Guest Post: Rebecca Milling, RSA artist-in-residence

Guest blog post from Rebecca Milling:

I have been lucky enough to receive funding from the Royal Scottish Academy Residency Scheme, to spend time at North Lands Creative Glass. I am learning the art of scientific glass blowing so that I can make glass sculptures which have required skill to produce before I take photographs which capture the instant of their destruction. My latest series of work has involved building glass structures from off cuts of picture frame glass, in an attempt to build as high as possible without any particular thought or skill attributed to the construction.

Week 1 – July 2013
I’ve never travelled as far north as Lybster before so the six and a half hour drive up from Edinburgh was filled with excitement and anticipation of what I was going to discover during my first week learning the art of scientific glass blowing. Arriving to find huge and fully equipped workshops with Michael Bullen, an enthusiastic and dedicated technician, I was not disappointed at the mind blowing potential of what could be achieved!

Trying to focus on my original plan, I was very happy to meet my tutor, Ian Pearson, an expert in his field and immediately keen to point out to me that he can make anything out of glass – just say it and he will make it! Ian loves to show off his prowess working in the flame as I looked on wondering what I had let myself in for.

However, Ian gave me little time to back out and I was turning, spinning and blowing in no time

Ian was not keen on the large metal hammer in my photographs and so made me a glass one in about 10 minutes proving his point that he really can make anything!

I was left to my own devices on days 2 and 3 faced with this workbench, many glass spindles and Ian’s instructions hastily scrawled on a notebook the day before.

I set to work and as you can see came up with these uneven/organic glass forms

I became fond of them and gradually, especially after another day’s teaching, they became smoother and I started to feel a bit more in control of the limitations of my newfound medium. It also became evident that the scope to play with reflection and distortion in the glass shapes was going to be a key element for future photographs. I returned home with a car full of distorted and wonky glass tubes – some better than others!

During my first week, I also took the opportunity to drive the 30 miles north to John O’Groats one evening and then to the most northerly point in mainland Britain – Dunnet Head. Castletown Harbour was well worth a visit too.

Week 2 October 2013
Having spent time in the studio back home where I’d been able to experiment with what I had made during my first week, I returned to North Lands with a mission to make as many organic shapes as possible with smooth unridged bubbles to get best effects for reflection and distortion. I had ordered various tube widths and varying wall thicknesses of tubing to try and get different sizes when blowing.

I had asked Ian to leave spindles out for me so that I could get to work immediately. I was also keen to try working with soda tubing as well as pyrex. Soda tubing breaks much more easily than pyrex tubing so I wanted to put this to the test considering that my ultimate intention was to smash my sculpture, it seemed logical to work with the material which would smash most easily and hopefully dramatically.

Ian was a little taken aback at the prospect of working with soda but game as ever and delighting in the inevitable regular explosions which came from working with a more unstable material. I enjoyed working with the soda and liked the extra malleable qualities of it and how it retained its heat for longer.

It must be noted that when faced with a large metal hammer being thrown at the blown thin walled organic shapes – both pyrex and soda smashed just as well and it was impossible to tell the difference!

I spent 4 days blowing glass and had eventually taken over the workshop with my efforts.

Ian made me an awful lot of spindles to blow and I also gave him the challenge to blow large and even elongated bubbles so that I could experiment with regular reflection.

A team of happy helpers turned up at the weekend and we set to work first of all in the sheltered courtyard taking photographs against black velvet and also in the garden of the house shooting with the dusk sky as a backdrop.

Please see www.rebeccamilling.com Reflective Construction to see more of the final images from that week.

I have again come home with a car full of glass and am planning my next adventure to North Lands in 2014.

THE PLACE AND THE WORK: Master Classes

2014 Programme: The Place and The Work

Making art works in relation to place is the focus of our Conference and Master Classes this year; acknowledging how artists and their work connect to their surroundings, landscape, architecture, history and social context.

