International Festival of Glass 2026
In August 2026, we were honoured to visit St Helens for the International Festival of Glass - a celebration of glassmaking held only once every two years, and the only festival of its kind in the UK.
Peter Layton, Louis Thompson, Bruce Marks, Daisy Parkinson and Liam Reeves were invited to give a demonstration in the hotshop to celebrate 50 years of London Glassblowing. They created 'I Never Promised You a Rose Garden', a piece that revisits an ambitious sculptural work first made at the International Glass Symposium in Nový Bor in 2012, now part of the permanent collection in the Glass Museum there.
It explores the symbolism of disparate imagery through the juxtaposition of incongruous hot glass elements - here, the delicacy of a floral form set against the savage beauty of barbed wire.
Congratulations to all the artists who won an award at the festival. These include Layne Rowe, James Maskrey, and Olga Alianova. Come see their work in our gallery.
Our Stories
Women in Glass - Exhibition Open Call
London Glassblowing invites applications from UK-based women working in glass to take part in Women in Glass, a group exhibition opening in September 2027 to coincide with the studio's celebration of Peter Layton's ninetieth birthday. We are pleased to welcome back Cathryn Shilling, London Glassblowing's gallery curator from 2010 to 2019, who returns as guest curator for this special exhibition.
A Bermondsey Street Collaboration
Renowned glass artist and founder of London Glassblowing, Peter Layton, has collaborated with old friend and celebrity chef, José Pizarro, to create 30 limited-edition platters, launching on 12 October, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of José Pizarro on Bermondsey Street and the 50th anniversary of London Glassblowing.
The Alchemist at Work: An Interview with Peter Layton
For Peter Layton's solo exhibition, our Marketing and Sales Assistant Eva sat down with Peter to talk about alchemy - from his birth in Prague, a city steeped in alchemical history, to the alchemy he finds in glass itself. Read on to hear how Peter revisited his earlier works for this exhibition, and why he chose to return to the dangerous iridising process.