Glass in the Gardens @Sculpture in Context 2014

Benjamin Just, 'Bonsai Model', Glass Wood Pvc, 20x40x10

Hard as it is to believe that a whole year has gone by since I told you about ‘GLASS GALORE @Sculpture in Context2013' - I’m delighted to say that we have done it again and glass art is once more making a big impression at Ireland’s largest and most prestigious annual outdoor sculpture event Sculpture in Context.

Madeleine Hellier, 'Jinny Joe, Jinny Joe Bring me back an Egg', Engraved Watch Faces

Gracing the gardens and glasshouses Dublin’s Botanical Gardens every September/October since 2002 this exhibition features over 150 pieces from both Irish and International artists.There is always fantastic variety with works in all mediums from both established and emerging artists. 

We have counted an amazing fifteen lovely pieces made with glass this year.

 Here's the list of their creators:  

Gwyn Grace, 'Bog Sundew Tentacles', Glass

Benjamin Just

Eva Kelly

Gwyn Grace

Lisa Sarsfield

Madeleine Hellier

Mags O'Dea

Margaret Tuffy 

Merce Canadell

Rose Sinclair-Doyle

Sadhbh Mowlds

Michelle Maher

Susan Cuffe

Rose Sinclair-Doyle, 'Past Whisper', Glass, 35x25x8

Margaret Tuffy, 'Small Breaths', Blown Glass

Continuing the theme of glassy excellence, I'm delighted to report that one of the three cash prizes for an Outdoor Work of Distinction in Any Medium’ was awarded to Merce Canadell, a final year student in the National College of Art and Design glass department, for her piece Embracing Water. Her cast glass piece is partly submerged in the water feature in one of the greenhouses where the running water makes the sculpture glisten and seem to come alive. (Though you should obviously try to see it in person – there is a great shot of it at the end of this short youtube video).

Merce Canadell, 'Embracing Water', Cast Glass, 150x40x35

Some returning stars from last year’s exhibition are recent NCAD graduates Gwyn Grace, Mag’s O’Dea (who was awarded a prize last year) and Sadhbh Mowlds (The GSoI Prize winner at the RDS awards this year). The NCAD students are ones to be watched in this exhibition for sure!

Sadhbh Mowlds, 'The Good People', Blown Enamelled Glass Wood

Mags O'Dea, 'Nurturing The Seed Within', Blown Glass, 10x10x26 

Another familiar face from last years show is Eva Kelly - whose mixed media piece 'Buried Treasure' features some very sweet cast glass dog bones. Well done also to Benjamin Just, who has not one but two glass pieces chosen for this years exhibition.

Benjamin Just, 'Tree Rings', Glass, 40x10x10

Eva Kelly, 'Buried Treasure', Cast Glass and Mixed Media, 25x19x10

Sculpture in Context 2014 at The National Botanical Gardens will run till 17 October 2014. Admission is free and it's a great visit for all the family to enjoy. Opening times are 9-5 weekdays and 10-6 weekends and bank holidays. Free tours of the exhibition every Tuesday 10.30am - 11.30am and every Saturday 3pm - 4pm. Full programme of all  the artists and works is available at reception. More details and contact info see their website. 

Lisa Sarsfield, 'Accumulate I', Acetate Silk Glass, 10x30x25

Written by Meadhbh McIlgorm

Photos by Eva Reddy 

GSoI Dublin Events 17th of June _ #chihulysses

To celebrate the arrival of Dale Chihuly in Dublin, the GSoI is hosting a number of events in the city on June 17^th to coincide with his lecture and exhibition of the ‘Ulysses Cylinders’ at Dublin Castle. 

We hope that our satellite events will encourage even more of you to come and make a day of this event. Follow #chihulysses on facebook and twitter to keep up with events as they happen. 

After the lecture at Dublin Castle we will also be hosting an informal get-together with drinks, food and a small glass display for anyone interested at Bagots Hutton Bar (28 South William Street, 15min walk away from Dublin Castle) which will be a lovely chance to catch up with old friends and maybe make some new ones. 

