Sandcasting Workshop with Artists-in-Residence

We teamed up with Caithness Horizons to offer a weekend workshop work through the process of sand casting of hot glass, from inspiration to kiln firing with our Artists-in-Residence.

Participants and artists spent Saturday afternoon at Caithness Horizons, looking for local inspiration amongst the museum’s collections of artefacts, particularly the four main areas of Picts, Vikings, Robert Dick and Dounreay. Sunday was spent in our Studio Hot Shop in Lybster learning the processes and techniques of sand casting. Everyone had a go at translating their ideas from the Saturday into sand moulds, making impressions in the sand to pour the hot glass into.
Participant Nicole Wilkinson: ‘[It was] amazing … how everyone placed their own interpretations and visions of Caithness inspiration into viable items. It was fascinating to learn the glass-making procedure and practice, and to view the residents’ work’.

 

Master Class Programme Update

Unfortunately Tiina Sarapu is no longer able to come to North Lands for her class on 10-18 September. Our Artistic Director, Mieke Groot, asked Eeva Käsper to lead a class in Tiina’s place and we’re delighted that she agreed.

The details of Eeva’s class are as follows:

10-18 September:  ‘Influences’

We are often (always) influenced by something or someone. With this Master Class I invite the participants to discover and to map the influences which guide and affect us throughout our lives, or which are important to us at any given moment. By mapping them, we can better recognize their impact on ourselves as artists as well as find inspiration for our creative work. I am convinced that by working openly with the influences we experience, we can turn them in the direction that best suits us, and exploit them deliberately, even when they involve contradictions.

Sheet glass is a wonderful source material which, with the help of heat and gravitation, can transform from two-dimensional into three-dimensional, which enables playing with transparency, layers, surfaces and edges, surface structures, graphic images, reflections and optical distortions. Slumping techniques allow a lot of playfulness. In addition to various molds used in slumping, the process can also be interferred with during firing: one can influence it physically, or simply observe and end the process at a suitable moment.

Thanks to the transparency of glass, the finished work is always affected by its surroundings, and so further and unpredictable influences will come to bear on the final art piece.

Eeva Käsper

Click here to apply for Eeva’s Master Class on our website

2013 Master Class and Conference Programme

See full details of our programme in this year’s brochure

Master Classes

28 Aug – 5 Sept: ‘Working the Surface – Texture, Detail, Stories and Patterns’
Deborah Cocks is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost exponents of reverse glass painting.This class will build a repertoire of glass painting techniques by experimenting with vitreous paints and silver stain in conjunction with cold techniques.

28 Aug – 5 Sept: ‘The Gravity of the Objects’
Anne-lise Riond Sibony is one of France’s most innovative artists working with glass. This class will concentrate on small-scale installations and compositions made from an assemblage of non-identical elements. The main technique will be blowing – from free-blown shapes to painted mould-blown artefacts.

10 Sept – 18 Sept: ‘On the Edge of Knowing’
Tiina Sarapu is one of Estonia’s leading artists working in glass. The focus of this class will be on personal expression and vision. From first working with paper as the simulation material for glass, Tiina will explore different slumping techniques with sheet glass.

10 Sept – 18 Sept: ‘Unknowns’
Ceramic artist Richard Slee is one of british craft’s most compelling figures. He will lead this class in an exploration of free-formed blown glass, in partnership with the participants and with the expert help of artist and glassblower Richard Price.

International Conference – ‘The Real Thing: Beyond Stereotyping’
7 and 8 September

The Conference will explore cultural identities. Speakers will include the Master Class leaders; Keynote speaker Judy Rudoe FSA, author and curator at the British Museum, specialising in jewellery together with 19^th and 20^th century decorative arts; Judy Tuwaletstiwa, writer,mixed media painter from the US and during the past year Exchange Artist with Bullseye Glass; curator, writer and historian Elizabeth Cumming and Annette Schmidt, leader of an international excavation in Djenne Mali and Curator Africa at the Museum of Ethnology Leiden since 2002.

The Conference is sponsored by the Corning Incorporated, USA and is supported by Bullseye Glass Co.

