Gals of Glazz - Kristel Britcher

Hi buds! I'm back! I really missed running Gals of Glazz so lets kick it off again, so many excellent lady glass makers out there, I love getting to share them with you. Who better to kick it off again than with the very talented Ms. Kristel Britcher! (Or K-tron as I like to call her when I email her with all my many session requests..) This lady is a gun. One of the most hard working glassies I know. Crushes it both hot and cold, she's the double threat. Very recently Kristel got to go polish up her skills in the lathe in the Czech Republic, lady is a cold working machine. Her products are beautifully designed and meticulously made. I have quite a few Kristel pieces collected from over the years and I owe her something amazing....! On top of running her own practice she is also the program manager at the Jam, I'm beginning to wonder if she even sleeps...

Gals of Glazz 

Tune in for 10 

1. Who are you and what do you do? 

I’m Kristel Britcher, Adelaide born and raised I’m a glassblower and the Program Manager at JamFactory in Adelaide. 

2. What do you make? 

I make a lot of things! I’m interested in conceptual and functional design, and sculptural works.  

3. Why do you make? 

Because I need to. It’s in my blood to create and has been since I was a kid. 

4. What’s you colour palette? 

All of the colours! Sometimes just tonal greys, sometimes transparent rainbow colours, sometimes 80s inspired opaque colours, it depends on what I’m making and what I think the work needs. 

5. What’s your proudest achievement? 

Receiving the Procter Fellowship last year- working in the ANU studio was such an inspiring and rewarding time for my work.  

6. Hot or Cold? 

Hot, cold, hot then cold again 

7. What’s your dream project? 

An installation work for a major gallery-that’s the dream! 

8. What’s your influences? 

I’m influenced by a lot of things. My upbringing, the natural world and how things are created and evolve, the history of the craft of glassmaking and the potential of the material; and some of my favourite writers including John Berger and Gaston Bachelard. 

9. What’s coming up for you? Or what are you looking forward to? 

I’m looking forward to finishing up a lot of little projects I have on at the moment, and seeing the many ideas I have turn into something! 

10. If you could only eat 3 foods for the rest of your life what would they be? 

Pineapple, olives and parmesan cheese. These things are good for my soul! 

www.kristelbritcher.com 

spinnin wheels

Spinning my wheels....

thats what I feel like I am doing. waiting, waiting for the studio to reopen, waiting for invoices to be paid, waiting for jobs to come in. it sure is tough to keep the momentum going. the fear of not having work is what eats me alive and keeps me up at night. it's like this every bloody start of the year for me, i go from ballz to the wall, mad rush to xmas, into tumbleweeds and baked beans on toast. it's taxing on ones self worth but i think that is because so much of who i am is tied up in blowing glass. what would happen if i stopped? who do i become? (lady's got to get herself some more hobbies (that don't include wine) thats what that sounds like.)

so i feel intense guilt at not actually working. why can't i just be happy, maybe go to the pool, go see a movie, just like regular people? the short answer to that is I don't know. i go to my studio just about every day, do little bits and pieces but really doesn't feel like alot. maybe it doesn't feel like much because i'm used to 7 deadlines at once and stressed up to the eyeballs. the balance. thats what i've got to find or i'll send myself into an early grave. the kicker here is, that if i do just go into my studio everyday and stare at the wall this is good for no one. i need to see new things, smell new smells, inspiration comes from everywhere and can strike at the weirdest moment. but to let these little moments of magic happen you gots to get yourself out there. live life.

so there you go, iv'e kind of talked myself round.

fuck it

i'm going to the movies




and to eat a choc top.

Gals of Glazz - MAdeline Prowd

So I reckon today will be the last Gals of Glazz for the year (but I may change my mind who knows...). I figure I'm taking a couple of weeks holiday so why not? Not that I view this as work, this is my favourite thing at the moment! So let's go out with a bang! Today I want to introduce you to Madeline Prowd.

Maddy is an absolute killer artist. I have been lucky enough for her to even work for me on occasion! What a piece of luck! MAddy is kind of the gun for hire at the jam so to speak. She assists some big names like Nick Mount, Clare Belfrage and now adds international superstars to her resume like Nancy Callan, woah! (You can see how I can't believe how she still works for me) Alongside her impressive assisting career, Maddy also techs at the JAm AND still manages to make her own work.  Her work is gorgeous. She uses beautiful, subdued tones to create well considered forms.

Gals of Glazz

Tune in for 10

1.             Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Madeline Prowd, glass artist and designer working out of JamFactory in Adelaide. I’m lucky to be in the hot shop most days of the week assisting many of the amazing artists who use the studio and make our community so sweet. I am also the assistant tech in our studio, so I get to build equipment and keep the place running smoothly, which is both super challenging and totally rewarding.

2.             What do you make?

I mostly make functional production work, utilising different patterning techniques and colour applications to pay homage to the origins of the material while bringing a modern aesthetic.

 

3.             Why do you make?

Because I enjoy it! I’m in a position where I get to go to work everyday and whether it’s making for myself or assisting others, I get to create things with a pretty crazy medium, surrounded by a community of amazing people. It’s hot, sweaty and dirty, but we create beautiful things that (hopefully) serve a purpose.  