 Here’s what will be happening on the day:

Historical Glass at the National Museum of Decorative Arts

Debbie Dawson will lead a group around the Visible Storage section of Collins’ Barracks. Debbie will look at the historical collection which consists of Irish, American and European glass dating from the 18th to the 20th Century. Traditional collecting centered on the industrial manufacture of Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Waterford in the late 18th to mid 19th Century. Debbie will also discuss the important collection of high quality Irish/Irish-related contemporary works that were purchased in association with the Crafts Council of Ireland.

The stained glass windows of St. Teresa’s Church

Peadar Lamb will give a talk on the series of stained glass windows in St. Teresa’s Church on Clarendon Street, Dublin. The stained glass windows date back to the 1960’s; some of which were executed by the Abbey Stained Glass Studio. In 1989 a series of windows for the nave were commissioned and executed by Irish artist Phyllis Burke. The windows depict scenes ranging from of the Resurrection to portrayals of various saints.

The Blaschka Collection at the Museum of Natural History

Emma Bourke will lead a tour of the Blaschka glass models of sea creatures in the Museum of Natural History. This unique collection of Blaschka glass is one of the largest in the world and is still displayed in its original 19th century cabinets Researcher of Blaschka glass and trained as a scientific lampworker, Emma has an intuitive understanding of this work. At 3pm she will lead a group up to the restricted third floor balcony, where she will explain the importance of these pieces to our national collection, the creation of the work and the restoration of the exhibits. Spaces are limited on this tour so registration is essential to be guaranteed a space, contact emma.glasssocietyofireland@gmail.com to reserve a space. 

COLLECT London 2014

Kari Hakonsen - blown, cut and polished glass

Earlier this month London’s Satchi Gallery was once again home to ‘The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects’, better known to everyone as ‘Collect’. A weekend trip across the pond to London is a bit of an extravagance for most at this busy time of year but since I’m now living a short(ish) train journey away I thought I’d share some of this year’s glassy highlights with you.

One of the very first exhibits featured Scandinavian glass work, including this beautiful transparent blown glass by Kari Hakonsen. Glass is never the most represented material at craft shows like this but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality (then again maybe we’re just biased). 

Steffan Damn

Some familiar names from the UK and elsewhere pop up every year at collect: Danish artist Steffen Dam and his impossibly realistic hot sculpted jellyfish jars still fascinate me even more now I know how many stages and intricate processes creating them requires. Katherine Coleman, one of the best known glass engravers in the UK had some of her beautiful, optical vases on display and across the room another big name on in UK glass, Burno Romanelli showed some super precise and expertly polished kiln work.
  

Katharine Coleman - wheel-engraved crystal

Bruno Romanelli - Kilncast and polished glass

Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of an Irish glass representation this year. To the best of my knowledge we can only claim Dubliner Edmond Bryne, who is now based in the UK, as the sole Irish glass participant. Edmond, represented by the FLOW gallery, displayed a number of his signature textured mould-blown forms.  Inside the catalogue cover was Scott Benefield’s familiar canework advertising the Scottish Gallery but the actual work was not on display. 

Edmond Byrne 

Scott Benefield occupying the first page of the catalogue

Pia Raeymaekers 

Chantal Delporte 

'The Flanders Gallery' featured some interesting work from Belgian glass artists Pia Raeymaekers and Chantal Delporte. I thought Chantal’s work was particular interesting; she seems to be using pate-de-verre and lost-wax casting to create very detailed, natural looking forms. On some of them the frit seems to blend into the solid cast glass, creating an impressive mix of texture on the one sculpture. I would love to know how she does it.

Niyoko Ikuta - cut and laminated sheet glass 

One of my favourite pieces was from Japanese glass artist Niyoko Ikuta. Made of cut and laminated sheet glass, it caught the light beautifully and provided an interesting view from all angles. 

