A New Home for my Glass

At long last I have created the space to house and work on my collection. A new studio addition to my home provides space for the glass collection, and also makes my house more toddler - friendly, so it should be possible for those grandsons to visit. And it means I can show my collection to glass enthusiasts who may care to call.


In moving the glass into its new home (a work in progress - the new shelving hasn't arrived yet), I have rediscovered some old friends, as well as getting a few surprises at pieces I had forgotten. The plan is that this will also result in more blogging, with these newly found old pieces to write about. I have better facilities for photography, too, so hopefully that will improve as well.

So here as a teaser is a fairly remarkable piece, made in Taranaki in the 1980s. I'll tell you more about it in a future blog.

Rob Hooper was an early NZ Glass Artist

Rob Hooper was working as a technician for the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth in 1973 when he met Tony Kuepfer, who had recently arrived from the US. Over the next year Rob assisted Tony in the building of Tony's concrete block glass studio next to the church in Inglewood, which opened in 1974. Rob spent a year blowing glass with Tony, then went travelling and visiting glass studios in Europe. When he returned in 1976, Rob worked with Tony and John Parkin at Inglewood for a few months, then set up his own studio in the Waikato - John Parkin came to work there too for a period. In 1980, Rob Hooper moved to Henderson in Auckland and established a studio there. He entered pieces in the 1984 and 1985 Philips Studio Glass Award exhibitions at Auckland Museum.

I have not seen any glass signed by Rob Hooper, so all the pieces in my collection have been attributed to him, sometimes with confirmation by Rob himself. The vase above with cane inclusions is 15 cm high. It was offered for sale on TradeMe by a trader who said she had bought it from a woman who purchased it directly from Rob Hooper when he was involved with the artisan group at Albany in the 1970s (though she may have meant 1980s). The mug at right (9.5cm high) was part of a group of ruby glass, which I bought thinking this might be by Tony Kuepfer. When it arrived it clearly isn't Tony's work, but comparison with another piece in my collection suggested it might be by Rob Hooper.

In response to an email enquiry Rob has confirmed this, saying: 'Yes, both these pieces are mine. The copper red was particularly unpredicatbale in the mixed container glass batch I used to make'.

Mel Simpson Discovery

It's always nice to discover something new about a piece in my collection. I have been doing some historical research in connection with a forthcoming book to be published by the NZ Society of Artists in Glass. I was examining (not for the first time by any means) the catalogue for the 1985 Philips Studio Glass Exhibition, held at Auckland Museum. To my delight, I realised that the catalogue image shown of a piece by Mel Simpson very closely resembles, or indeed may be exactly, a piece of Mel's now in my collection. I bought it on TradeMe in December 2006, but I hadn't noticed the comparison until now.

It is 27cm in diameter and 13 cm high. On the base it is engraved 'Simpson NZ 85', and also has a white paper adhesive label printed in black 'Hand made in NZ by MEL SIMPSON'.

It's not entirely clear from the catalogue which piece this is, but it is most likely no. 39 'blue fluted bowl', for which the price was $85. I would have happily paid that for it but of course, I didn't! Mel exhibited six pieces in the 1985 Philips Studio Glass Award Exhibition, three plates, a vase, a fluted bowl and a piece, presumably sculptural titled 'Relationship Series No. 2'.

Beautiful Early Hoglund Bottle

Ola and Marie Hoglund came to New Zealand in 1982, initially to work at Hokitika Glass, before setting up their own studio in Nelson in 1984. They have used their considerable skills, both in glass-making and in marketing, to establish a significant position for themselves in New Zealand glass.

They have always clearly marked their pieces, often with an applied label as well as an engraved signature. This makes their glass easily recognisable, and attractive to collectors who may not recognise unsigned pieces by other early NZ glass artists.




I have several early pieces of their work, the oldest a rather thick and heavy cylindrical vase signed 'Ola Hoglund 1984', and with a printed paper label, black on white, 'Handmade by Ola Hoglund New Zealand'. It's 23.5 cm in height.

I was very pleased recently to add another large and early piece, bought at auction on TradeMe. It also has a printed paper label, this time black with white text 'Handmade by Ola & Marie Hoglund New Zealand', and is signed on the base 'Ola & Marie Hoglund 1986 NZ'. It has a 'post technique' neck, and is 24.5cm high.

