The first lamp shade I created. Every lamp has a story to tell and this one has a particularly happy ending…
When I was researching whether to set up my stained glass business at the end of 2012, I came across a call for entries to a glass exhibition on the Contemporary Glass Society website. Particularly exciting for me was that the show would be held at Blackwell The Arts & Crafts House in Cumbria, UK. I had visited this beautiful venue a few years previously and loved the setting overlooking Lake Windermere and all the delightful interior details created by masters of the Arts & Crafts Movement over 100 years ago. Somehow, discovering this opportunity to exhibit my work there seemed like a sign to go ahead with the business. Entries had to be designed to fit with the house, so I set about designing ‘Marbellous’, which you see here. My use of traditional techniques (almost unchanged since they were first used by the world-renowned Tiffany Studios in the USA in the Victorian era for their stunning light shades) and my love of creating unique works in glass inspired me to keep going through the painstaking process of applying copper foil around each of the 500+ clear glass marbles and 200+ individually cut white glass pieces. When it came to the ‘tinning’ stage of the process, I had to hold each marble in pliars because of the heat from the soldering iron, to apply a coat of solder around each one. I spent a long time scrabbling around under the table for marbles that had been dropped and rolled off all over the floor. But still I persisted, seeing the design build gradually over two weeks.
Finally it was finished and I sent my photo in to the renowned judging panel, including the Curator of Glass and Ceramics at the V & A Museum, London, and the Chair of the Contemporary Glass Society. As a brand new company, I had nothing to lose… And as it turned out, all the hard work was rewarded when Marbellous was accepted from hundreds of entries for a place in the prestigious ‘New Glass – Ancient Skill, Contemporary Artform’ exhibition. It was a fantastic feeling to have my work on show amid the designs of Victorian artists and designers whose names are still known worldwide today. And to have the validation of some of the top experts in the glass world.
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