About

About my work

The transformative nature of fusing with glass means that every aspect of the work is a metaphor for the transformative power that nature can have on our lives physically, psychologically and spiritually and is the reason real organic elements are often left trapped inside the glass.  These burn away entirely leaving their form behind, like a memory or fossil.

Each piece created starts life as two sheets of clear glass and, using a technique called inclusion fusing, I create the colours and effects I am looking for using metal powders, silver leaf, enamels and fine glass powders trapped between the two layers. These are then fired in kilns to temperatures above 800ºC where they transform into their final colours, silver leaf turns to yellow, gold to pinks and violets, copper turns to a turquoise blue, and melt together to form one piece.

I create work ranging from functional objects to art glass panels for the home, which is beautiful and intimate, bringing the memory of nature into our homes to connect us back to the healing power and beauty of the natural world.

Each collection is made up of a core of 3 – 5 items with supporting one off pieces.

Where I make more than one of a design, due to the handmade process and the nature of using organic matter, there may be slight differences in size, colour, texture and design, from piece to piece. While I try to ensure they are as consistent as possible, it will always mean that each piece is unique and while every effort is made to accurately represent the colours when photographed, please be aware that different monitors may display the colours differently.


The Collections

Portal Collection

The portal as a motif to represent other dimensions or levels of consciousness, is one I am very fond of.  The fern here is a metaphor for new life with the fern trapped inside the yellow portal signifying physical, psychological, ontological or spiritual transformation.  In the space outside the portal the ferns are not actually there and are shown by the blue of the negative space around them – what isn’t there is just as important as what is.  The colour blue has been used in art down the ages to represent the heavens, transcendent states or important spiritual people, and to other dimensions such as the elements of sky/air/sea/water. Colour for me, is emotional, on the one hand the pieces could evoke loss and memory and on the other, the transformation that leads to new life and hope.

Willow Collection

Weeping willow leaves were some of the first leaves I used inside glass and although they have a seemingly simple shape no two are identical.  I like this abundant variation in nature and the way the branches cascade from the tree in arch-like forms.

Along with the portal collection the process to create this collection is more complicated and time consuming, as it involves using a violet enamel underneath the powdered glass to create the intense magenta colour that reminds me of the colours of the sky at sunset.  Each leaf form is then cleaned and painted with my copper concoction to create the vibrant deep turquoise bubbles.

Poets Laurel Collection

I wanted the Poet’s Laurel collection to be simple and elegant.  Each piece is hand-painted with my own copper concoction that makes the leaf forms seem like they are composed of tiny water droplets.  Copper and water being essential components in the evolution of life.

Using fine powdered glass (frits) to emphasise the negative spaces between and around the leaves creates an interplay between what is and what isn’t there, what was once present but is present no longer, about memory and remembrance, atmosphere and feeling.

About Me

I get my creativity from my mum who came from Northern Karelia in Finland which is a land of lakes, pine and silver birch trees. I grew up exposed to Scandinavian Modernist glass, design and architecture where natural materials and the organic are key.

I graduated from Oxford Brookes in 1990 with a degree in Visual Studies (mainly printmaking) and started working with glass as a medium about 20 years ago. I gained a Masters Degree in Glass at the Welsh School of Architectural Glass in Swansea in 2004, this ignited my passion for inclusion fusing with organic elements, metal powders and leaf, oxides and enamels.

Nature has always featured highly in my work, especially trees and what I love most about the natural world is that it is both vast and awe inspiring yet microscopically small and intimate with tiny beautiful details that draw you in.  It is this intimacy that I strive to achieve with my work, using organic matter inside the glass, it burns out in the heat of the kiln and leaves the memory of it behind like a faint fossil or ghost.

My aim is to produce work that is beautiful and contemporary, bringing external organic elements into the built environment to remind us of, and connect us to the natural world.

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