Joan O'Leary Surprise

I bought this vase in a TradeMe auction this week. The seller just called it 'Pretty Vase', but I recognised it as a nice example of the work that Chuck and Lesley Simpson and Andrew Williams made at Inglewood from about 1988 - 1990. So I was thrilled to find once I received it that it was well signed with the full name Joan O'Leary and the date 1989. Joan worked with Chuck and Lesley at Inglewood in 1988 and 1989, and while I have several pieces of her work from that period, this is the first I have seen that is so close to the work that Chuck and Lesley were doing themselves. Other pieces I have resemble much more closely the work Joan did later when she moved to work with Mandy Angus in New Plymouth in the 1990s.



Several pieces I have from this period are marked 'Glassplant', which was the name former owner Tony Kuepfer painted on the studio wall as a spoof on the Taranaki Think Big projects of the 1980s - the Methanol Plant, the Gas to Gasoline Plant, the Glassplant...

But the one at right is signed Lesley Justin 1989, and the one below is signed Chuck Simpson 1989. Justin was Lesley's surname before they married, and she signed her own pieces with her own name, though they also signed pieces jointly as Chuck and Lesley Simpson

Mel Simpson an early influencer

Mel Simpson was one of the pioneers of studio glass in New Zealand. He is notable as one of the two founders of the NZ Society Artists of in Glass (1980), which continues today as the national glass artists' organisation in NZ.

Mel learned his glass-blowing in the USA at UCLA (1975), having gone to the US to do a post-graduate design degree (Illinois 1974), but he discovered glass while he was there. His first degree was BFA from Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland (1971) and he returned to Elam to teach. He established the glass facilities there with a QEII grant in 1978. Ann Robinson, Garry Nash, Peter Raos and others were all students of his there. He received two further QEII awards in 1981 and 1983, and exhibited widely in NZ and overseas between 1980 and 1993.

The earliest signed piece I have of his work (top right) is dated 1977, and the latest a 'trophy' dated 1986 (below), though I have two unsigned pieces I bought at an exhibition in Howick in 1991. I think he stopped making glass about 1993. One of the first pieces of NZ glass I bought was one of Mel's (top left), signed and dated MEL SIMPSON 1979, bought in 1979 or 1980 from an exhibition at Whitecliffe Gallery in Parnell, Auckland.

Rena Jarosewitsch Continues to Delight

The work that German glass artist and jeweller Rena Jarosewitsch created during her stay in New Zealand continues to delight.

I bought a platter and a broach in the early 1990s, but at the time I was unable to afford the intricate small sculptural pieces she assembled. I recall seeing these at an exhibition at Masterworks in Auckland in 1994 – I bought a broach there since it was quite a bit cheaper. But recently I was delighted to spot several of her sculptures on the internet auction site TradeMe, and to bid successfully for several, for about the same price today that I paid for the broach in 1994. They are delightful pieces, and they will bring a lot of pleasure.

Born in Munich in 1962, Rena Jarosewitch studied glass design at the renowned glass institute in Rheinbach near Bonn. After graduating she visited New Zealand, and loved it so much she decided to emigrate here. In 1983 she established a studio at the Christchurch Arts Centre, and began to work in a variety of glass media. In 1989 she was commissioned to make the Erebus memorial stained glass window in St Matthews-in-the-City, Auckland. Other window commissions included the Air Force Museum at Wigram, Christchurch and the Housing Corporation building in Wellington, as well as for private houses and churches.

Rena also made slumped and fused glass platters and glass jewellery, as well as a range of small sculptural pieces of glass assemblages of pieces decorated using stained glass techniques. Her work was exhibited at galleries in Auckland and Wellington as well as Christchurch.

In 1995, Rena left New Zealand to return to Germany, where she trained as a goldsmith at Hanau am Mein, centre of Germany’s jewellery industry, and then served an apprenticeship as a jeweller. In 2003, Rena established Feinform gallery and studio in Frankfurt am Mein, where she shows her own work and that of other jewellers. The gallery website is http://www.feinform.de/ . The website does not suggest that she still uses glass in her work.