Where did May go?

Not a single post last month and yet lots has been happening. I've acquired a drawing by Frank Brangwyn and I'm very pleased to own it. I think I haven't reported that I now edit Glass Circle News - am currently putting together the next edition on which this drawing will feature. Well, why not. It's all a very great deal of work and I think it is permissible to follow personal interests - while also keeping in mind what everybody else collects. The paperweight community is well-represented. Who would have thought the one in the picture below [(c) Bonhams] would sell for over £27,000:

Domaine de la Verriere

Here's a curiosity: a wine label indicative of an industry of glass-bottle-blowers probably in the Ventoux area. Of course, you wouldn't blow a bottle like this, but it's rather quaint all the same. Brought to us in a bottle of rose by friends who'd been overwintering in the Luberon.

As for personal glass-making news; it's all a bit sotto voce at the moment. Gallery sales slow. Nothing cheering happening. And I can't post up the picture of myself with Prince Andrew at the opening of the RNOH because of protocol.

Patrick Reyntiens

A hilarious evening at Glaziers Hall for a fund-raising event to make a documentary on Patrick Reyntiens - here he is demonstrating how he paints on glass. Drunk as a Lord and enjoying every minute of being centre of attention. At 84 or so you had to admire his spirit and energy - though I didn't buy one ofhis pieces as I found them too primitive. Two more measured presentations about working with him and influences from Graham Jones and Danny Lane. Inspiring in many ways.

Wineglasses - technical drawing

I am now the proud owner of this drawing by Frank Brangwyn. It's for glasses made by Whitefriars Glasshouse and I love it. I've got enough wineglasses really so here's a new collecting possibility. I'd like to track down one real glass made from these designs, but it is proving really quite difficult - no one seems to know where to find them. Possibly only one set might have been made and it could be languishing in anyone's collection.

Gallery on Holland's Rhine

This is how they do private views in Holland: a bag of goodies for each of the 7 exhibitors from England (all of whom were there) containing Advokaat, an Edam cheese and chocolate hazelnut Easter eggs. Sales were slow but lots of collectors came and two were very interested in my work and the local paper chose a picture of my blue tippy egg for its review. At the Aventurijn Gallery till 24 April.

Glass Sea

I'm just trying out how to embed a video. Let's see what happens.

Sea of Glass from Sean Vicary on Vimeo.

Alembic

Seen at the Science Museum at an exhibition of what the west has learned from Islam in a scientific context. This, one-of-the-oldest surviving alembics from Iran in 10th to 12th century, gave us medicine and distillation. The glass is so weathered it looks like silver. One for my erosion collection.

Wineglasses

These are mine, though not in the woblet range, being professionally done with my blanks and to my design. A bit too large, in fact. However, they had an airing at dinner last night and one of the guests wants to order some. The economics aren't in my favour, but I am still obsessed by wineglasses so I want to do it.

Packaged and ready to go

Two of the new pieces going to Holland. I didn't get into another London show I'd applied for. Wish I didn't get cast down by these little knocks - you have to put yourself out there and be prepared to win some and lose some.

Two months unrecorded

I don't know what happened to December and January. Lots of glass things one way and another. Perhaps I felt deflated after the installation in thehospital, but still busy glassing. Two new pieces - one's going to an exhibition in Holland (with 7 other pieces and 7 other glass artists) next month at the Aventurijn Kunstbemiddeling in the Eastern Netherlands, and the other is going to SOFA in New York in April. The perfume choker is getting its first London showing tonight at Heavenly Scent, after dramas getting it back from Barcelona and Madrid. Recent news includes being appointed Editor of Glass Circle News and elected as a Brother of the ArtWorkers’ Guild. So although two months have slipped by unblogged, they have not been idle.

Consulting rooms

One of the pictures in the consulting rooms at the hospital. Most are in the more restful blue tones, but I rather like this one and wouldn't mind somehow acquiring a copy. I wonder what the first patients, entering the room next Monday, will think.

Installation day

This morning:


This afternoon:

the second one is quite close to my design visualisation

Getting out of the lifts:
1st floor
ground floor
lower ground

And the champagne is on ice.
Framed close-ups from my glass are going into the consulting rooms, but I haven't seen those yet.

Rainbows over Bodmin Moor

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.


cf 2 October 2006 (rainbow over the South Downs);3 September 2005 ('Rainbow over Istanbul', scroll down) and 29 September 2004 (rainbow over Malvern Hills). Can't find the 2007 and 2008 ones but I know they were there.

Chase Auction

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.

Echoes in Ely

Two charming details from panels at the Stained Glass Museum in Ely Cathedral (a wonderful eyeful in itself, glowing in autumn sunlight as we arrived and then bathed in magical lighting as we left). Top: a 1930s artist (silly not to take the name down) and a sweet little medieval rebec-player - illicitly snapped. Fun looking at glass with other glass-makers, because each of us saw something to share with others and knowing about the techniques involved made it a richer experience. Very nice to get up close to stained glass windows as well. Earlier in the day we'd agreed to hold another Glass Echoes exhibition in September 2011: venue as yet undecided. We'll somehow contrive to keep the echo theme.

at Windows

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:

pink Pommery champagne
amuse bouche of butternut squash mousse with parmesan froth

J: oysters with cucumber, ginger & ponzu dressing
S: seared scallops, pumpkin purée, pomegranate, wild chickory, smoked bacon and maple vinaigrette

J: venison on a bed of stranded Savoy cabbage, potato mash swirls and delicious sauce
S: pigeon with beetroot mash and other bits
a very good Rhône (their cheapest at £27

pear tarte tatin for 2 (enough for 4)
Sauternes
coffee with petits fours

an anniversary platter of chocolates (which we took home)

idfx magazine

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.

Reception piece finalised

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.

Koukan take down

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.

Artists' talks

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.'