268 Poppies

268 poppies , one for every man from the local area who died in World War One. Each made by hand to recognise the sacrifices made 100 years ago defending our country.

These poppies are made from wire and tissue paper, with a painted centre and they are hung round The Great Anchor (between the Train Station and Teignmouth and Shaldon Museum). We are asking people to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Great War by photographing the poppies as they disintegrate over the coming days and emailing an image to us at westsidestoryproject@gmail.com A selection of these images will be exhibited in the museum when it opens again in the spring as part of their World War One exhibition.

 

 The poppies took around 60 people 20 hours to make and we will watch them disintegrate over the coming week in contemplation of the futility of war.

The Teign Heritage Centre  funded me to run 10 workshops in Teignmouth, with older people and families in the Museum, TAAG, Leander Court and at The Meadow Centre Craft Group. Many thanks to all the hands that helped with the flowers, I hope you agree they look extremely striking, we got lots of very positive comments whilst setting it up.

Many thanks to Museum Volunteer Christina Siviter for helping me install the artwork. 

Windows inspired by Derbyshire

I have just finished three panels were commissioned for a house near Malborough, in Derbyshire and they will sit next to each other horizontally. The family love the rolling hills, dry stone walls, sheep and fields of vegetables in the local area. The left hand panel shows their own house, the middle a view of the local market square and the right hand panel incorporates sheep drawn from their own photographs. Other personal symbols are included, from flying geese to small rabbits to entertain their grand children.

The panels are for an internal wall between the kitchen and the dining room, the limited colour palette fits with the kitchen colour scheme and they will bring interest, light and colour into a restored country cottage. They are made using traditional leading techniques and I have painted the glass with traditional kiln fired glass paints.

 

Exeter University Student of the Year Awards 2016

Delighted to have been asked to make the awards for Exeter University Employee of the Year 2016. This is the second year running I have been commissioned to make recycled sculptures for the award ceremony.

They are made from recycled glass, some are made with all the small shards of glass that are a by product of cutting glass for leaded windows, some is old broken picture frame glass and some is bottle glass. I cast these small pieces of glass together into slabs and even the wooden bases are made from salvaged wood.

 

Recycled Cast Glass Awards

Over the last few months I have been working on a large order for Exeter University; who commissioned me to make 60 awards and each one is totally unique.

The 50 nominee awards are in the shape of stars and are made by piecing small pieces of waste stained glass together and then fusing them together in the kiln.

 

 

 

 

The 10 winners awards were made by casting the glass into boxes I specially made from fireboard, each with a fibre paper star in the centre. I then melted the glass on a very hot casting cycle so it completely took on the shape of the mould. The glass I used for these awards was rescued from a skip when a glass blower had abandoned a studio and although kiln cast they are actually made from glass blowing skillet (large chunks of glass).

The University award ceremony takes place next week, I hope they like their awards!

 

A Dartmoor Scene

Just finished this little Dartmoor clapper bridge scene, for a house in a little village on the Moor. yet again my work is destined for a toilet window and it does make me chuckle how many bathrooms and toilets have one of my stained glass windows in them!

As usual I have cut the glass, painted my designs on to the pieces and then fired them in the kiln, before leading up the panel, soldering the joins and cementing all the gaps to make it water tight. I have added lots of little details to to give the piece interest including a little rabbit in the grasses and some fish swimming about in the river.

Stained Glass Fish Window for a Bathroom

This large panel has just been installed to further obscure a large bathroom window; I make lots of windows for bathrooms and toilets and it is a great place to put a stained glass window as it adds privacy and interest to small rooms.  At just over a metre square its a striking feature which is visible through the bathroom into the upstairs landing. The window has been fixed in front of the existing textured double glazed panel and really livens up the space. All the fish are made with iridescent water glass and have been hand painted and kiln fired. The panel is leaded using traditional techniques

Where to find me this Christmas

I have been really busy getting ready for all the Christmas exhibitions and shows and now they are all up and running.

You can find me at Thelma Hulbert Gallery‘s Present Makers Show in Honniton with lots of upcoming Devonshire makers. Its always a great show with an emphasis on ceramics this year.

I am also in my regular Christmas home upstairs at The Real Food Store Cafe in Exeter. This great cafe show my work every year and I am pleased to have lots of new work and Christmas decorations in there this year again.

Finally, the TAAG Affordable Art Fair is up and running in Northumberland Place in Teignmouth and we are having a late night shopping night from 5-7 pm on Sunday 14th December, with wine and music, so come and join us and get some unique Christmas presents with musical benefits!

Permanent sunshine

I just fitted this panel into a new garden room in a 1970’s house in Dawlish, so now they can have sunshine however dull and rainy it is outside!  And its pretty dull and rainy today!

The customers really liked Art Deco period style and so I used the colours and stylised forms of Deco to create this  very long, but very short panel

This is a 2 metre long, but only 25 cm high traditional leaded panel fitted in front of a double glazed unit and will be beaded in when the room is decorated.

A Loo with a view

Really pleased to have got my latest commission installed into its home in the downstairs toilet in a lovely late Georgian house in Teignmouth. This double fronted house has been converted from offices back into a family home and there is still lots of renovation to go (there isn’t a toilet yet!). The window add a great wow factor as you enter the house by the front door and creates visual feature at the end of the long central entrance hall.

This is my take on our local coastline of the Teignmouth Back Beach, estuary and The Ness Cliffs. The seagulls, beach huts, tiny boat and tree line have been painted and then fired in the kiln and are indicative of our town, as our the rich red cliff sides and deep green rolling hillside. 

A Toast to the Hosts!

This week I am enjoying the hospitality of Adele and Mike Yates, in their wonderful historic home ‘Mallards’. Their son Ben Yates has his studio there and we have taken over the barn and woodland for a week, with a fabulous art exhibition. We are open every day until Sunday 10th August. Click here for details

There are 5 artists showing their work in total (and I will post about the others later), but today I am going to focus on the magical world of Ben’s Electi-Cities and Photocubism.

The Electri-Cites are being displayed in a blacked out room! For good reason, they all light up with hundreds of LED lights and are made entirely from discarded electrical goods, from bits of old washing machines to DVD players. These are fascinating micro worlds, complete with tiny people and the dark room is like a big magical disco!

Photocubism it Ben’s other concept. Here he makes 3D pictures made up of many small square digital photos, to great effect. Keep up with Ben’s wonderful creations here