Gillies Jones

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Denmark / Glas Net Annual Conference

September 15, 2010

Stephen visited  Glas Smedjen, the Hundtested Studio of Andrew and Nanna Backhaus Brown last weekend , hosts for the Dansish Glass Conference 2010.

David Salvadore was the visitng maker and the demos were mixed in wth a good social and the AGM. The Danes do know how to throw a party and blow some glass ! Denmark does have a strong core of glass blowers who do take the time to get together once a year. Congrats to Andy & Nanna for hosting what was a very good conference and weekend, and for orgainising the Aqua exhibition which opened on the 13th Sept and closes on 3rd October. We have a piece on show as part of this event.

Have a look at the  exhibition web site here AQUA. which is unusually and interestingly housed in a boat building ‘shed’.

British Glass Biennale 2010

September 5, 2010

This is a good show. Recommend a visit if you have not done so. It closes on 11th Sept and as far as I know is not touring, which is a real shame.

The scale of many of the pieces has increased as the technology has become more accessible as the skill base and knowledge of all who use kilns. Found myself sucking a lot less air this year. Usually I find a mismatch between concept and realisation with a great deal of ‘glass art’ however, this year there were many ambitious works that did work well, you could see why glass was used to convey the ‘concept’ as opposed to trying to get the concept to fit the glass. There were good craft skills evident too, though never enough blown glass for me … and as one who uses blown glass, too few ‘vessels’ for their own sake, but thats the beauty of a changing jury, different interests and personal ambitions emerge through the selection.

The catalogue forward is also an interesting read and to be recommended to all who blow glass ! ?

Congrats to all involved, I think its the best show to date.

New School House Gallery York / Abstractions

Abstractions Exhibition opened on Friday 3rd Sept , PV is on the 10th September. Made 3 pieces for the show and also showing 3 ‘Bounded Space’ drawings. The pieces are very graphic, two are completely opaque and allow no light to pass through, the third larger has a gray body an does allow the material to play with some light.

Two of the pieces are our new forms, perfect spheres which have been manipulated when in the hot shop into elongated forms, deliberately pushed away from the ‘perfect’ blown sphere.

The New school House is a beautiful gallery, with a good selection of work both fine craft and fine art and a vv good Italian restaurant next door, mmm love the roasted pumpkin linguine !

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The Joze Show Opening

Beautiful day, wonderful setting, very well attended, delicious snacks and drinks and a good selection of art work across the board.

The Joze Show on until the 12th September and if you are in or near West Sussex it is well worth a visit. Have a look at some fine paintings by many artists working in the North, alongside some beautiful ceramics and of course some glass !