4.             What’s you colour palette?

White, grey and blue…and occasionally I branch out with something crazy like gold. I’m trying hard to use more colour, but I really am a fan of muted tones and those dirty, off blues and greens. 

5.             What’s your proudest achievement?

That’s a tough one…

I think I’m pretty proud of where glass has taken me – I’ve had the opportunity to go to the States a bunch of times and TA for amazing artists that I have looked up to since I started at uni. Last year I got to go to Berlin for two months and do a residency, and then headed up to Ebeltoft where I met and worked for Tobias Mohl for few days, which led to TA’ing for him when he came to Adelaide this year for the Ausglass conference. Definitely didn’t expect to be travelling the world and blowing glass in my 20’s, it’s pretty sweet. 

6.             Hot or Cold?

Hot for sure!

7.             What’s your dream project?

To keep making for myself and for others, and to continue to be able to support myself from making glass.

I’d like to teach as well - I wouldn’t be where I am without the generosity of others, I really believe in the value of shared knowledge, so getting to a point where I can pass on what I have learned would be awesome.   

8.             What’s your influences?

The people and places around me. The material itself drives a lot of the work I create – focusing on a specific technique, colour application or the objects proposed function. 

9.             What’s coming up for you? Or what are you looking forward to?

No big trips planned for 2016…had a few good ones the past few years. So I’ll be in Adelaide, knuckling down and getting shit done. At the moment though, I’m looking forward to a little break over xmas/new years before rebuilding one of our furnaces in Jan.  

10.         If you could only eat 3 foods for the rest of your life what would they be?

Sushi

Bread

Lamb

You can also check out more of Maddy here

Thank you MAddy! And thank you for reading. Gals of Glazz will be back next year with a fresh crop of talented ladies for you to meet. You may be thinking, really? there's more? Of course theres fucking more! We glass ladies, we everywhere!

Gals of Glazz - Bethany Wheeler

Halo! This weeks gal of glazz is the lovely Bethany Wheeler who runs 1000 degrees glass studio. Beth worked at Monash when I was there and now runs her own studio. I am in awe of the studio she has built. It is so fantastic, well considered and a lovely, light working space. (She has also saved my bacon, letting me come down and use her drill press to drill holes for my lights, thanks beth!) Her cold working space is the bizz! (i hate cold working and even I want to be in there).

I really admire Beth and what she has done. She built up that little studio from scratch. She is my inspiration for my future studio, everything is just so nice in there (not like my leaky, dusty little shed...). So here you go, meet Beth;

Gals of Glazz

Tune in for 10

1.             Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Bethany Wheeler an artist based in Melbourne, I predominantly work in kiln formed glass whilst dabbling in paper, porcelain, found object assemblage and installation.

2.             What do you make?

I usually have few different bodies of work on the go at any one time.  At the moment I’m working of a new series of fused wall panels based on abstract aerial landscapes.

I always have a wax on the go, to be cast and combined with other elements and found objects for a body of ongoing works based on memory and recording the actions makers and their tools. 

I’m also constantly adding to a body of work based on the historical practice of making friggers - ‘glass with no utilitarian purpose, executed to satisfy the whim of the glassmaker.’ They were most often made in glass factories at the end of the working day on a whim – it’s where the term ‘friggin around’ comes from.  They document a calendar of making; I usually make 3 or 4 each month.

Plus a bit of production and corporate awards etc.

3.             Why do you make?

Making is inherent to who I am and I love challenge and beauty of working with a material that teaches you something new every time it comes out of the kiln.  I’m drawn to the fascinating material paradoxes of glass; fragility - solidity, liquid - solid, transparent - translucent - opaque – it is a hybrid that illustrates notions of the human condition and ways of seeing. 

4.             What’s you colour palette?

Clear or black teamed with anything bright - transparent or opaque.

5.             What’s your proudest achievement?

Setting up my workshop 1000 Degrees Glass Studios two and a half years ago was a big achievement for me.  Starting with a 230sqm empty shell, I built five artist’s spaces, a kiln forming area, a project/gallery space and later a purpose built cold working and wax/mould making workshop was added.  There are up to five resident artists based at 1000 Degrees at any one time creating a vibrant and supportive creative collective.

6.             Hot or Cold?

Hot, warm and cold its all integral to the process.

7.             What’s your dream project?

I’d love to play around with some large-scale furnace casting.

8.             What’s your influences?

The natural world. 

The history of glass making and the communities and cultures that form around the medium. 

Plus………Livio Seguso, Clarice Beckett, Silvia Levenson, Antoine Pevsner, Issey Miyake, Clare Morgan, Tapio Wirkkala, Rosslynd Piggott, Donald Judd, Peter Cooley, Walead Beshty, Janet Lawrence, Michael Rogers and the list goes on and on.

9.             What’s coming up for you? Or what are you looking forward to?

My last exhibition for the year is a group show at Kirra Galleries called Virtuoso, its opens on the 3^rd of December.  After that I’m really looking forward to working towards a group show called Aesthetics In a Time of Emergency at Craft ACT next year with a group of friends.

10.         If you could only eat 3 foods for the rest of your life what would they be?

Avocado, hummus & raspberries.

Check out Beths studio here