Crackle Glass by Chuck Simpson

Until now I've been only dimly aware of crackle glass, a form I tended to associate with trinkets from some European and American glass factories, and not something that appealed to me at all.  

So I was very surprised when this cranberry red crackle glass decanter appeared on TradeMe. 

The listing read: 

Cranberry crackle glass decanter with stopper.  
Very pretty and in lovely condition.
 
Signed by Chuck Simpson 1989. 
Very collectible piece.
28cm x 10cm 

No-one except me showed any interest in it, so my bid was successful. Now it has arrived I can confirm it is clearly signed Chuck Simpson 1989, when Chuck was working at Inglewood.

I can't recall seeing any other piece of crackle ware made by a New Zealand glass artist. Of course, now I'm hoping other examples will show up.

An article by Stan & Arlene Weitman in Angela Bowey's Online Glass Museum http://www.glass.co.nz/crackle.htm  tells me that crackle glass is formed by immersing the glass in cold water while it is still molten hot, thereby cracking the glass. The glass is then reheated and either mold or hand blown into the shape desired. The reheating of the glass seals the cracks. On the outside of crackle glass you can feel the cracks, but the inside is smooth.

Having experienced what happens when a hot glass object is dropped accidentally into a bucket of water (the explosion put my young daughter off visiting glass works for a number of years!), it sounds like a scary process, but it does create an interesting effect.



I will be interested to hear of other pieces of New Zealand crackle glass. I wonder how much of it Chuck Simpson made.

Nic Robb an Early Student in Glass

There have been a lot of students of glass in New Zealand since the first tertiary course was established in Whanganui in 1989. While some have gone on to make sustainable careers as professional glass artists, many others stop their glass-making once they finish their studies, or after a few years in the 'real world'.  A collector of glass like me is always delighted to buy a piece by an 'emerging artist' since that person may go on to a significant career. I have a number of pieces in my collection which are early examples by some of today's 'names' in glass - perhaps that might be the subject for a future blog. But equally, I also have pieces that are one of only a few made by a particular person, who did not carry on in glass. I treasure those as well.

I first came across the name Nic (for Nicola) Robb in June 2006 when I bought a piece on TradeMe signed 'Nic Robb Feb 89'. Just over 8cm high, it's hardly the greatest piece of glass ever made, though a competent piece for a beginner, with its iridised light brown body and the brown spiral that rises from the base.  Because I knew Tony Kuepfer was teaching glass in Whanganui in 1989, I asked him if he recalled the maker. Tony, who is ever helpful in responding to my many enquiries of him, responded saying:

"Nic Robb was in the first group of students for the Certificate in Craft Design Programme at the old Wanganui Regional Community College (UCOL). That was about the time I was getting involved with them and before they had any studio.  They sent their glass majors up [to Tony's studio at Inglewood] to get a taste of glass. Nic was in the first graduating class late 80s.

"Her piece is a nice bit of the history for your collection perhaps…"

In 2007, another piece of Nic's was offered on Trademe, but I was not successful in acquiring it - the photo at right from the TradeMe site is my only record of it.  22cm in diameter, it was also signed 'Nic Robb Feb 89'.

In February 2010, I was successful in bidding for another piece, this time signed 'Nic Robb May 89'. It's 10cm high.  One might guess the first two were made at the beginning of the academic year, and this one in the May holidays after the first term.

None of these pieces is more than a competent student product, and looking at them alone one might understand why Nicola didn't continue as a glass artist. So imagine my surprise and delight to see another piece listed on TradeMe in November 2013. 

This is a much more accomplished piece, simple yet elegant in form and very attractive in its use of two layers of coloured chip. The pontil has come away cleanly, and there are no tool marks.  It is signed 'N.Robb Mar 89', so presumably made during term time - Easter perhaps? It's 13cm high.

Nic apparently didn't continue her career in glass - I've not seen any pieces later than 1989. But she did pursue a career in arts administration, serving as PA to Dowse Art Museum Director Tim Walker in Lower Hutt from 1998 to 2003. I have not been successful in my efforts to contact Nic, though I understand she is probably still based in Wellington.

As Tony Kuepfer indicated, Nic Robb was part of the first intake of students in glass at the Wanganui Regional Community College, which had been established in 1984. The glass course began in 1989, leading Tony Kuepfer away from his Inglewood studio, to move eventually to take up full-time teaching at Whanganui. The College became Wanganui Regional Polytechnic during the reorganisation of Polytechnic education in the 1990s, before becoming part of the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in 2002. In 2007 UCOL and the Wanganui District Council entered into a partnership agreement to secure the future of the school, and in 2008, the District Council established a Private Training Establishment, the Wanganui Educational Institute, which now manages the operational activities of the Glass School facility. But that of course was long after Nic Robb had left.

Inglewood Cards Provide Great Provenance

I mentioned in my last post the great provenance provided for a recent acquisition by a catalogue from the first Philips Studio Glass Award exhibition in 1984. Here's a piece of Chuck Simpson's glass I purchased recently, which also has a great confirmation of its provenance.