Niyoko Ikuta  (front view)

Some exhibits at 'The Gallery' at London Glassblowing 

The vast majority of the glassworks on show were shown in special exhibit from The National Glass Centre and ‘The Gallery’ at London Glassblowing. There were far more delightful objects on show than I could even photograph. As always there were some fantastic examples of contemporary jewellery in a huge variety of materials, ceramics ranging from the sculptural to the functional, metalwork, finely crafted wood, textiles and so much more. I really recommend a visit next year for inspiration and visual delights abound and with any luck maybe there’ll be a few more familiar pieces from our friends and members too! 

Louis Thompson - DNA Markers: Thermodynamics hot

London Glassblowing's exhibition space 

Written by Meadhbh McIlgorm
GSoI Media Officer 

Glass Art Society Conference Chicago 2014

Richard Royal Demo

Coming from NCAD’s glass programme in Dublin, I was excited about the opportunities that going on student exchange at Southern Illinois University would bring. One of these opportunities was to attend the annual Glass Art Society Conference, held this year in Chicago. The conference ran from March 19-22 and was hosted across a few venues in Chicago. The lectures took place in the Palmer House Hotel near Chicago’s busiest area, the Loop. Demonstrations from artists took place in Ignite Glass Studios and West Supply Glass Studio. I had the fortune to stay at the Palmer House with the students from Southern Illinois University; I already knew this would be the nicest hotel I would stay in for a long time! Day one began with a welcome note, Lifetime Achievement Lecture and the Keynote Address in the Grand Ballroom of the Palmer House. What a beautiful surrounding for some great talks! Demonstrations were held during the latter part of the day in West Supply and Ignite Glass Studios. Marc Petrovic demonstrated his iconic birds in West Supply while Richard Royal tested the capacity of the glory holes in Ignite with a massive glass ball.  The opening reception was held in the Grand Ballroom later that night, with delicious signature food and punch from the Palmer House served on silver platters, no expense was spared!

Karren's lecture 

It was an early start for the second day of the Glass Art Society Conference in Chicago. The Emerging Artists talks are often one of the most popular lectures at the conference and this year was no exception, the room was filled with early birds. Jiyong Lee, currently on the Board of Directors for the Glass Art Society, and head of the Glass programme at Southern Illinois University introduced the three speakers; Steven Ciezki, Charlotte Potter and our very own Karen Donnellan. Karen, the only Irish speaker at the conference, received her Bachelor of Design from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Glass, her Master of Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York State and is currently aArtist in Residence at NCAD. Karen begins her presentation with “Dia daoibh”, a friendly Irish phrase for my Irish ears.  She apologises for the early start as there were a few tired heads from the opening reception held the night before, but nevertheless looking bright-eyed herself. She explains that she is a qualified Reiki practitioner. The influence this has in her work becomes apparent as the lecture continues.  When Karen was an undergrad, she also participated in a student exchange at Southern Illinois University.  She discusses the work she developed there based on Chakras and shapes associated with feelings of being grounded and low centres of gravity.  Karen admits that colour for her was a language she used freely at an undergraduate level, but whilst studying in RIT she challenged herself not to use colour and thus found a new language in texture and form.  This language can very much be seen in the work that follows.  Her work has a meditative quality. Donnellan discussed how she signified this in her work 21 Days: this being the required timeframe to complete the healing process in Reiki cleansing.

Karen Donnellan 21 Days

Quite refreshingly, Donnellan shows a video of some glass-making processes, the audio of ringing solfeggio tuning forks filled the room, uninterrupted by any audience member. Again her focus on meditation can be recognised in this piece. Much of her lecture consists of talking about her time spent in an Emerging Artist Residency in Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. She talks about the collaborative work she created with John Hogan. This work is more recent and explores the light and optics of glass.  Recently she has been invited to have a solo exhibition at the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. She talks about her interest in sound and the grant she recently received from the County Council to employ a sound technician. 