CLASS 1: Petr Stanicky

The Unique Genius Loci of the Space.
27^th August – 4^th September. Cost: £895 (9 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“A reflection of the unique genius loci of the space. Sculpture, objects or installation. The idea is to let the unique qualities of North Lands’ surroundings influence the art works. Be open to nature, face new qualities of light, scale and let all of this influence artworks.

This will be a unique opportunity to access the hotshop in the middle of a remote landscape and to work with all kinds of techniques which hot glass offers. It will be an ideal situation to create, discover and open new paths in an artist’s work.”

Hot glass techniques will be experimental and developed according to the concepts of the class participants. Work will be researched in different media such as drawing, photography and model making. Some experience in hot glass techniques is beneficial. There will be a gaffer to realise ideas into glass for those with limited hot glass experience.

About Petr Stanicky:
The breadth of Petr Stanicky’s work is reflected in his rich and diverse studies in the Czech Republic and the USA. At the AAAD in Prague he studied sculpture, specialising in stone carving and glass in architecture; he graduated in 2000. By 2007 he had been teaching sculpture at the arts academy for 4 years when he decided to immerse himself in a study of the figure, joining a masters program at the New York Arts Academy. From there he gained experience working on sculptural projects in Jeff Koons’ studio. On returning to the Czech Republic he chose to lead a new masters program in glass at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. He describes the ethos: ‘Working in the studio makes students perceive the unity and the close relationship between human beings and nature. It helps them perceive and understand the substance, the colour and the space. It helps students exceed the limits of their perception beyond the entity designed and delimit it within architecture.’

Stanicky is an artist working from a wide material knowledge and extensive skill base. He allows himself the freedom to move between representational and abstract art, traditional and non traditional materials but always with academic rigor. His work has been widely exhibited in Europe and debuts in the UK this May at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland.

CLASS 2: Helen Maurer & Angela Moore

The Lie of the Land
30^th August to 4^th September. Cost: £650 (6 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“Over the course of six days we’ll be looking at the relationship between images and objects, setting up a series of exercises using glass, light and the landscape to generate material. Expect to be projecting into fog, distorting the landscape though glass and working with the elements.  The emphasis will be on using low-fi production methods and experimentation.

Participants will need to bring their own camera and to both document experiments and produce images as the final outcome. There’ll be opportunities to collaborate within the group, to share skills and generate new ideas.  In our experience this has been surprising, taking us to unknown territories and now to the Highlands and beyond!”
This class is site specific open to glassmakers and artists of all media.

About Helen Maurer:
Helen Maurer’s early studies were in Visual and Performing Arts at Brighton University. Later she studied glass at Central St Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art. She is represented by Danielle Arnaud gallery London and also works on site specific commissions. She collaborates with other artists, choreographers and musicians. Maurer was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Glass in 2003 for her unique approach to glass. “Where possible I like reconfiguring existing things, finding participants for the scenes that I create, almost like auditioning actors for parts, objects are brought in and out of my constructions. Ideas come from experimenting with materials, for example projecting light through objects to create shadows.” Her work often starts with a tableau of varying scale which is projected into static or moving image, defining the space it is placed in. Recently her work has been developed by filming the optical effects discovered during its construction and projecting this as part of the work.

About Angela Moore:
Angela Moore is a photographer known for her high profile campaign photography connected to the art and design world. Her work is used in magazines worldwide and includes highly innovative projects for Frieze Art Fair, Vitra, Kvadrat, SCP, Tord Boontje, the Design Museum and Modus. Her sensitive understanding of the contemporary image and culture has led to the current demand for her work. She has photographed cookbooks for Heston Blumenthal, Canteen and Nigel Slater and extensively for Swarovski’s Crystallized publication. Angela’s work has been exhibited in Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and Monat der Fotografie, Vienna. She studied design at Goldsmiths College of Art in London, the city in which she still lives and works.

Helen and Angela first worked together on a commission for the Pump House Gallery where they started their ‘Bad Magic’ project. They went on to create work for the Swarovski magazine, Crystallized, which involved visually interpreting the ‘Trends’ pages. They share an interest for illusory and distorted images, a quirky low-fi aesthetic and an interest in the effects of light and projection.

