Creative Capital: Learn the art of glassblowing with this Singapore glass artist
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Creative Capital: Acquire the fine art of glassblowing with this Singapore drinking glass artist
Inspired past Netflix'due south Diddled Abroad to take upwards glassblowing? Expect for Barbara Jane Cowie, a Sydney-built-in, Singapore-based drinking glass artist, whose works tin can be seen at Changi Drome and Body of water Financial Centre.
Glass artist and educator Barbara Jane Cowie. (Photograph: Art Drinking glass Solutions)
04 Apr 2022 06:14AM (Updated: 04 Jul 2022 08:43PM)
I am, like many of you, I suspect, a bit of a Netflix junkie. One of my favourite contempo serial is Blown Away, whose second flavour dropped in January.
The fine art of glassblowing looks incredible. The results, when washed well, tin can be magical. But glassblowing – or working with hot glass, in general – also looks unsafe, exhausting and nerve-racking.
In Singapore, you have Barbara Jane Cowie, a respected Australian professional glass creative person and instructor, who moved here to teach. That was 18 years ago. Given the popularity of Blown Abroad, I thought I would cheque in with her.
WHAT DREW Yous TO Glass ORIGINALLY?
I was first introduced to drinking glass at the Sydney Higher of the Arts in the early 1980s. Glass was and then a newly introduced art textile and a new area of artistic practice in Commonwealth of australia. I majored in glass and sculpture, and graduated with a degree in 1983.
In my early on 20s, I travelled to England and Europe. Information technology was in that location that I saw hot glass for the first time and I immediately fell in love with this molten textile. Glass has a dazzler and intensity similar no other material. Symbolic of the fragility and beauty of life, it offers colour, texture, calorie-free and flowing form. Mesmerised by the glowing liquid and fascinated by how glass can be formed, I knew instantly I wanted to be a glassmaker for the balance of my life.
YOU ALSO Take A Chief'Southward Degree FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. WHAT OTHER EXPERIENCES DO YOU HAVE?
I spent ii of the four years abroad working with diverse glass artists and in different glassmaking studios in Europe and England. Hours were spent watching the glassmakers to acquire about how the glass is formed. I returned to Australia via Russia, Japan and Indonesia in the late 1980s.
While in England, I heard virtually a glassmaking training eye in the JamFactory, a craft and design heart in Adelaide. Determined to learn more and develop my own practice equally an artist and glassmaker, I moved there in 1989 to piece of work as a trainee.
I was too curious to learn more well-nigh Japan. I knew there were many glassmaking studios there, so in 1991, I set off to work at the Fujigawa Craft Park for a few months. I also worked in a product glass manufactory in Yamanashi Ken, and at the Unga Kogakan Drinking glass Studio in Hokkaido. I spent a year travelling and living in Japan, working in various factories and studios, and used my time to stage four solo exhibitions in Tokyo and Sapporo.
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Returning to Adelaide, I opened my ain hot glass studio. During this fourth dimension, I travelled to the US to undertake various hot glass courses at the renowned Pilchuck Drinking glass School, where I learned from prominent American glass artists alongside other students from around the world.
HOW LONG DOES It Take TO Master GLASSWORK?
The studio glassmaking community has expanded and grown exponentially, providing more opportunities to work aslope other glass artists. Rather than travel to overseas glassmaking studios, we are now able to watch glassmaking videos on YouTube and Netflix to run across the different approaches used in the making techniques. Thus, the time taken to larn may be reduced every bit data is more than readily available.
However, to develop the required knowledge and know-how to move with the drinking glass and understand how the glass moves, still takes time and lots of practise.
I HAVE TO ADMIT, I KNOW Picayune ABOUT Drinking glass, OTHER THAN FROM WATCHING NETFLIX'Due south Diddled Away AND GALLERY VISITS IN MURANO, Italia. TELL ME ABOUT THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF Production.
Glass is one of the first "manmade" materials that has been used and fashioned in a plethora of ways. It is difficult for me to describe the many kinds of glass-making production as there are so many. There are machine-fabricated, mould-diddled vessels (bottles and jars for packaging); bladder glass for windows and doors; borosilicate glass for science and heat-proof cookware; tempered glass for car windscreens; and art glass created through hot glassworking, using kilns, drinking glass casting, flameworking, coldworking and painting.
Art glass encompasses what you saw in Murano and in the Blown Away series. It started in Murano in the 17th century when it was a trading port, a little similar what Singapore is today. Art glass was an fine art form for Venetian merchants keen to display their wealth through ornate art glass – a virtually beautiful, expensive and difficult craft to master. They besides established a glassmaking heart on one of the Venetian islands.
During the early 20th century, earlier the early on 1960s, contemporary glass was mass-manufactured in factories to create mainly functional containers. This grade of glass fine art was pioneered in the early 1900s by Tiffany, Steuben, Galle, Hoya Crystal, Royal Leerdam Crystal, Orrefors and Kosta Boda.
Artistic glass blueprint emerged from the factories during the mid-1900s in Europe, where designers and artists were introduced to glassmakers. This combination of designer and maker led to the production of new products and artworks that had a marketing advantage over "inexpensive production" items.