Donnellan mentioned other achievements but unfortunately one could only write so fast. She is an emerging artist with huge potential and is beginning to be recognised on the world glass art stage. Her pathway from undergrad on exchange at SIU to Emerging Artist at the GAS conference is a colourful, busy and a successful example for Irish glass artists.

After Karen’s lecture, I headed to the demonstrations later that day. I got the chance to see two marvellous demonstrations in Ignite and luckily for me I had a good vantage point of both lampworking and blowing studios. Chris Carlson demonstrated marble making with colour chip pick-ups and Martin Janecky also tested how large a piece could fit in the glory holes with a huge bull head.  Both demonstrations were heavily attended.

Chris Carlson making marbles 

Martin Janecky making a giant bulls head

At 5 o clock the Gallery Hop kicked off. Unfortunately I was not able to participate but the feedback was excellent. The hop featured many of Chicago’s exciting galleries such as the Made Gallery. The last day of the conference had an early start with demos beginning at 8am. I attended Kiva Ford’s lampworking demonstration in West Supply where he maticulously created a bottle within a bottle using blown borocilicate tubing.

   

Kiva Ford Flameworking demo

The Student Exhibition was open to the public later that evening and I took the opportunity to present my work in this show. Another highlight of the evening was the Neon Exhibiton also held in the Palmer House. Other services were available on the last day including the portfolio review open to all students, where one had the opportunity to have their body of work reviewed by a panel containing some of the Board and the demonstrators from the conference. The closing night party was held in Chicago’s Culture Centre and no better place to gather all these glass fanatics together than under its famous Tiffany glass dome.

The conference took place over three days and the schedule was jam-packed with demonstrations, lectures and several educational resources.  The Glass Art Society offers a discounted conference ticket price to members so it is definitely worthwhile becoming a GAS member. It also allows you to apply for scholarships to attend their conferences.  It was announced this week that the GAS Conference 2015 will be held in San José, hopefully there will be more Irish glass artists out in full colour there!

Myself, Karen Donnellan and Jennifer Mulligan, all GSoI members at the Closing Party

                                       

Written by Laura Quinn, GSoI Student Rep Dublin 

Who's Buying? - Glass at Showcase Ireland

Filigrana Vases, BTU Studio Production line 2014

2013 was another good year for Irish craft.
According to CCoI statistics the number of people buying craft has been rising in recent years which is good news for all the Irish-Glassies.
As well as the usual suspects (Jerpoint Glass Studio, Irish Handmade Glass and Kerry Crafted Glass who we caught up with last year) there were some new faces at Showcase Ireland this year including the familiar faces of Scott Benefield and Catherine Keenan. 

Albion - Scott's personal work

Scott was there representing the BTU studio which he founded with his wife and fellow glass artist, Andrea Spencer in 2011. They are based in Randelstown in Northern Ireland. The studio is named after a dated measure of energy, the British Thermal Unit and they produce and annual line of blown glassware and decorative objects. Here’s what Scott had to say about selling at Showcase this year:

"I had really good experience. I thought that the buyers were much more open to looking at something new and even committing to an order in comparison to, say, the British Craft Trade Fair. It was great to meet other exhibitors and staff from the Crafts Council; it gave me an expanded sense of the handcraft scene in Ireland.  

Andrea Spencer, Temporal Properties

The offerings in glass were absurdly few- besides me, there were only three other studios in the Creative Island section. It's far from critical mass levels and so the market in Ireland for contemporary glass remains undeveloped, in my opinion. But the good news is that there seems to be plenty of room for new designers and makers who are working with glass."

BTU's Stand at Showcase 

'Eye candy' - Catherine Keenan

Catherine Keenan was also an exhibitor there, selected as part of the Craft Northern Ireland group. Catherine received her BA in Glass from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and continued her studies in the UK. Since graduating, has continued to work from her native Northern Ireland producing decorative blown vessels and lamp-worked glass jewellery. She is currently based at Flowerfield Arts Centre in Portstewart.