CLASS 3: Kristiina Uslar

Influences, Layers and Columns.
9^th September- 17^th September. Cost: £895 (9 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

Estonian artist Kristiina Uslar will lead a class focused on pâte de verre: “In my class I would like to teach how to make multilayered glass objects using the pâte de verre technique and to introduce different layer connections using columns. The result should be a combination of fragility, airiness and strength. The soul of the object should be influenced by its surrounding environment, individuals and emotions. Our surroundings shape the person inside us.

Glass – such a versatile and contradictory material – large and light, small and heavy, strong and frail, transparent and opaque. For me it is the most suitable mediator between wonderland and reality. Exploring this, participants will make their own works in pâte de verre. They will take inspiration from the area, its cultured scenery and nature.” For this class a basic understanding of mould making and kiln working in glass is necessary.

About Kristiina Uslar
Kristiina graduated from the Estonia Academy of Art in 2003 where she later taught in the glass department. She completed an MA in 2007 in which she focused on the construction of Roman cage cups, this open net structure is evident in her own works. Using pâte de verre she takes a historical process with qualities she describes as tender and fragile, and subverts them by making bold and decisive forms with an industrial reference; organic and mechanical at the same time.

“My intention and goal was not to restore the technique but to study and develop it toward artwork and through this to gradually unfold the variety of ways in which the technique can be innovated.” The unexpected transformation of material also takes us from the historical to the contemporary. Kristiina Uslar is a glass artist who, by reinventing a process, has brought new life to it. She describes glass as “the most suitable mediator between wonderland and reality.”

She lives and works in Estonia and has been exhibiting her work in Europe, the USA and Japan since 2001. Her work has been acknowledged in various glass awards and is held in many major collections.

CLASS 4: Richard William Wheater

Are You Experienced?
9^th September – 17^th September. Cost: £895 (9 day class – includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“A Jimi Hendrix Album title? A prospective employer’s question?

A game changing challenge! Set by an artist to participants of a 9 day workshop.

Expect what was stationary to be on wheels. Expect the four walls of a studio to be cut like an umbilical cord. Expect adventures in hot glass and neon. Expect to fail, many times.”

This class will be a unique opportunity to work with Richard William Wheater to combine furnace glass and neon. Participants will work in the studio and in outdoor locations. Some experience in hot glass techniques is beneficial.

About Richard William Wheater:
Richard William Wheater gained notoriety for an ambitious project in 2008 titled ‘Them and Us’. Touring the UK with his mobile furnace he hot sculpted indigenous glass birds in their natural habitat, he then released them into the air in a ritualistic act, which both freed and destroyed them. An artist/performer committed to the act of making and the science of materials, his work is also ephemeral transitory art, involving place and people. It is always beautifully recorded. In recent years an in-depth study of neon has involved equally image and media aware events such as ‘12 months of neon love’, in which a highly visible neon bill board announced declarations of love, lines from popular songs which changed once a month. Other neon works made and put into action with groups of people aim to unite people with landscape as did his recent ‘Land to Sea’ project. Installations have been both site specific and gallery based. Wheater might start with making an object but it extends further.

As a communicator, designer and artist he wants clarity and accessibility in the medium. He is highly qualified in glass making, art and teaching. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, Alfred University USA and the University of Sunderland. He lives in Wakefield, UK.

HOW TO APPLY
Master Class places are juried and places given by our selection panel.

To apply:
First send in your booking form. Click here to send your booking form
We will then contact you and ask you to send the following:

• A brief CV outlining your previous experience.
• A short statement (max 1 page A4) outlining the benefit of the Class to your artistic practice.
• 10 images of recent work, please include title, date made, dimensions and techniques used.

