Photographing New Zealand Glass Isn't Easy - for me anyway

It's been a while since I blogged, but I'm going to try to do so more regularly. One of the things that does slow me up is photography - I've found glass a very challenging medium to photograph. That's partly because I don't have a good lighting setup at home, which links to the ongoing problems I have getting the colour balance right. Since colour is such an important part of glass art, getting it right is really important.

So I was thrilled to learn that veteran decorative art photographer Howard Williams is offering a short one day course on photographing glass. Howard has had a long involvement photographing glass and ceramics in New Zealand, and he produces superb work. His course is aimed at glass artists to help them produce good photos of their own work, but I have been accepted as well. I'm really looking forward to this, and hoping to be able to improve what I do considerably.

The proof of the pudding will be in the blogging, as they say. The course is not until mid August, so I'll be using my existing skills for a while yet

Glass from the TV Factory

In the 1960s and 1970s, television sets were made in several factories in New Zealand, one being the Philips factory at NaeNae in Lower Hutt. The glass valves and cathode ray tubes used in the TVs of the day were made by skilled glass workers. In their breaks, these people used their glass blowing skills to make items for their families, or to raise money for their social club. The lady who recently sold me the swans on TradeMe said:

The “art glass” items made at the Philips factory were made by the glass blowers who made the components for the radio & TVs. They normally made TV tubes and valve casings etc, but when they made a few of these art items in their spare time, they proved quite popular with the staff. The art items were not made generally available to the public and could only be got by or through staff members. The set of swans you have purchased came to me from an aunty who worked at Philips during the late 60s & early 70s. The social club used to sell batches of the glass wares to raise money from time to time. They are quite appealing but are distinctive in their rather thick and chunky appearance, and sometimes slightly rough cut from the blow pipe.

Katie Brown at Chronicle Glass

Going to the recent conference of NZ Society of Artists in Glass in Whanganui gave me the chance to visit Chronicle Glass and see the work of Katie Brown, and indeed to watch her blowing glass. I bought three of her wonderful Whispers, like those shown in the photo here, from the Wanganui Glass Group website. I bought a group of three red ones - they are stunning.

Katie completed a Diploma in Glass at Wanganui in 1999, and then had the opportunity to work with Josh Simpson in Massachusetts and Neil Wilkin in the UK. With Lyndsay Patterson she is one of the partners at Chronicle Glass, a wonderful open studio in Wanganui where you can see glass making, and indeed try it yourself on one of their introductory courses.

Libby Gray's Name is Perhaps Not Well Known

A recent acquisition of a piece signed L.G. '81 N.Z. is a reminder that some NZ glass artists are not well recognised, and their work is thus readily available to those who know what they atre looking for.

Quite a number of glass artists worked with Tony Kuepfer in Inglewood, as assistants, students and colleagues, while others continued at the studio after he left to teach at Whanganui.

Libby Gray came to spend a week or so at the studio in 1978, then moved to Inglewood in 1979 or 80, and worked full time there for several years. I have pieces in my collection dated between 1981 and 1984. She moved to Wellington to work for the Crafts Council in 1985 or 86, and later moved to Whanganui, as an administrator at Unicol.

I have slowly been adding pieces of Libby's work to my collection as opportunity allows, but the best pieces I have seen are in her own collection, which she kindly showed me a few years ago.

NZSAG Goes Live

After a lot of hard work, the revamped website of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass is up and running at http://www.nzsag.co.nz/Home-0.html . There are galleries of Members' work, details of membership and news and information. Importantly, there are details of the upcoming Conference 'Outside the Square' to be held in Whanganui in February next year. NZSAG welcomes as members anyone interested in New Zealand glass (if you're not a glass artist, you can become an Associate Member). Membership entitles you to participate in things like the conference and to receive the wonderful 'Glass News'. It's highly recommended!

Pacific Light Exhibition of New Zealand Glass by Emma Camden and David Murray in New York

If you live in New York, you've probably just missed the wonderful exhibition 'Pacific Light' at the Chappell Gallery on W 26th St. Emma Camden and David Murray cast glass in their home in a former Masonic Lodge in Whanganui, on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. British born Emma came to New Zealand in 1991, and has taught and cast glass in Auckland and Whanganui. She has exhibited at Chappell Gallery several times.

Emma's partner David Murray was initially a potter, but he turned to glass following a glass casting workshop taught by Emma in 1997, working initially as her assistant from 2000.

Emma's work has an architectural quality as she has explored especially buildings and structures, as well as making smaller objects and tools with personal associations (I talked about one of these in my blog on 30 June 2007). David has drawn inspiration from artefacts such as stone adzes and bowls.

These images show Emma's work (top) and David's (lower), and come from the Chappell Gallery website: http://chelseaartgalleries.com/Chappell+Gallery/Pacific+Light.html

An Early Piece of Sunbeam Glass?

This unsigned green decanter probably dates from the first period of glass making at Sunbeam Glass in Auckland. The lady I bought it from is certain she bought it in 1979 in Jervois Rd. She said "I remember going down an alley and here were these two or three glass artists at work." That would suggest she was at a glass blowing studio rather than a dealer gallery, and Sunbeam seems to be the only one to fit the description. The studio in Jervois Rd was behind the shop, shown at right.

Sunbeam was established in 1976 by John Croucher and James Walker, but operated a bit like a co-op, with a number of people involved and working there in a number of media. After a reorganisation in 1980, Garry Nash and Ann Robinson became partners with John Croucher, and it entered its second phase, playing a leading role in the development of glass art in New Zealand. But in 1979 Ann Robinson and Garry Nash weren't there. John Croucher has said "I don't know who made this piece. It could have been made by Danny Keighly, Ken Cooke, or myself (although I don't think so)." The glass has distinctive black flecks in it - Garry Nash has commented: "It could be any one at that time. The glass is coloured with chrome oxide or potassium bichromate, the chrome is highly refractory and requires a very high temperature to melt, without flakes of chrome metal precipitating out of solution and causing black spots. It was a common problem in the early days with every one panicking about the price of gas and fear that the furnace would melt!"

So it is not certain who made this, but it would seem most likely to be by one of these first Sunbeam glass artists. I'm delighted to have it in my collection.