1st floor
ground floor
lower ground
Regular readers of this blog will have noted that each autumn, at the start of each glass year, I have seen a rainbow. This time, while glassblowing in Cornwall, I saw two. A good omen, I thought. Some chunky stuff sits in the lehr annealing for 4 days and I have hopes that there are some winners in this lot. I can't go to Cornwall again until I make some serious sales.
This vase sold at the auction in aid of a children's hospice. Interesting because now both my 'pinch-edged' vases have sold, even though as we were making them we thought they weren't completely working. I like the idea of hand-shaping the contours of a vessel, but realistically I think one would have to make a shaping jig to do it evenly. And that just isn't financially viable.
Anything that has a glass connection has a place in this blog. That could be just about everything, but I have to have some limitations. I think Galvin at Windows counts (just as Murano did). 28th floor of the Hilton and we sat at the window for out 40th anniversary of the day we met. And had: 
I'm in an article on recycled glass in November's idfx magazine - not a journal I know, but it looks worth getting. I wonder if I will get any approaches as a result of it. Good publicity - in theory. And I told the journalist about Zest - which shares the page - so that's nice. Not sure either of us would have known about the article if I hadn't asked. Also it's a shame a magazine on design doesn't credit the photographer.
This is now the final arrangement of the 17 disks (representing the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae) for the RNOH reception desk. We spent an afternoon yesterday tweaking, moving, adjusting the curves and swapping some over to get the right balance. It will now be marked up for these exact positions, the glass carefully removed, then the stainless steel will be sandblasted and brushed to a silky sheen, reassembled (protecting against scratches) and the glass cleaned and gently silicone-fixed into the clips. Then it will be disassembled again and packed ready for installation on 22 November. I can't wait. Now it's getting so close, I just want to have the whole thing safely delivered and handed over.
When I arrived to take down the exhibition, I was convinced it had all been to no avail, but the gallery owner gently guided me round and said, Would I like to see all my red dots? What red dots?, I said. And she, with a face like the cat who's got the cream, showed me 5 dots and spaces where something had been removed and sold. I couldn't have been more astonished.
We did our artists' talks yesterday to a crowded (! huh) room of about 10. I redeployed some of the PowerPoint I'd done at Zest - which at least interested the gallery owner, so maybe just worth doing. A passer-by actually enquired about Hamlet's goblet (my giant wine glass which is in the window) and said he'd come back. But I don't believe he will. One just has to think, 'You never know. If you don't put yourself out there nothing happens.'
Here's one of Gudawer's photographs of glass details - he's slightly manipulated this one. We've printed up 20 A4-sized prints of different ones to have in the gallery to attract some of the architectural clientele. I'm sure there's a lot of potential in these if one could just find a designer wanting to fill large white walls with some colour and verve.
The good news is that one of my pieces taken by a gallery in Corning has sold. The bad news is that my duo show at the Koukan Gallery opened yesterday and only 4 of my invitees came. Nothing sold for either of us. The good news is that I swapped these fine earrings for one of my pieces on show. I would have done this anyway, but it was a nice venue for seeing my work. The not-so-bad news is that I didn't sell at Art London, though much admired, they told me.
Last night was the private view of Art London - very champagne and Chelsea set. I have two pieces on the Zest stand and I don't suppose I'll have many opportunities to exhibit in the same space as the likes of John Piper, Elizabeth Frink and Damien Hirst. So it's quite nice. There was nothing on show I would truly have liked to own and some of the prices were goggle-worthy. A lot of meticulously executed still-lifery.
The Contemporary Glass Society conference was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was autumnally beautiful - shame not be indoors really. However, the theme was architectural glass and I found it inspiring and informative with good speakers and lots of information and chat. Didn't take many pictures, but one I did take was (illicitly) at the Park's special exhibition on Peter Randall-Page because his sketchbooks were inspirational and prolific. I work in a different way, though I sometimes think the real artist sketches all the time, which I don't. The other pic shows painting using the effects of colour on smashed glass.
I have been invited to be in two exhibitions in Europe this week. In November/December my jewellery will be part of a large recycling project in Madrid's Moda Shopping Centre; and in March/April next year as part of a small group exhibiting at the Aventurijn Gallery (left) which specialises in contemporary glass art in Eastern Netherlands. Both invitations came this week. And today the Koukan Gallery confirmed that they'd like me again for a duo show in October - though I do rather feel it's a bit soon after Zest and I'm not sure it is wise to do it.
We've just spent 5 days in Copenhagen where we saw quite a bit of glass, but my cameraman didn't click any of it except these rather nice bowls seen in a gallery in one of the main streets. Although we thought it an expensive city, the glass and furniture in this shop didn't seem hors de combat. I forget what these cost, but they seemed reasonable. I wonder if we don't price 
ourselves out of the market in the UK.
