Turn Up the Heat: GLAS Art Auction
Our Turn Up the Heat weekend saw an unforgettable number of talented glassmakers showcase their craft to a packed crowd in our Hot shop. Over two days, we saw a remarkable number of techniques and even witnessed ideas being tested for the first time. We saw demonstrations from Jo Guile, Katherine Huskie, Elliot Walker, Sacha Delabre, Ian Chadwick, Kayleigh Young, Bethany Wood, Laura Atkinson, Caroline Weidman, and Balasz Telegdi.
These artists have been incredibly generous and contributed their pieces to this auction to raise funds to future-proof more exciting collaborations within the Stourbridge area, also supporting the newly formed GLAS (Glass Legacy Association Stourbridge). 50% of this auction’s proceeds will be donated to GLAS and 50% to the artists.
We were fortunate to have the talented João Lebre with us, capturing the excitement and awe of the weekend with his phenomenal photographs. If you missed out, don’t worry. We’ll share some of the best moments from the two days of demonstrations, giving you a glimpse of what you could win in our Glass Art Auction, starting on September 16th at 6 pm BST.
Day One
First up were Jo Guile and Elliot Walker. Our Director Bethany discovered Jo’s work when judging the General Office Gallery’s Glass Beginnings’ graduate exhibition. Jo develops plaster blow moulds, which have been taken from Alginate casts of the ground. With Elliot’s help, she then captures the surface details in Blown glass. Jo Guile then finishes the work with mirroring chemicals.
Thank you to the Glass Manufacturers’ Educational Trust for sponsoring the demonstration ensuring fair pay for our demonstrating artists.
Next, Katherine Huskie demonstrated an entirely new concept. You might know Katherine’s work from our blog, ‘The Future of Neon,‘ and be familiar with her tactile works ‘Ostreum’ and ‘Echinus’, which are influenced by her fascination with patterns found in nature, textiles, and geometry.
Her relentless pursuit of new inspirations and methods for integrating these patterns into hot glass is evident in ‘Candy Blocks’ (Pictured above); Katherine delighted the audience by hot attaching small forms of multi-coloured murine, tumbling into a blue vessel. View the full piece as part of our Glass Art Auction. This is your chance to own the first step in this new journey of form and pattern.
Elliot Walker swiftly followed, on the run from being part of our Endangered Crafts panel discussion with Daniel Carpenter, collaborator Laura Atkinson and Chair of the Lace Guild, Denise Smith. Elliot demonstrated his latest iteration in his Ostentatious and dazzling Flower Bowls; this time, Elliot used a gorgeous Celadon Green and Gold Brown. Check out the piece in action below.
There was not a seat left for Sacha Delabre’s demonstration, with the audience crowding around the hot shop entrance and overflowing into the cold workshop; everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the intricate and nail-biting hot assembly of his molecular structure series. Sacha wowed us all with his intricate assembly work and kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Sacha has experimented with a new series of colours for this latest iteration, captured amazingly by Joao!
Bethany Wood wrapped up the first day of glassblowing demonstrations by showcasing her new piece, ‘Iron Ore’, which captures a new landscape in hot glass, part of her Molten Landscape series. Elliot and a group of talented glass students assisted her.
Day Two
On the second day, Kayleigh Young kicked off with a demonstration of her Garden of the Black Dog series. This series features delicate flameworked plants and flowers with a black dog figure at the centre. A companion piece is currently on display in our ‘Fifteen x Fifteen‘ Exhibition, which will be open until Saturday 21st September.
Our first sold-out demonstration was by Ian Chadwick. In his demonstration, Ian’s signature aesthetic geometric, symmetrical glass panels were transformed from two dimensions into three dimensions using the talents and skills of Elliot Walker and his assistants.
The glass panels are laboriously produced and are composed of many accurately cut and formed components of Bullseye Glass. Bullseye glass is incompatible with the furnace glass used in hot shops, so Elliot Walker and team were on hand to expertly shape Ian’s Kiln Formed patterns into three-dimensional forms.
Finishing off our final day of glassblowing was our much-sought-after mouth-blown sheet glass demonstration featuring Laura Atkinson and Elliot Walker. With thanks to the Heritage Crafts Association for sponsoring this, ensuring this extinct skill can be revived.
Elliot and Laura demonstrated a new experimental tartan pattern and have kindly donated not one but two sheets of glass to the auction. Please see below the amazing demo results.
Balazs Telegdi wowed our audiences by demonstrating the intricate vitrograph technique behind his ‘Encapsulated’ works, one of which is currently on show as part of our Fifteen x Fifteen Exhibition.
Throughout the two days, amazing flameworker Caroline Weidman was set up within the Red house Glass Cone courtyard, braving the elements to demonstrate her craft. We witnessed Caroline’s intricate skills in creating her glass figurative works. One of these is exhibited as part of our Fifteen x Fifteen Exhibition. You can view ‘Linde’ here. You can also view Caroline’s other available figures as part of our auction here.
We hope you enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of our Turn Up the Heat glassblowing demonstrations programme. From September 16th at 6 pm BST (British Summer Time) until September 20th at midnight, 11 pieces from our demonstration programme will be available online.
How to Bid?
Add your payment method in the ‘Payment Method’ section of your account profile.
Visit the Turn Up the Heat: Glass Art Auction and click on the artwork you like.
Enter your desired amount in the box and click place bid!
If you have any questions regarding the registration and bidding process, please get in touch with Bethany@blowfishglassart.com or Leanne@blowfishglassart.com.
We want to extend a massive thank you to all of the glassblowers who volunteered their time to support our demonstration programme. We also want to thank all of the brilliant glass artists who donated their pieces to our Turn Up the Heat Glass Art Auction!
Happy Bidding.
