I have been a glass artist for over 30 years. Glass by Gina came to fruition in 2005 when I was a stay at home mum to my first son.
Here are a few questions people often ask me:
What awards have you got?
I have received a few awards over the years, but I don’t go out of my way to enter. I feel that awards are luck of the draw because it is after all the opinion of the judges at the time. There are so many creative minds and masters at their chosen craft that they all should be rewarded. I also feel that when an artist is true to their own creative instincts instead of what is trending or in vogue at the time will be valued for life. There will always be those who love my style and those who love some other artists. After all “beauty is In the eye of the beholder”
I became an internationally acclaimed artist when I entered the yearly Emirates Art Awards. Out of 1600 world wide artists I was in the top 18. These 18 were split into three categories for Emirates membership levels Gold, Silver and Bronze. My group of 6 was called Opulence. I came runner up.
Other awards I have include 3rd in the Cancer Council’s yearly art awards. Runner up in Victoria Park (Perth, WA)
How do you know what to create?
When someone sees my work and falls in love with it, then I know that the person I created it for has found it when it was meant to be found, just like finding the love of your life. They will always love the piece and it will be a valuable contribution through their journey of life.
Why does it cost so much?
When people ask me this, gives me the opportunity to explain that glass is a very scientific material and it takes many, many, years to become skilled at it, I don’t even think the masters have mastered working with glass fully, there is always some thing we can try to push the boundaries of what we already know.
Adding oxides to create colours causes complications with how the glass behaves when heated, some glass is classified soft or hard because of how quickly it starts to flow, you can’t mix different types of glass with other types because they will repel each other, but not straight away, it can be years before a piece splits or cracks. Some colours are so volatile when heated that there are not many shades able to be produced in glass, along with how many times you can heat the piece up.
One of the main materials to make glass is silica (sand) which is becoming scarce because we rely so heavily upon this material, it is used from building materials to making micro chips. On top of this other materials used to make art glass like uranium to get the pink colour, or titanium to give the metallic coating (diachroic) are expensive and becoming scarce as well. Plus creating these sheets of art glass that I use is still man made in this machinery making world. Therefore batches are small, and time consuming to create.
To complicate matters further different techniques require different glass making processes, and equipment requirements. I learnt to glass blow, but the cost of equipment, running costs and space meant that it is too costly for a young family and I wouldn’t have time enough available to create my glass pieces.
Experimenting with temperatures also means that all the work and time you put into making the piece can be destroyed because the glass breaks while being fired.
What does your studio look like?
My studio has three kilns, glass to create mosaics, stain glass or copper foiled pieces, as well as casting and fusing glass. The last category, the glass is in different forms (from ground up powder to 1.5kg blocks) to heat up and manipulate in the kilns.
Materials to stop the glass from sticking to the kiln shelves and creating my own moulds, and ceramic or stainless steel moulds to shape my pieces.
Finally I have equipment for doing lead lighting, mosaic, copper foiling (which are all other glass techniques, see my blog on Cold to Hot Glass), along with equipment to make my own moulds, such as baby blocks and paper weights.
I hope you have found this interesting.
Enjoy the journey.