For more information email Grace at info@northlandsglass.com or call 01593 721 229

The Place and The Work

 

2014 International Conference and Master Classes.

The Place and The Work Conference will be held on Saturday 6, Sunday 7 September. Class sessions run 27 August – 4 September and 9 – 16 September. Making art works in relation to place is the focus of the North Lands Creative Glass Conference and Master Classes 2014; acknowledging how artists and their work connect to their surroundings, landscape, architecture, history and social context. We see more interactive public art, more artists responding to and working with communities. Artists are making works that respond to weather, nature or urban environments, to political discourse and social situations. It seems that some artists and public demand less autonomous disconnected sculpture favouring instead a more connected vision. We ask questions about what it means to experience remoteness, how this and being in a place away from home affect an artist’s work. What influences the particularities of a landscape can have and what it means to collaborate with artists in close proximity, to work intensively with no distractions and to embrace or reject the surroundings. What can happen when we go beyond our familiar studio environment and step outside into a bigger picture? What does it mean to be a glass specialist in this place, at this time? More details for the Classes and Conference programme will be announced shortly.

Photo credit: James Ross

‘Shifting Perspectives’ with Carrie Iverson & Jeremy Scidmore

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES

4 – 13 March 2014

Cost: £850 (includes course fees, materials and evening meals)

“There is rarely one visual experience of an image but rather a series of encounters that shift depending on how and from where the image is viewed…”

Carrie Iverson and Jeremy Scidmore will use the techniques of printing and kiln formed glass to investigate these shifting perspectives creating images that do not describe a single viewpoint but are multi-layered descriptions of an object or idea.

Using a scientific model of research and focused experimentation, students will learn strategies to develop new work. We will move through a series of exercises to collect, cull, produce, edit and then
refine material. Processes include drawing, photography, printmaking on glass, and open-faced kiln casting of textures and found objects.

Field trips around Lybster will provide inspiration while new assignments, exercises and discussions each day will build on and refine previous skills. In addition to learning printmaking for glass and glass kiln casting, students will develop research practices and strategies for refinement that can be applied to any art form.

This class is appropriate for all levels.

For application details and to book a place email Grace at info@northlandsglass.com or call 01593 721 229

About the Artists:

Carrie Iverson received her BA from Yale University and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Glasmuseum Hentrich in Düsseldorf, Germany, Art Sante Fe, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago, and the Chicago Cultural Center.  Her work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art (NY), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago). She has taught at Bullseye Glass Company (Oregon and California), GlassForum (Norway), Creative Glass (Switzerland and UK), as well as private studios throughout the US.

Jeremy Scidmore earned a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later returned to SAIC in order to study Arts Administration and Policy. While in Chicago, he owned and managed a public glass-arts resource center, collaborated with youth arts educators, completed private and public sculptural and architectural art commissions, and taught glassblowing and kilnforming. Scidmore joined Bullseye Glass Company in 2011 and is now the Studio Coordinator and Instructor for Bullseye Resource Center Bay Area.

Summer Symposium

We have been delighted to welcome students from Alberta College of Art and Design, Montana State University & Rochester Institute of Technology for their 9-day Summer Symposium, 24 June to 2 July, along with their professors Natali Rodrigues, Tad Bradley and David Schnuckel and Facilitator Jane Bruce.

They’ve been out and about visiting sites around Caithness, working hard in the Studio and enjoying getting to know the village and the locals. We hope to see you back in Lybster very soon.

Students Jon Rees and Daniel Cleghorn talk about their experience:

Jon Rees, Rochester Institute of Technology student:

“The journey to a new place far from home can be a daunting one.  You never know quite what to expect.  The town of Lybster and North Lands Creative Glass are true gems in the weathered landscape of Northern Scotland.  There are two things that I find really special about them; the place and the people.

The landscape in and around the town is spectacular.  From the weather hewn cliffs of the many harbors and beaches to the stone Cairns at Camster, this area of Scotland is all stone and sea and wind.  The constant interaction between these elements creates a sense of unparalleled awe.  To stay and work in this type of environment is truly a transformative experience.

The people, both at North Lands and around town are the friendliest people I’ve ever met.  Generosity and humor are the most common traits to be found in the personalities here.  From interesting conversations to hilarious stories, it’s obvious that the people of this area of Scotland are very welcoming to visitors.

I’m sad to be leaving soon, but I’m very much looking forward to visiting again.”

