Allura - Timothy Boswell
Allura - Timothy Boswell
£2,750.00
In the making
On a blowing iron, opaque white glass is picked up and gathered over with layers of furnace glass. This is blown and a geometric black spiral is applied. The preheated fused glass decoration is then attached, coated with furnace glass and transferred (puntied) onto another iron. The neck is drawn out by use of tweezers and shears.
Allura
The glass story began when I found (many yonks ago) a delicious 1950s large ceiling lampshade in a creepy derelict house. It had a white base and geometric patterns randomly appeared in black, red and yellow.
Five years later I had filled all available space in my flat with a smorgasbord of mid-century retro bric-a-brac. When I relocated to the West Midlands to blow glass this influence stuck with me and I think the Allura range is a culmination of my favourite designs from the post WWII era. I’m especially fond of 50s ceramics with their mixture of graphic transfer bases overlaid with hand painted splodges of primary colours. Yippee!!!!
Solo Blowing for the Allura range
Traditionally glass blowing was a team sport and even 20 years ago a few heads would of scratched at the very thought of making ‘Solo’. Today, due perhaps to the fact that many glassblowing courses have closed across the country and skills being lost, many makers are forced down this route.
Solo blowing requires learning new skills and directing the mind and body to be in the right place at the right time (not matter how flaky the body or mind). It is no mean feat, and requires one to be on one’s game. Preparation is key, for if things go pear-shaped no helping hands will appear to dig you out of the hole you’ve so deeply dug.
For Allura’s colour pallet the remit required fair few glass baubles to be blown and then subsequently smashed into thin shards. These are then fused onto a white glass base, sandwiched with a layer of clear glass on top, and fused again to approximately 750 cent to create the glass nuggets which adorn the object.