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Studio glass followed equally a new use for drinking glass. It became an artist's medium to produce artworks and sculptures. This is a relatively new phenomenon that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. These days, fine art glassworks, made in Murano and as seen on Blown Away, are intended equally artistic statements as well as for sculptural and/or decorative purposes.
Studio drinking glass pieces tend to exemplify a artistic concept or equally a show of mastery of the difficult technical skills that require time-consuming processes. The price of studio glass is, therefore, high. It can range from a few hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars – and fifty-fifty a few million dollars.
WHICH STYLE OF GLASSMAKING Do Yous Near ENJOY?
My start love is hot glass. Picking up hot glass practise once more for the 30-solar day challenge with Refind – a Singapore company that focuses on recycling glass – has been a wonderful return to the physical, exhausting and embodied human activity of hot glassmaking.
Blown Away SHOWED HOW DIFFICULT AND PHYSICALLY TAXING GLASSBLOWING IS. IS IT REALLY THAT TOUGH? AND ARE ACCIDENTAL BREAKAGES THAT Mutual?
Yeah, it is really that tough, and yeah, accidental breakages are actually that mutual! Glassblowing is hot, very hot. You are standing in front of a reheating chamber that is radiating heat at 1,000 degrees Celsius. You sweat a lot, you need to drink a lot of water, eat a lot to maintain your energy and sleep a lot to rejuvenate your body.
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Accidents and breakages occur a lot when you are learning or trying something new. The timing is super disquisitional. If one part of the slice is too cold and you accidently knock the piece, the whole thing will come unstuck and fall to the floor.
THROUGH YOUR COMPANY, Fine art GLASS SOLUTIONS, Yous HAVE PRODUCED SOME IMPRESSIVE Drinking glass ART INSTALLATIONS. WHAT IS YOUR Creative Process WHEN A CLIENT APPROACHES You WITH A Brief?
It starts with the gathering of information. Firstly, the basics – location, size, budget and timeline. Then, I develop some initial ideas or concepts suitable for the infinite and the activity that occurs within it. I also do considerable visual inquiry to find out what is already in existence, and then I may create something new, unexpected and different.
Once I have a bit of an idea, I ask more questions to ascertain harmony with the space: What is the purpose of the artwork? Who volition be using the space? How volition viewers first see the artwork and from what angle of approach? Then, I inquire questions about what the client does, what the people exercise in that space, what inspiration and/or conceptual ideas they adopt.
I commonly offer up three different ideas and styles for the customer's feedback. Once the client shows preference for a sure direction, I volition develop it farther with more than visual research and the beginnings of three-dimensional renderings to better illustrate and represent my ideas. Once the concept and design are confirmed, I get from 2d designs to 3D maquettes and back once again to bank check on the conceivably and aesthetics of the design inside the infinite.
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Sampling is a critically important role of the creative process every bit I develop the start paper mock-ups to illustrate to the makers how the samples can be made and how they should look. Samples ensure that what I accept visualised is possible to fabricate. And every bit the samples get larger and more sophisticated, we get closer and closer to the last aesthetics of the artwork.
This design development process takes the longest as I develop new ways of working, challenging existing modes of production, and shifting the normal ways of doing things. A big part of my practise is to be very involved in the making procedure. Certainly, I take a vision but I also like to be involved in the making process, so as to make unexpected decisions about colour and grade while making.
Once the client has signed off on the design and the samples are developed, product can begin. During this period, I get to, figurately speaking, "step into" the artwork. I am no longer looking at an prototype or a computer screen, but working inside the artwork, surrounded by structures and samples, and fully immersed in the process of making.
Even during this making procedure, I am repeatedly experimenting with different components, placements and making visuals of the completed artwork within the space to ensure everything will materialise the way I have envisioned.
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Once all the components are consummate, we can begin the on-site installation. I have realised that we should always practice a pre-installation off-site to ensure it looks the way I expected it to look, and to avoid difficult and costly changes required on-site.
This too lets the installers learn how to handle the glass, fix attachments and position the artwork. If in that location is no chance to do an off-site installation, I unremarkably install a sample piece – a life-size version in a unlike material perhaps – to bank check position, size and layout.
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING INSTALLATION YOU Have DONE?
The most challenging installation I accept completed, and ane of the largest to engagement, is Complex Simplicity at the Ocean Fiscal Centre in 2013. It was so big, it was necessary for me to blueprint and develop a structure to support the wall, the sculptural wall finish and the 999 glass fish.
It was important that the artwork flowed every bit its focus was on the "movement" of the fish swimming. The exact bending and altitude from the wall for each fish were decided during installation, but the brackets that held each fish needed to exist confirmed before installation.
In addition, I wanted the fish and brackets to be a seamless fit – and for the brackets to be part of the design aesthetics. Furthermore, the brackets needed to be easy to remove for maintenance. That chore lonely took a year of pattern development, sampling, moulding and prototyping.
Some other twelvemonth was spent developing the layout and installation planning, and nevertheless another was spent on developing the fish shape, colour combinates and the bracket attachment details. Finally, shipping and installation took up the best part of vi months. The structure, sculptured wall backing, and finally, the fish, were installed layer by layer.