This is clearly signed  'Chuck Simpson', so there can be no doubt who made it. But Chuck Simpson made glass at Byron Bay in Australia before he came to Inglewood with Lesley Justin in 1987, and he made glass at Eumundi in Queensland after he and Lesley, by then his wife, returned to Australia in 1990. It is typical of glass he made at Inglewood, but it is great to have its New Zealand origin confirmed by the marketing card that came with it.

 

But that is not the first Inglewood piece to have come with its own marketing card.  The piece to the left is signed 'Glass Art NZ', a name which seems to have been used both by Chuck and Lesley Simpson and by Andrew Williams, though that is not currently totally clear. All three of them were doing quite similar work, as individually signed pieces by each of them demonstrate.

When I purchased it on TradeMe, it came with a small laminated card, printed on both sides.

The card is delightful for the stylised sketch of the Inglewood church and studio where Tony Kuepfer first set up the studio that he called Glass Plant, subsequently used by Chuck and Lesley and by Andrew. 

This photo, taken in Inglewood in October 2012, shows that the church, with the concrete block studio that Tony Kuepfer built, has reverted to its original religious purpose.

 


The small vase at the right is also signed 'Glass Art NZ', but the card that came with it leaves no doubt that this was indeed made by Andrew Williams. The metallic sheen on the card and its slightly crumpled state makes it a little hard to photograph. I wonder who is represented in the drawing?

  

It is also interesting to see Andrew playing on the history of the Inglewood studio in his marketing. I'm not sure if he was aware of Reg Kempton's studio at Havelock, but Reg had died by this time, so the claim would seem to me to be correct.

Keith Mahy - one of the pioneers

Photo: Stephen Robinson

I have been saddened to learn of the death in Whangarei of Keith Mahy, on Friday 14 June 2013. Keith was the first New Zealand born studio glass artist (I think only English Reg Kempton and American Tony Kuepfer predate him in New Zealand). But Keith's involvement with glass began well before he set up his studio in that former cow shed at Otonga, between Hikurangi and Whakapara in Northland in 1976.  

Keith was born in Whakatane in 1947 and studied sculpture and design at the Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University, graduating with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1969. He won the New Zealand Manufacturers Association Student Design award in 1967, and on completing his studies worked in packaging design in Auckland. In 1970 he was appointed Design Director at Crown Crystal Glass in Christchurch. Keith designed many of the successful ranges of glassware produced by Crown Crystal Glass, including Anker which won a Designmark award in 1970 and Aragon, Designmark 1971.

But designing glass for others to make wasn't enough for Keith, so in 1975 he left Crown Crystal to set up his own studio at Otonga. He built his own wood burning gas kiln, and made his own moulds out of pear wood.

 

I don't think Keith signed any of his early work, so identifying pieces is not easy, but I think these are examples of his glass from that time. The manaia-like handle terminals were a distinctive feature of his work.

In 1982, the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council provided Keith with a grant to equip his new studio at Paparoa, and this enabled him to improve the quality of his glass. He exhibited in the Philips Studio Glass Award exhibitions at Auckland Museum in 1984, when he received a Merit Award (highly commended), and in 1985 and 1986.

Merit Award 1984 Philips Studio Glass

1985 Philips Studio Glass

In the 1986 Philips

catalogue, he wrote: "Living in the country on a historic Maori Pa site on the Pahi Peninsula which juts into the North Kaipara harbour, has prompted me to install my own wood gas plant to utilise local resources and to cope with the high energy demands of melting glass in a furnace. 

1986 Philips Studio Glass

This, combined with working in an environment surrounded by trees, farmland, and ever changing tidal inlets, as well as the exciting properties of hot glass, like transparency, reflection, refraction, colour and its particular spontaneity, are the main influences on my work at present."

In 1986, in the developing environment of craft education in New Zealand, Keith became a part time tutor in Glass and Design at Northland Polytechnic in Whāngārei. A QEII grant was made in 1988 to extend the studio at the Polytech, and Keith taught glass there for a number of years, until the facility became a casualty of the reforms in craft education which undid the previous good work. Quite a number of present day glass artists learned or enhanced their skills under Keith's guidance.

An exhibition piece from the late 1980s

One of those was glass caster Shona Firman with whom Keith established both a life partnership and from 1995 'Burning Issues' studio and gallery in the Whangarei Town basin, to which they were able to relocate completely once the Polytechnic closed.

2001 example of Keith's 'shard' vases

In 1997, Keith and others developed the Beachcomber Glass Studio in Rarotonga, followed in 1999 by a training course there for young potential Rarotongan glass artists

2002 cage glass perfume bottle

2003 feathered perfume bottle

   

One of Keith's most recent colleagues, Rebecca Heap, posted this photo on Facebook on 16 June, with the note: "This afternoon we emptied the pot and turned off the heart beat at Mahy Glass amidst lots of fire and steam. With family and friends present it was the saddest shut down I have ever done." 

