Metamorphosis III- Cathryn Shilling

Cathryn Shilling is a London-based glass artist. After graduating from London’s Central School of Art
and Design with a degree in Graphic Design, Cathryn worked as a designer until 2001, when a move to
the US prompted a new creative direction. She studied stained glass in Connecticut and, on her return
to London in 2004, began researching and working with kiln-formed glass and became a student
of blown glass at Peter Layton’s London Glassblowing Studio. She started her professional practice in
2009 and was curator of the London Glassblowing Gallery from 2010 to 2019.
A Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen, Cathryn’s work has been exhibited in numerous
collections worldwide. Her collaboration with Anthony Scala won the Craft & Design Award
at the British Glass Biennale in 2017, and her 2019 solo show Hidden Gestures at London’s Vessel
Gallery commemorated a decade of professional practice.
Cathryn’s trademark glass cloth pieces utilise Venetian glass cane techniques. The individual
canes are made by drawing molten glass into fine threads of no more than one or two millimetres in
diameter, which is then painstakingly brought together, strand upon strand, before being fused in
the kiln until they resemble sheets of woven fabric. The sheets are then re-fired and shaped in the kiln
through moulding, bending and draping, resulting in breathtaking three-dimensional artworks ranging
from free-standing sculptures to opulent bowls edged with gold or coated with a fine metal layer.