Glass is a most extraordinary material, delicate and strong, coloured or transparent, it has a chameleon-like quality, reflecting and refracting light depending on its density, composition and position. I can think of no other medium that captivates the imagination in such an all-consuming way.

As an art it is ancient and miraculously extant vessels millennia old have been discovered, their very fragility belying the years they have spent beneath the earth.  However, as mechanisation has eased and quickened production, so glass has become more accessible and we have quickly forgotten the age-old craft of glass working that has been all but subsumed by our cheap drinking vessels, window glazing and domestic wares. Glass has become ‘every day’, part of the background of our lives and the idea of the artisan-made glass objet, treasured and revered for its intrinsic beauty, has receded, although still maintained and continued by a number of very fine practitioners.

So glasswork that appears in ancient buildings, stained and leaded as it is, flooding interiors with vary-coloured light and awe inspiring in its beauty or the glass vessel of perfect colour and form, fail to communicate to the modern sensibility the effort in their production. The alchemy required to turn a blown-glass tube and varying pigments into a flat sheet of brilliantly coloured glass before being clipped, trimmed and chipped to create a window, or the necessary materials and tools to make the perfect vase or art piece, lost on the modern imagination.

Glass in some ways has lost its currency and it is our mission through Seek & Adore to reawaken a love for a material and an intricate art through the celebration of our marvellous makers.

I must admit for me the most extraordinary glass production technique is that of blowing. Where else in making is it possible for the breath of a practitioner to be infused in the piece itself? The imagination and life of a maker combined effortlessly and in perpetuity with their creation. A hot, sweaty, intense creative process, producing at its conclusion an object of unimaginable delicacy.

With modern developments and techniques glass has become astonishingly versatile as a medium and the range of glasswork on Seek & Adore readily shows this. I would like to take this opportunity to take you on a tour of our wonderful glass makers through some of the pieces they have created.

Helen Slater - Environment Glass Sculpture, £450.00

Helen Slater manages to catch a fragment of a moment and crystallise it. Trees and architectural motifs are suspended and immortalised in clear or coloured glass blocks. This work makes an ideal and stately ‘conversation piece’ in any well designed interior. Quiet but nevertheless communicating a powerful integrity borne of its simplicity and purity. In addition to her statement pieces Helen also explores other glass techniques producing framed figurative scenes and wonderfully quirky objets using glass and other materials. Helen is a maker who pushes the boundaries of her craft.

Siddy Langley - Lilac Paperweight, £38.00

I loved Siddy Langley’s work from the first moment I saw it and felt very keenly that here was someone who should be championed. Working in her studio in Devon, Siddy creates her wonderfully distinctive pieces which exude a quiet and meditative aura. Siddy’s love of nature is apparent in all her work, lending it a free, organic quality which is immediately appealing and accessible.  With the flashes of jade and swathes of purple this piece to me is reminiscent of the waves on the Devon coastline and the heather on the high reaches of Dartmoor.

Cathryn Shilling – Blue Line Flower Perfume Bottle, £275.00

Cathryn Shilling’s blown glass is a joy to behold. Her marriage of form and colour is daring and contemporary and yet her pieces convey a timeless quality. Perfume bottles were at one time a key element of any lady’s dressing table but in recent years have been side-lined by mass-produced, commercial vessels. Here Cathryn takes an age-old form and turns it into an exquisite art piece to treasure. For a birthday, for Christmas or for a special anniversary, Cathryn’s perfume bottles would make an extraordinary and original gift.

Elliot Walker- Strata Vessel, £48.00

Elliot Walker is up and coming but already a man to watch. His forms are bold and concise and his use of colour distinctive and unusual. Here, in his strata vessel, he produces a staggering complexity and subtlety of colour whilst incorporating a dramatic clear glass ‘frill’. Why not start collecting pieces by this already accomplished maker? Elliot is Seek & Adore’s youngest proponent of the art of glass blowing but he is proving already that the future of the craft is in good hands!

Frans Wesselman – Cat Lady Stained Glass Panel, £165.00

At once charming, whimsical and quirky, Frans Wesselman has a beautifully idiosyncratic, illustrative world that is entirely his own. There is a presumption that stained and painted glass can only sit in a fixed setting, but why not enhance a window in your home with a piece inspired by storytelling, myth and legend? Frans produces pieces that are portable, allowing you to take his world from room to room and house to house.

 Caroline Raffan – Cliffs Glasspainting, £75.00

Caroline Raffan’s pieces are gentle and thought-provoking. Here is glass used in a painterly way:  panels representing light-infused figurative scenes. Her style is free and expressive and like the work of Frans Wesselman would enhance any window in your home or would look beautiful lit from behind by a lamp or simply framed. Caroline is notable because she combines various techniques and alongside her paintings produces beautiful glass homewares.

 Melissa Nicholls – Large Amethyst Leaf Form, £80.00

Melissa Nicholls’ work is strong in colour and confident in form. Curvilinear, the pieces are sinuous and tactile, the glass appearing dense and substantial. Melissa’s work would be perfect as a statement piece in any well-constructed interior scheme and would look striking in a window setting or lit artificially from behind or below.  Whilst not big, Melissa’s pieces exude confidence and they would look particularly striking if arranged in groups.

Caroline Rees – Bird on a Roof Carved Glass Panel, £75.00

I love Caroline Rees’ pieces for their apparent simplicity but also for their vibrant and spare use of the line. Caroline’s work brings a new dimension to decorate glassware: the equal importance given to the shadows the pieces cast. This is a wonderful development in the craft. Her vivid combination of clear and frosted glass lends her pieces a multi-dimensional quality and a vivacity and contemporary feel that would l look great in any home.

And finally, other uses for glass …

Dani Crompton – Geometrics Box No.1, £180.00

At Seek & Adore we are committed to finding the distinctive and unusual and we most definitely struck gold with Dani Crompton who takes existing glass beads of miniscule size and combines them to produce the most exquisite creations. Dani’s forms can look deceptively simple but like the best micro-mosaicists, Dani works on a minute scale weaving intricate and complex structures and forms. Dani’s work in any home, or worn in the case of her jewellery, would always be a talking point!

Grainne Morton – Glass Dome Ring, £250.00

And finally, Grainne Morton, who has her own unique and inspiringly individual take on the use of glass. Here Grainne creates a ring from found objects and turns them into a small and exquisite curiosity. Here is an imagination free and unfettered, taking inspiring from the most curious and wonderful of sources. Glass domes are associated with taxidermy, clocks and valuable ceramics, pieces often large, valuable or of morbid curiosity. By miniaturising all these associations Grainne has created a portable work of wearable art.

See Dan’s glasswork selection here

Return to Home Page