TELL ME Most THE WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES You lot OFFER.
I am passionate nigh teaching glassblowing. I take been an educator since the late 1990s in Australia, Europe, the USA and now, Singapore. Sharing my love of this astonishing material is an of import role of my practice equally an artist and glassmaker.
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I accept been instruction beginner hot drinking glass classes since I can think. I dearest the process and I love teaching. Over the years, I take developed and refined the way I teach so students tin learn a lot within a short time. Nonetheless, to understand what they accept learnt takes time and do.
Education small classes allows me to provide i-on-one educational activity so beginners larn speedily. The Diddled Abroad prove has increased involvement in glassmaking and many of my students have been excited to experience hot glassmaking for themselves.
HOW DIFFICULT IS Information technology TO BE A GLASS Artist IN SINGAPORE?
Glassblowing is non piece of cake. It takes years to learn and even longer to primary. I came to Singapore to teach but, unlike Australia, there was little interest in the applied arts and then. The focus at the time was the development of the IT industry. Making, labouring, sweating and toiling are usually the occupations of others.
The fine art of hot glassmaking is far from an occupation that allows yous to sit down. It is far from make clean and neat wear, and a long mode from air-conditioned comfort. And nigh students preferred to piece of work at a reckoner in a comfortable chair, and under the cooling breeze of the air-conditioner.
Take THINGS CHANGED? ARE There Art SCHOOLS IN SINGAPORE OFFERING COURSES IN GLASSMAKING TODAY?
To my knowledge, there are no other formal educational facilities offering glassmaking courses in Singapore correct now. Lasalle, before moving its campus, began to refocus away from the applied arts, shifting Jewellery into Design, Ceramics into Sculpture, and closing down Glass altogether.
The crafts and glass departments in higher educational institutions worldwide are endmost, too. Information technology is the tendency equally Information technology, web design, programming and computer designing courses become increasingly popular. New engineering naturally offers more career options for graduates. Applied arts courses require extensive materials and equipment to run, thus, they are expensive, especially if at that place are only a few students interested to learn.
Over the past 15 years, I have continued to teach in studios and drinking glass schools in Europe and Australia. And as I see more than academy courses close, I notice an increase in private studios opening up for classes and opportunities for hobbyists.
ARE Yous More FOCUSED ON STUDIO Practice AND TEACHING, OR Do Y'all All the same Have ON COMMERCIAL PROJECTS?
Currently, my focus is on teaching and opening a new hot glass studio for the public in Singapore. Training others with a similar passion for fine art making and glassmaking is my current goal, so that others may take on the role of the teacher or trainer. Offering a diverse selection of courses that allow novices to learn new skills, and use a different side of their brains is the essence of my current focus on enrichment and experience.
Nevertheless, my passion remains for art glass installation work. I pattern modest-calibration artworks for the home as well as seek out large-scale projects from developers and big corporations. Fine art making is something I will never stop doing, no matter how much educational activity I practice. Art making is fundamental to who I am.
DID THE PANDEMIC DISRUPT YOUR PLANS FOR 2020? HOW WAS THE Yr FOR You?
I was in the procedure of attention a creative writing course in Tasmania when travel restrictions were enforced. We were forced to pin and hold our sessions online.
I had also planned to travel to come across former friends and exercise a workshop or exhibition with them. Instead, I created a mini project called #getincontact, and connected with past colleagues and friends via Facebook, Zoom and Skype.
This creative project also provided me with a wonderful connexion to an extended international community of glass artists, one I did not previously brand time for. Also, I've decided to make my personal spaces public as no one tin can visit me in Singapore. I will be taking photos of my dwelling house and work space, and posting these images online.
The biggest do good of the circuit breaker flow was making the decision to have the time to extend myself with yoga classes every day, and undertake an online business organization development course for a few weeks.
During ane of these classes, the idea for Refind's #30daychallenge emerged. So, as I conveniently have a home studio, I decided to blow glass with a different bottle glass for three hours every day for 30 days. This provided me with a keen motivation to get up and work every mean solar day.
Posting the results online at #refindGS gave me the opportunity to think and write about the experiences of making. I also began to call back more about what it is to recycle drinking glass. How much glass is imported into Singapore every day, and how nosotros might find new ways to utilize and re-use glass in innovative ways.
ANY EXCITING PLANS FOR 2021?
The near exciting project in 2022 is to build a hot glass school in Singapore, where teaching, learning and enrichment are the aim. As we await closer to habitation during this new normal, offering the opportunity to larn something new such as hot glass is an interesting and exciting opportunity for many. The sense of wonder virtually this hot liquid textile, doing a magical dance with it, and gaining the skills to create functional and decorative art out of glass are exciting.
Whether it be making a bracelet of beads, a tumbler to drinkable a favourite beverage from, or a glass dish to bring a little colour into the home, offering others the opportunity to work with glass is a large role of my adjacent new adventure – and my ongoing journey and development as a glass artist, educator and creator.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said Barbara Jane Cowie is Singapore's sole drinking glass artist, which is incorrect. We apologise for the fault.
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