“My name is Daniel Cleghorn. Currently attending the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary Alberta Canada and in Lybster Scotland for the student glass symposium presented by North Lands Creative Glass. This is my first experience with working in glass.

The community within Lybster and the Studio is like no other. Strangers coming together to help each other throughout the process of creation. From the idea bouncing to the finished product. Even the environment contributes to the art, drawing, inspiration from the landscape and the people of the town all contribute to the finished piece.The pieces I am working with are all created from the contrast of city life to this small town. The first one is Guessa based on the idea of honour bound tradition. What has inspired me is how the local have reacted to us, with them almost feeling obligated to buy a drink and have a conversation and ensure we have a good time. It is something you have to experience.

The second work is Rustic Modern, inspired by the landscape. By taking shell and rock castings, translating some into glass and keeping the others in their original state, I hope to investigate the difference between a wild coast and the modern city.

The symposium itself is more than glass work; it’s about pushing yourself, exploration and communication. For even the more experienced glass artist 9 days is hard to get much glass done due to the lengthly nature of the medium, and we’re not restricted to glass, we can do anything. One of things that really inspired me about this time is how it isn’t a class. It’s about pushing yourself to do work when you have so many options. Giving you a little taste of art outside of school, exploring your limits with the medium and the land.  Seeing more than any tour bus would take you, exploring with your peers and yourself of the capabilities of your ideas and work and most importantly communication. With such a diverse background and amazing instructors there is so much to learn in such little time.

Thank you all for the amazing experience
Jane, Natali, David, Tad, Tatara, Kalina, Jon, Cydney, Dani, Randy, Sawyer,
Jess, Blair, Jo, Michael, Grace and the whole town for being such great host.”

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

Highland Inspiration

We were delighted to recently host two nine-day international symposia at North Lands Creative Glass. For North Lands it is wonderful to have the chance to host and work with instructors, artists and students with such great enthusiasm, motivation and dedication and we hope to see you all again very soon.

The first was a Student Symposium; ‘Highland Inspiration – Location and Self’ with students and instructors from three schools: The Alberta College of Art + Design, Calgary; the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY and the Montana State University School of Architecture, Bozeman. The students valued the input of the instructors enormously; Natali Rodrigues, Michael Rogers and Tad Bradley, along with Jane Bruce were kept extremely busy and everyone seemed to enjoy and gain a lot from their experiences.

The second was a Symposium for artists exploring ‘Highland Inspiration – Location & Perception’, led by Jane Bruce assisted by Lee Mathers. The artists were invited to focus on an experimental and open-minded approach to working and utilise drawing, model making, and the prototyping of forms, to test and question their ideas against the Caithness environment, the goal being to deepen and intensify current work or push it forward into new directions.

Both Symposia benefitted from local co-ordination for facilities and outings by our very own Joanna Garrett, better known as North Lands’ Master Class and Conference Co-ordinator.

Photographs by kind permission of Symposium participants Linda Norris and Rachel Elliott.

Master Class and Conference Brochure

You can now see full details of our 2012 Master Class and Conference programme in our brochure

Master Class and Conference Booking Form

Master Classes for 2012 will be running between 29 August to 19 September.

We offer a total of four Master Classes, with two running concurrently before the Conference and two after. The first two Master Classes will run from 29 August to 6 September with Angela Jarman and Jacqui Poncelet. The second two Classes will run from 11 to 19 September with Paul Marioni and Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend.

Our International Conference ‘Give-and-Take’ will take place on Saturday 8, Sunday 9 September 2012. The conference will explore conceptual and stylistic exchanges over time, between different cultures and media.

Artists in Residence

We’re very excited about our upcoming Spring residency; Kiln Forming and Kiln Casting. The residency runs from 16 April – 10 June 2012 and we have four artists who we’re sure will bring very special qualities to North Lands. We can’t wait to see what they do in there time here.

The artists are:

Megan Biddle, USA;
Jennifer Ashley King, Australia;
Melinda Willis, Australia;
Carrie Iverson, USA.

A few pictures of their work by way of introduction, thanks to the artists for permission to use these images.