News and stories from a British glass artist
There’s a delicious in-between point when a new work starts to come together, but while there’s still much to do, that you begin to know you’re onto something. Here it is: my Schrödinger’s Dementia banner. There’s heaps of work to do on this. I want to do more badges with more imagery around memento mori …
Continue reading "Work in Progress: my Schrödinger’s Dementia banner"
I am so excited with the arrival of this thing of beauty into my home and onto my finger! It's been a privilege to work with the talented Isabelle Captain to realise this piece. A reminder to myself to live well - with all that means in it's richest, ripest form, it was inspired by …
So recent days found me in the garden inside my light tent (a small white tent shaped like a cube with an opening to stick your camera), covered in makeup, dressed up to the nines (from the waist up anyway) attempting to be on both sides of the camera at once. I am pleased with …
Continue reading "Being on both side of the camera…. the making of new images for my Essex Crystals"
I like cats, and I have a particular fondness for Schrödinger's. I often invoke this famous feline as a way of taming my anxiety about something that might or might not happen. Standing with my sister in Cophenhagen airport in 1999 after a long trip, waiting for the interminable trundle of the conveyor belt to …
For a few years, I've been trying to understand and recreate a historic gem often know as the Essex Crystal. In 2020 I was awarded an Arts Council 'Developing Your Creative Practice' Grant to really get to grips with it. I was interested in adapting modern glass casting techniques, glass engraving, enamel painting and gilding …
2020 was a year to experiment, to try things out and learn more about engraving on glass, miniature portrait painting in enamels and how I can bring them together with casting glass and gilding into my Essex Crystal Project. I thought it would be fun to see some sketches, samples and nearly finished pieces that …
Continue reading "Essex Crystals 2020 – a smorgasbord of weirdness"
When I started out with my Essex Crystal Project, a few people, whose opinion I really value, said that I should concentrate on making the figures more convincingly naive. Even though I value what these people think, I found myself absolutely not wanting to make my figures more naive, and it's taken me a while …
I've been working on translating the engraving and painting skills I've learned recently into my Essex Crystal Project. It's been quite a journey, and at every stage has made me more appreciative of the skills of the artists who work in these techniques. Thanks to my Developing Your Creative Practice Award, earlier this year I …
One of the joys of working at home is the immersive soundscape provided by garden birds. Blackbirds, pigeons, blue, great and long-tailed tits, starlings, sparrows and goldfinches all contribute to the cacophany that forms the backdrop to my work. And oh the goldfinches. According to the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch they have had a particularly …
I've put together some images and text to give a sense of my work and how it's developed since 2006 when I graduated. I started with Domestic Gospels and Corner of My Eye - both presented for my Degree Show and at Batch, an exhibition that was part of the International Festival of Glass that …
Continue reading "Domestic Gospels to Essex Crystals; looking back"
Victoria Scholes 