Northern Contemporary Glass Society Exhibition

The Piece Hall, Halifax

I have just joined the Northern Contemporary Glass Society and will be taking part in their annual exhibition at Halifax Piece Hall from 5th to 14th July.  The exhibition will be in Unit 58 on the ground floor and will be open from 11.00 to 16.00 daily.

The exhibition will showcase a wide range of work by professional glass artists from the North of England so come and meet the artists, be inspired by their creativity and buy something original.  The following artists will be exhibiting:

Genevieve Thompson, Jane O'Neil, Gina B, Annette Vernon, Jane Littlefield, Karen Redmayne,  John Orson, Diane Mellor, Jo Whitehead (that's me)! and Anne-Kari Kramer.

The exhibition is part of the Halifax Festival, 10 days of amazing cultural events across Halifax.  Check out the website to see what other great events are taking place in Halifax www.halifaxfestival.co.uk/

A Nice Surprise

Platform Gallery, Clitheroe

My glass has just been accepted for the Platform Gallery Craft Open 2013 from 27 April to 6 July.

Platform Gallery is a market place for handmade crafts and hosts exhibitions of contemporary craft. I submitted three pieces based on my Mesh design (see below) and all three have been accepted.

The exhibition launch will be on Saturday 27 April and there will be prize giving for the "Selectors' Prize" and "Ribble Valley Prize" (which I am not eligible for as I don't live in the Ribble Valley). However, there is the "People's Choice" prize where voting continues throughout the exhibition. 

So, if you are in Lancashire please visit the Platform Gallery and take a look. 

Glassprimitif at The Light, Leeds

If you are in Leeds city centre on Saturday (2nd June) don't forget to call into The Light and say hello.
I will be at The Stalls pop up shop as part of the contemporary Arts and Crafts Fair and will be showcasing new coasters, dishes and magnets fresh from the kiln. There will also be some new glass pendants and cufflinks for jewellery-lovers.

Here is some more information about the event:
The Stalls officially launches its pop-up shop at The Light in Leeds city centre this Friday 1st
 June 2012! Described as a 'haven for designers' The Stalls presents an eclectic mix of 
contemporary artwork from new emerging and established artisans. The aim is to raise a 
substantial contribution towards £10,000 needed to open The stalls very own Urban Arts and Crafts Gallery on Leeds city centre high street during the eight day extravaganza.

Leeds born Natasha Harris, entrepreneur and founder of The Stalls commented, "It is a great opportunity to have the pop-up shop based at The Light and a fantastic venue to host The Stalls Arts & Crafts Market on Saturday 2nd June . We have designers specialising in art, glass, jewellery, mosaic, knitted crafts, textiles and live artists' demonstrations, it's a not to be missed event". 

The Stalls has recently relocated from Harrogate to be situated more centrally to the designers and makers it supports. Natasha looks forward to setting up shop very soon to continue her work of championing and selling handmade arts and crafts and delivering creative art workshops for the community.

Event Details:

Pop-up Shop - 10am - 6pm 1st - 8th June 2012

Arts & Crafts Market - 10am - 6pm 2nd June 2012

The Jubilee Tea Party - 11am - 4pm 4th June 2012

At the Keighley Arts Factory

I work part time at the Keighley Arts Factory, a beautiful art space in the town centre. The Arts Factory was started a few years ago by the curator, Megan Cowen and is part of Keighley College. We host approximately six exhibitions a year, including the Keighley Open and the Creative Arts Students' End of Year Show. We also show case art exhibitions by contemporary artists with many different disciplines, including sculpture, installation, photography, painting, ceramics and print making. Previous exhibitions have included artists' collectives, such as Flux (ceramics) and Artfusion North www.artfusionnorth.co.uk and solo shows. We have some exciting new artists coming soon, including a dynamic and disturbing art show for January 2008 and a photography collective.

Working at the Arts Factory is a great job. Where else can you talk all day to artists, talk about art to the public, view artists' work and plan exhibitions? My job is to deal with all the administration and we also have a technician who helps and advises the artists reagarding the hanging and display of their work. Then there are the "Friends of KAF", a small team of volunteers who sit in the gallery when the exhibitions are on. KAF also hosts corporate events and meetings and can be hired out as a venue. We have a "point of sale" cabinet showing glass and ceramics for sale and a coffee area for visitors to relax.

If you are visiting West Yorkshire pop into the KAF to see what's on. www.keighley.ac.uk/kaf

Glass is good

The first glass I began fusing was float scrap that I could get free from work. I would fuse washers, copper wire, copper sheet, leaves and razor blades between the float. I still have these samples in a box along with all the pieces that went wrong. (It's a big box). When I got more familiar with glass fusing I looked around for a coloured glass that met my requirements and settled on Bullseye. The colours are so rich and vibrant. Here's an example of a few pieces of my Bullseye glass stash. My favourite colours are red (of course), vanilla, lime green, orange, amber, black and turquoise. Bullseye isn't the cheapest glass and all ambers, oranges and reds are the most expensive because of the gold content. So I have been looking around for a more competitive supplier. I have to weigh up my fuel costs against postage costs and it is definitely more cost effective to order glass by post than to travel to the warehouse I usually go to. The most competitive UK Bullseye supplier has to be www.warm-glass.co.uk where I already buy my dichroic glass. The new site is easy to navigate and they stock such a huge range of Bullseye colours that I am reeling from the choice. I'm going to have to make a purchase soon as I want to make dishes in chocolate and blue opal glass. I can even save glass I like in my Wish List so that I can go away and think about it before I commit to buy. If anyone wants to buy me a present from Warm-glass I would like the book "Contemporary Warm Glass" by Brad Walker. Thanks!