Keith Mahy was one of the pioneers of studio glass in New Zealand.  His passion for glass, his teaching and mentoring of others, his creativity in his own glass work and above all his friendly nature will be sadly missed.

Ann Robinson's 'BRIM' Heads in New Directions

 

I was really lucky to be in Auckland this week so I could see Ann Robinson's amazing exhibition BRIM at FHE Galleries. Ann is renowned for her exploration of the bowl form and yet here she takes it in a completely new direction. These are distinctly and recognisably Ann Robinson bowls and yet they represent a totally new body of work. She describes in the poem that accompanies the exhibition the process, intellectual, technical and physical that led to these works. 

I won't try to explain that here, that is for Ann to do, which she does most eloquently of course through the bowls themselves. This is an exhibition that you really must try to get to see for yourself. The photographs by Kieran Scott reproduced here from the FHE exhibition brochure are great, but you need to see the bowls themselves.

The exhibition is on at FHE Galleries in Kitchener Street, Auckland until 29 June 2013.

Avalon postscript - a New Zealand glass Film Star

In my last post I talked about the history of Avalon Glass, based largely on the account of it by one of the founders, Greg Smith.  Greg has provided a few corrections and clarifications of the roles of some of those involved, which is much appreciated. But he has also provided an update on what he is doing now.  Not currently making glass, he has been pursuing his career as an actor, and is about to be seen in New Zealand cinemas in the new release Mt Zion (in NZ cinemas from 6 February 2013).

Greg may be seen in the trailer which features on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0gHwasfR7g, and the screen captures shown here are drawn from there. Greg plays a promoter who auditions the wannabe Bob Marleys who are the centrepiece of the story - 'some sort of welcoming party for Captain Cook and his Endeavours' is a memorable line.

I know little about the film other than I have seen in the trailer, but you may be sure I'll be going to see it, and not just to see this early NZ glass artist in his new role - it looks like a great movie.

Not Keith Mahy, but another Kharen Hope

I recently had a tussle on TradeMe with my Australian competitor 'Slumbum'.  Stephen is a keen bidder on New Zealand glass, while I do my best to keep pieces in New Zealand.  Opononi trader Tigerlillie advertised a piece as being by Keith Mahy, with an indistinct signature but probably dated 1990.  'Slumbum' and I both realised a signed and dated piece by Keith from 1990 was unusual, and so we went for it.  He pushed me a bit, but I succeeded in the end.  We more than doubled the reserve, which no doubt pleased Tigerlillie.  In the meantime I had emailed Keith to seek verification that the piece was his.  Alas, after I had won the auction the reply came that it was not a piece Keith recognised as his work.

So I waited curiously to see what it was.  To my delight, the signature was one I recognise readily - now, though I wouldn't have known it until recently.  In that curious way whereby once you see one piece, others turn up, it turned out to be signed Kharen Hope '90, another piece by the Whanganui artist I have blogged about a couple of times recently.  I would have liked a 1990 piece by Keith, but I am very pleased to add another piece of Kharen's to my collection, and a more substantial, more sculptural piece than the scent bottle I blogged in September.

If you've followed the link I gave to Kharen's pieces in the Charlotte Museum collection (http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3024/object/658/Blown_Glass_Vase) , you might have noticed that one piece was bought by the donor, Miriam Saphira, as she did not want a man to buy it.  I do hope Dr Saphira doesn't mind too much that this piece of Kharen's is in my collection!

Whanganui Beckons

http://www.wanganuiglass.co.nz/

For the last six years the glass enthusiasts of Whanganui, one of the main centres for studio glass in New Zealand, have organised a week long festival to showcase the art of studio glass in New Zealand (and Whanganui especially).  I'm intending to join the fun this year, at least for part of the time.

All week from 16th to 25th September the town hosts the Main Street Glass Exhibition, with shop windows along the main street featuring displays of contemporary glass.

The official opening of the festival 'A Fragile World' with a charity auction of glass pieces is on Saturday 17th at the Sarjeant Gallery.  Tickets for this gala event are available on the Festival website http://www.wanganuiglass.co.nz/fragileworld/ .

The Hub at 56 Victoria Avenue is the information centre for the duration of the festival from 10 to 4 daily, and also features an exhibition of works by students of the Wanganui Glass School.

On Monday night 19 September master Australian glass artist Nick Mount will be giving a talk at the Sarjeant Gallery, and on Wednesday evening it is the turn of British glass caster David Reekie.

On Friday 23 September at the Whanganui Glass School there is 'Blowing in the Dark', which might be described as 'performance glass art'.  And on Saturday Chronicle Glass in Rutland St hosts the Glass Olympics, competitive glass making with teams of some of Whanganui's best competing.

And throughout the Festival a wide range of glass studios will be hosting demonstrations and exhibitions.

If you're interested in glass and you're anywhere near Whanganui, make sure you visit during the festival.all