Catherine's Stand at Showcase 

"I was in an area that was mostly fashion accessories and jewellery, as I was focusing on getting wholesale orders for my lamp worked glass jewellery. However I also brought my blown glass in order to draw people to my stand and also make clear the connection between the blown glass and my jewellery. I got a great response to my work, people were instantly drawn to the colours, particularly in my new 'Colourscape' range of jewellery.  I gained a substantial number of new stockists mostly throughout Ireland, also one on Iona.
In terms of the market for glass in Ireland: I found a lot of shops liked my blown glass and I had some good discussions with higher-end galleries but it is a rather small and select group of buyers who have a particular interest in glass. I think is the main issue that people often don't understand the cost of producing a piece of glass and therefore don’t understand the value.
That said however, when I have exhibited through the Crafts Council of Ireland, or at the RDS National Crafts Competition, I have tended to sell.  It seems clear to me that they are getting the select audience for high end craft, who appreciate the work and quality of blown glass."

'Colourscape' Necklaces and 'Eye Candy' Blown Glass

So there you have it folks, word from the experts is that there's plenty of room for more glass in the Irish market place, especially if we can communicate the production costs more effectively to the average buyers. Thank you Catherine and Scott for sharing your experience with us.

Well done to all the glass-practitioners at Showcase this year - lets double our numbers for next year! 

Written by Meadhbh McIlgorm
GSoI Media and Communications

GLASS GALORE! @Sculpture in Context,2013

Sculpture in Context - a must see event on the Dublin art calendar.

Set up in 1985 by sculptors who wanted to create exhibition space outside the normal white-cube gallery, Sculpture in Context now sees the grounds, ponds and glasshouses of the Botanic Gardens transformed each September into the biggest and most prestigious outdoor exhibition in Ireland.

      Sticky Bog Sundew - Gwyn Grace                        Vessels (of Remembrance) -  Alison Lowry 

This year over 150 artists from Ireland and abroad are exhibiting their work. 

Application is open to everyone and the successful applicants are selected by a panel of judges which changes annually. Thanks to this very democratic selection process there is always a great variety of entrants ranging from students to established artists and together working in almost every medium imaginable. 

The packed opening night reception

We know that we’re ever so slightly biased here at GSoI but as in this case the figures speak for themselves - Irish glass artists really held their own in the Gardens this year. 

There were 12 notable glass pieces amongst the collection from artists;

Karen Donnellan

 Naomi Draper

 Gwyn Grace 

Jesse Gunther,

Eve Kelly

Paivikki Kolehmainen (Finland) 

Alison Lowry

 Charlene McFarland

 Meadhbh McIlgorm 

Kira Myer

Sadhbh Mowlds 

Mags O’Dea.  

Further more, 2 out of the 3 Sculpture in Context Awards for large outdoor works of distinction in any medium were awarded to NCAD glass students: Jesse Gunther for his piece 'Desert Ophidians' (on view in the cactus house) and Mags O'Dea for her installation 'Tree Dressings' (a site-specific glass installation on a particularly weathered tree). Both Mags and Jesse received €500 each - well done guys! 

'Tree Dressings' - Mags O'Dea

The delighted Mags O'Dea with her prize

Both pieces were a big hit with the guests on opening night - watch this space - one of them could well be winning the prize for the most popular sculpture at the end of the exhibition in October.  

'Desert Ophidians' - Jesse Gunther 

The exhibition runs from September 5th - October 18th. Full programme of artists available in the visitor centre. 

Garden opening hours: 
Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm
Saturday & Sunday 10am - 6pm

Admission Free, Car Park €2

Karren Donnellan - Present Moment Reminder

 A visit to this exhibition is a lovely day out for all the family and a chance to see some very talented artists work outside the often intimidating setting of a gallery exhibit. 

So be sure to take a very cultured and colourful stroll through the Botanic Gardens before October 18th. 
We promise you won't be disappointed. 

Artists Michelle McDermott, Gwyn Grace, Mags O'Dea and Tara Butler-Frey
the enjoying opening night celebrations

Written by: Meadhbh McIlgorm