MA Private View

A view of the gallery looking towards the two glass graduands. I wasn't impressed by the general standard of the show: one or two really interesting bits of work, but only a very few really sang out for me. No sense of group vibrancy. I thought it was an unfortunate time of year to hold it as I doubt that many gallery owners would have trogged down to Farnham for the event. But apparently record numbers came to the PV.

Having a blow

First puff in the hotshop yesterday after a 6-week gap. I thought it would be like playing the violin - all out of practice, but I got onto a good roll from the beginning and was boxing cups and stems without a hitch until the last two fell on the floor. Quite heartening, though, as I still have another year to practice in and I should be able to achieve a matching set of 18 goblets in that time.

Another one of these

Trouble is - people see something you've made and then they want one like it. This is now my third coloured lenses piece. All different, it is true, and each one solving the technicalities of fixing in a slightly better way than the last. The effect is quite pretty. But I'm bored of them. It's a tricky problem: as a craftsman you want to establish an identity and style, but you don't want to churn out the same things all the time.

Mirrored glass and greenhouses

These mirrored blown glass bricks by Pae White (1963) in an exhibition at Tate St Ives yesterday may have been lodged somewhere when I saw the greenhouse in Pymouth finally built. A challenge I saw was to hide this fence outside. Sand-blasted grasses on mirror glass was my first thought.

The sea, the sea

There was something glassy about the way these waves crashed
against the quai at St Ives. The tinned green of float

And here's a bit of mirror in Barbara Hepworth's studio and sculpture garden in which my companion and I are both taking photos of each other. Good to see this so soon after the same at Henry Moore's home. So cramped compared to his palatial spaces.

Japanese craftsmanship

Not a very good picture of this rather strange glass covered container by Ishida Watari (Japanese National Treasure exhibiting at the Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan exhibition). It's made of
pâte de verre, with an incised regular pattern which I imagine is cut into the mould before packing it with glass. Incredibly delicate and exquisite craftsmanship that I just know I can never match up to. Apologies to the artist for taking this picture (don't think I should have) but I can't see that it matters. I couldn't copy it even if Iwanted to - and I don't. Only one out of 3 pieces in the exhibition.

Other glass sightings

I forgot to log my visit to the Wellcome Trust collection during the St Pancras patch of time. Inspirational shapes in Wellcome's own collection of medicine glassware. And a full room of art inspired by science which I want to return to - 4th pic shows a plastinated slice through a body showing extraordinary patterns created by body fluids. My thoughts are already turning to the next project: further explorations into bone structures expressed in glass.

Knole

Back to the mundane after all the excitement of participating in an exhibition. A window of no special note noted at Knole on a beautiful summer Saturday on our way to Glyndebourne. There were also some rather lovely glass bellarmine-shaped bottles.

Exhibition over

They told me not to blog this picture - but when did I ever do as I was told? In the end it seemed the only suitable choice; the curator and the committee at the end of the take-down day just about to close the gates to the Crypt Gallery, tired, a bit anti-climactic, but on balance quite pleased with the way it had all gone. We think Glass Echoes was a successful exhibition. Must have had about 1000 visitors, many of them passers-by - with quantities of positive comments in our visitor's book. It was a very great deal of work, but very much worth doing. Who knows what might come of it?

Glass Echoes - a virtual tour

These 5 are copyright to Rex Features who came and took some professional photos of the artists with their work. From the top: Sisters series; Grey flower; Sailing to Byzantium; Dust to dust; Peggy.

And these 4 are copyright of Quimei Guo (fellow artist pictured at the top) and show: Fragile link; Stalactite; Bag Lady and Untitled. It's not the whole show - as there were 29 items on display, but enough to give a flavour of the space and its inhabitants.

Vertebrae

Me knocking the bronze at Henry Moore's sculpture garden at his home in Perry Green. This is called Vertebrae and he had quite a collection of bones (including a massive elephant's skull) from which he drew inspiration. Made me feel like a bit of a dabbler in the face of such prodigious energy and talent. A beautiful sunny Sunday with a delightful picnic with family and friends as well.

The Private View

Here I am at the PV of Glass Echoes with the piece installed. Not lit as I would have liked it. But it looked ok. People said nice things. The evening went well and I think we all felt quite proud to have achieved it all - though there were some disappointments along the way. But the plusses outweigh the minusses and that's the main thing. Below, the caryatids on the erechtheion at the entrance to the gallery welcoming our throng. We used all 360 wineglasses I suggested we got and some packets of plastic cups. So a good crowd. Pix on a better camera are coming.

Installing my installation

Here I am in the Crypt (St Pancras Church) installing Cryptical. The exhibition opens today and some pictures of the whole show will follow.