.

Networking in the Glass world

Networking : that should be the most important word in anybody’s vocabulary: to connect with people who share similar interests, who can in turn introduce you to other people in the industry.
During that particular year, a fusing glass course was offered in Cape Town and I knew this was a perfect networking opportunity. The course was organised by South African glass artist Nelius Britz of the Edge – Cape Glass Studio (left) and renowned Dutch glass artist Frank van den Ham (right) was presenter, teacher, artist all in one.

The course didn’t only touch on the design aspect of creating beautiful glass pieces, but shed serious light on the technical side. Frank elaborated on the crucial importance of knowing the technical and chemical properties of glass and how the different glass melting processes determine the final product. Sometimes it felt like being at school again in physics class.

Before and after a full fuse and slump, with a clear change in colour. Knowing the properties of the glass you use is imperative to the final result.

We went through the different processes of tack fusing, full fuse, drop mould, etc. The variety of glass enthusiasts attending revealed itself in the range of different glass items that were made.

After that year I kept in contact with the studio, even though the distance between our towns makes it a bit more difficult to attend exhibitions on a regular basis and “network”.

Glass expression

I passed my 3rd year (diploma) in Fine Art at NMMU and was allowed to start my Btech degree: all focus on the glass work and a dissertation to write about it.

The most difficult point was determining an overall topic, that could be explored and developed into a portfolio of work. The process to reveal underlying thoughts and sources of interest and inspiration was a revelation in itself and I sincerely enjoyed digging deeper into my inner person. Seeing that a great part of my life I have worked with words, letters and text I eventually chose that as foundation for my Btech work. I was greatly inspired by Willem Boshoff, who creates installations based on many aspects of language and usage of words.

Most of the other students decided on a theme and all the work for that year was either one elaborate, complex piece or a series of variations on the same theme. Early on I decided that – because I still wanted to keep experimenting with various techniques – I wanted to apply these techniques in various, but totally independent works.

These were the projects that I planned:

• "A Touching story": a Braille project : the tactile format of reading and communication
• "Palimpsest": a historical project: with reference to bygone era’s and old parchments
• "Ambigrams": a fun project: small glass jewellery with decorative word designs
• "Food for thought" : the wisdom of words and a connection between food and the mental state of the human being.
  

"A Touching Story"

Recalling the phase of experimenting with slumping glass in the previous year, I realised that the texture of slumped glass was very tactile and my thought process brought me to the world of Braille where the understanding of language is totally by touch and feel. I communicated with the local blind association for advice regarding the best suited text for the project. I decided on:
“ There is a wonder about reading Braille that the sighted will never know: to touch words and have them touch you back”by Jim Fiebig.

I made it into a 4 part wall installation with the complete text sandblasted (for the sighted), the same text in Braille (slumped panels), and a decorative acid etch graphic lay out with the main key words: “wonder of touching words”. I eventually installed it at the local Blind association as a gift.

"Palimpsest"

Palimpsest = old parchment that has been rubbed out and cleaned, ready for the next text to be written, but shadows linger from the previous text.
This was a beautiful project to focus on a church ruins in our town and the history it entailed. I decided to make it into a light column as a allusion of the church as a beacon for the community. Silver stains and oxides gave the glass its brown weathered look. The elements on the pillar were a combination of historical remnants of the building, reference to its name and the connection to bible text and symbology. Some parts were separately fused pieces, that were attached with uv glue.

"Ambigrams"

The fun jewellery was inspired by a fascination of the graphic design aspect of ambigrams: is a graphical rendering that spells out one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation. Even though, in the end, this project had the least satisfying final result, the design of the words was great fun.

"Food for thought"

I wanted to make bowls with quotes / text but the particular texts needed to make a link between food (the bowls) and words (as the subject matter and in a deeper sense referring to the human ability to think and experience). Living in the Eastern Cape I also decided that I wanted to make one in each of the 3 official languages of this area: English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.

• English: Born and bred in the Eastern Cape, it was only fitting to use a quote of Nelson Mandela referring to the mental as well as the physical needs and rights of the people.
• Afrikaans: an exerpt of a poem of renowned Afrikaans poet Elizabeth Eybers. She was the first Afrikaans poet I read and I used passages of various of her poems on the birth announcements of my three children.
• Xhosa is the most prominent indigenous language in the Eastern Cape and the proverb makes the comparison between an unexpressed mind and the inability to judge the inside of a fruit, just by looking at it.
  

I truly enjoyed this project and on the spur of the moment decided to expand the bowl series and made another few. While the first 3 were a combination of fusing, slumping, a detail painted in oxides, acid etching and sandblast, the expanded series was only done with acid etch and sandblasting onto a slumped bowl.

I enjoyed this year and learned not only about various techniques, but also about thinking and finding deeper meaning for what I can do with glass.

Glass techniques united

Once we were more proficient in the various glass techniques, we were encouraged to start thinking about a project where we could combine all we had learnt so far.
Because I feel it as a waste of time to just randomly make something, the proposed project needed to make sense to me.
Far from being an accomplished glass artist with potential exhibitions to work towards, I had to find a way to make this meaningful for me and assure that it wouldn’t end up in a corner gathering dust.
That’s when I decided to get my inspiration from familiar territory: my family.
I compromised to combine all the newly acquired techniques in the still traditional format of a leaded window and ultimately made 3 circular windows with distinct focus area’s.

The central window: our current life – combination of past and present

• Central panel includes all our initials and excerpts of texts of our wedding ceremony and our children birth announcements. Techniques: texture slump, acid etch, gold paint.
• First circle: very abstract reference to quirky attributes in my husband’s and mine personalities in context of our present life. Techniques: tack fuse and sandblast.
• Second circle: reference to some of our cultural background with reproductions of sepia postcards of historical towns where we grew up and abstraction of lace patterns. Stains, oxide and acid etch.
• Outer circle: a modern twist on family life. In the fashionable Zen tradition and everything Eastern : kiln casted and tack fused pieces with Eastern symbols representing family values like respect, honour, love, etc.

The window to the left: reference to my husband’s and my background

• Central panel: a fused map from the area where we come from, with reproductions of stamps, done in silver stains and oxides, to refer to important dates and places in our lives. Some relief details were etched with hydrofluoric acid.
• Outside circle: Acid etch, sandblasting and a few details with gold paint. These small sections refer respectively, in an abstract, ornamental fashion, to the music of our wedding and one of the cultural legacies of our country of origin: lace.
  
  

  

The window on the right: concentrated on our children

• Central panel : as this was a combination of trial pieces of the first term, I had a duplicate of the central panel in the middle window and decided to repeat it in another one.
• First circle: fragments of my children’s fingerprints rendered in both oxides and sandblasting.
• Outer circle : an ornamental jumble of all the letters that constitute my children’s names. Techniques: stains and oxides and acid etch.

  

Although this project still has plenty technical mistakes it was, in the true sense of the word, a labour of love and gave me the opportunity to reflect on all that is important in my life.