Art of glass: the ancient material at the forefront of the 2018 craft scene

Sensational design from boundary-breaking young makers is heralding a renaissance in British studio glass. Here is our selection of the best.
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Nicole Swengley7 June 2018

Elliot Walker

One of very few glass artists to create figurative sculpture, London-based Elliot Walker works in molten glass. His unconventional forms include this culinary still life, with chopped fish, priced £3,000; a green-glowing Gothic skull, also £3,000 and a café scenario with glass chair and table at £11,000. Small pieces are priced from £430.

“The process is very physically and mentally challenging,” says Walker. “Once you begin a piece you have to see it through to the end in one session. The pieces are not cast, carved or ground into shape but modelled from a cooling liquid, so that until the very last second the sculpture is a moving entity, frozen in time as the glass sets.”

Walker’s work is available at Vessel Gallery and London Glassblowing.

Monette Larsen

An undulating Static Motion vessel by Monette Larsen wowed visitors at Collect 2018, London’s annual crafts fair. This joyous representation of life and growth, priced £4,250, is skilfully created from kiln-formed glass. Larsen also experiments with water jet-cutting, combining precise digital cutting with hand work. “The inspiration is nature and how our perceptions of its underlying structures and patterns inform what we perceive as beautiful,” she says.

Larsen graduated from the Royal College of Art’s ceramics and glass MA in 2014 following a glass art degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Her sculptural, one-off pieces, priced from £400, are available at London Glassblowing and she also undertakes residential commissions for site-specific wall installations, from £5,000.

See Larsen’s work at Counterpoint, an exhibition by 13 Mile Studio collective, at One Paved Court Gallery, Richmond, from June 20-30.

Richard Roberts

Richard Roberts’s aesthetic focuses on reconnecting with nature as an antidote to too much technology. “Nature is more important than ever in our digital world,” says the West Midlands-based artist. Panels, such as Rain-Reveller, feature human figures interacting with elemental forces, while flying birds enliven fused-glass dishes.

His sculptural pieces are kiln-cast in three-dimensional or relief forms. Colourful trails and stringers add allure to blown-glass vessels, priced from £50. These hand-blown glass vases are priced from £160.

James Devereux

Former RCA glass technician James Devereux set up a Wiltshire glass studio with Katherine Huskie in 2013 and works with hot glass, producing sculptural, solid forms and hand-blown pieces, from £3,500. For the Clovis Collection he chips hot glass as if it were stone to create monolithic pieces with smooth surfaces and fractured edges.

Pictured is Triple Clovis in blue, steel and plum with lacquered wood and steel base, priced £7,500. Form and texture are emphasised by subtle colouring. Inspiration comes from a love of underwater shipwreck exploration.

Work available at Vessel Gallery.

Joseph Harrington

Using ice as a modelling medium, Surrey-based Joseph Harrington sculpts it with salt then casts it into glass, capturing a “frozen” moment as it melts and giving his pieces, from £2,500, spontaneity and drama. Pictured is Canyon Falls II, £3,800 from The New Craftsmen. His landscape interpretations of jagged cliffs and eroded coastlines aim “to reveal a sense of the history and movement of a place”. The V&A bought his piece Ravine last year.

Harrington graduated from the RCA’s ceramics and glass MA in 2006 and won best in show at last year’s British Glass Biennale. Collaborating with interior designers, he creates bespoke work for residential clients.

Shelley James

Fascinated by visual effects in glass, Shelley James’s recent work emulates light-responsive molecular structures. Each part is cast from a 3D print, adapting a “lost wax” technique and assembled to create, for example, this lit stellated dodecahedron, £20,000 including lightbox.

This Arts Council England and Crafts Council-supported project grew from a residency at King’s College maths and natural sciences faculty in 2016.

“I worked with scientists to understand the underlying principles and combined traditional glassmaking with digital technology to interpret these phenomena,” says James, who gained a PhD at the RCA in 2014.

She also creates edge-lit glass panels integrated in seating, room dividers and lighting. Small framed glass works start from £150.