Apply for Master Classes and book Conference places online

Print a booking form

Contact Grace MacBeath for any further information:
grace.macbeath@northlandsglass.com
Tel: 01593721229

Glass Skills Classes

We have new Classes for 2013:

LAMP WORKING
11 – 13 march
Cost: £300

Ian Pearson will lead a three day introduction to the art of lamp working (using gas/oxygen torches to blow, manipulate and join glass tube and rod).

Ian has been practicing the skill known as lampworking since 1961, and is an acknowledged master of the craft bringing a mix of outstanding technical knowledge and creative flair. For many years a scientific glass blower creating highly complex laboratory equipment, Ian now uses his blend of ancient craft and modern technology to make art objects and gifts at his studio Glass Creations in Thurso.
This class is suitable for all skill levels and abilities.

CONTEMPORARY GLASS PAINTING AND LAYERING
27 – 31 May
Cost: £550

Jeff Zimmer will lead a five day class about creating three dimensional images on glass using both traditional and photographic approaches.  The class will exploit the transparency of glass and layer techniques and images to collage and create a sense of space.  Hand painted enamels, photo-sensitive sandblast resists and printed transfers will be used.The experience will be enhanced through discussions and presentations. There will be discussion about how creating a 3-D image affects its content and our experience of it.

The course will be of interest to individuals looking to expand their practice into a new dimension.  Those with experience of image-making on glass will learn to see their work in a new way while those new to painting on glass will learn the both the basics of the craft and novel applications.

SCULPTURAL FLAMEWORKING TECHNIQUES
5 – 9 August
Cost: £550

Led by Carrie Fertig, this five day technical course will use the bench burner and hand torch to build skills for making sculpture in clear borosilicate glass. The course will cover general health and safety of the studio, torch, canisters of gas, and the flameworker, as well as building your own studio.

The course will teach use of the hand torch to enable larger-scale work. New assignments each day will build on and refine the previous skills learned. This course is suitable for all levels of experience.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY VIA OUR WEBSITE

For more information email grace.macbeath@northlandsglass.com

or call 01593 721 229

Feeling Festive Yet?

We are here at North Lands! We have Christmas events coming up!

Hot Glass Residency Opportunity

HOT GLASS RESIDENCY: 1 April to 10 May 2013

Deadline: 16 November 2012

North Lands Creative Glass is offering a six week residency for four talented artists working in hot glass. We are looking for artists who have an interest in exploring new forms of making, or ways of working, through collaboration. The residency will offer the opportunity to create work and collaborate with other artists while also developing new techniques and ideas. This opportunity will allow you to enhance your own practice while working within a peer group to share and gain further skills. Artists-in-residence benefit from a comprehensive range of facilities in the Alastair Pilkington Studio.

The selection panel will make the residency awards by 14 December 2012

This residency is supported by Creative Scotland.
This opportunity is open to artists worldwide.

For more detailed information:
http://www.northlandsglass.com/whats-on/residencies
E-mail: info@northlandsglass.com
Telephone +44(0)1593 721229

And into Autumn….

The 2012 Master Class and Conference programme feels both a distant memory and just like yesterday, things haven’t stopped since then and we currently have Amanda Simmons here for a 3-day Skills Class in Kiln Formed Glass Vessels, but that’s another post…

This year saw a great Master Class programme:
26 August – 6 September
‘From the Outside In’ with Angela Jarman
‘Give and Take’ with Jacqueline Poncelet

11 – 19 September
‘What’s the Big Idea…Sand Casting’ with Paul Marioni
‘Painting in the Space of Glass’ with Susan Sinsmuehlen-Amend

The Conference was exceptional, the theme was ‘Give and Take’ and featured a diverse range of speakers – the full programme is listed here.

It was a  wonderfully collaborative event this year as we worked with Scottish Glass Society and Contemporary Glass Society as part of the UK-wide event Glass Games 2012, celebrating the spirit of the London 2012 Olympics. We were also pleased to host the Scottish Glass Society Annual Exhibiton, this year on the theme of Cultural Exchange, and to be the final destination on the journey of the Glass Games Glass Baton

You can see more pictures in our Flickr set