London Glassblowing

Peter’s work has been at the forefront of British studio glass since the 1970s, and his contribution to glass has continued to push the boundaries of the craft and excite new artists and glass enthusiasts across the UK and beyond. The opportunity to show at Collect, inspires Peter to undertake challenging new pieces such as his Icecap Pair, Atlantis Pyramid and Shard pictured below.

London Glassblowing is excited to be showing guest artist Colin Reid at Collect 2019. Colin Reid is regarded as a pioneer in the field of kiln-cast glass. He exhibits internationally and has work in over 50 museum collections worldwide. He has undertaken many public and private commissions often combining glass with other media such as metal, stone or wood. Based in his studio in South West England, Colin has developed the expertise and facilities to handle large scale commissions in glass including those created reflections and optical illusions each piece creates within itself.

“If I were to identify a single thread that runs through my work it would be the influence of nature. That is the source to which I return for inspiration and fresh material for my work.”

“Society is so fast-paced and immediate that there is barely time to think. As a result I want my work to be more reflective – for people to enjoy the shadows and the way the light bounces off the surroundings. It’s about slowing down and appreciating things for what they are.”

“As an artist, my model making training has proved invaluable, as it has given me a unique perspective from which to approach my work both in hot, and cold glass, not to mention the discipline and patience needed for the sheer time scale many of my projects require.”

A project undertaken at the Sigmund Freud Museum in London led inspired Louis Thompson to create his latest piece, ‘Sigmund Freud’s Dream Archive’. The group, which is being exhibited at Collect, illustrates the artist’s long-standing interest in taxonomy, archives, sequences and collections.

“The narrative of this piece is that each glass object within the group represents a dream, which would have been carefully extracted during Freud’s psychoanalytical sessions for future analysis.”

An obsession with perfection, a desperation to achieve the ultimate finish, a compulsion to create the most beautiful form. Laura’s pieces are not only flawless, they have an ethereal, mesmeric quality to them.

“I don’t use a lot of colour generally, or if I do it’s very simple. I concentrate on the forms and I don’t want the colour to become a distraction.”

“For me glass is the perfect medium, giving me creative and technical freedom and enabling me to produce something tactile, tangible and enduring, which I hope will give much pleasure to its owner, as it has to me its maker.”

“I love Brancusi’s work – how he simplified everything, distilled it, yet still managed to retain the very essence of the subject. His attitude to sculpture is inspirational and I use it a lot with my work, especially the Birds. The Birds have no features, no details, yet they’re instantly recognisable and I love that.”

The collaboration of creative campaigner Sophie Thomas and resident glass artist Louis Thompson has resulted in this inspired installation, aptly named Broken Ocean.

“The collection highlights the challenge of the colossal flow of plastic pollution that runs into our seas every minute of every day – currently a rubbish truckload a minute.

“Working with hand-blown glass and waste glass fragments, found ocean plastic from Hawaii and other beaches around the world,
and recovered ghost nets, this series of pieces reference the chaotic beauty of the swirling plastic filled ocean gyres and entangled ghost nets being pulled out from the deep ocean. These hand-crafted objects represent a horrific future that our Anthropocene age threatens to leave behind if we do nothing about our dependency on plastic and its easy disposability.”