My Personal Gallery
THE ARTWORK I CREATED FOR MYSELF SIMPLY BECAUSE I WANTED TO.
People often ask me what I make when I'm not working on commissions.
This is it.
Toucans: Large glass art roundel & miniatures
Where it began
I grew up with toucans.
Not real ones, unfortunately. My mum drank Guinness and collected Guinness Toucan memorabilia, so those enormous colourful beaks were part of my childhood.
Years later, all that colour and character came back to me when I began designing Toucans.
I knew immediately that I didn’t want to make one lonely bird. My toucan needed friends and family around it, so the large roundel became a collection with two companion Miniatures.
After all, toucan never have too many friends.
Sorry. It had to be done 😂
Read the 'Spotlight on Toucans' blog here for the full story.
Why I keep it
I love the playful feeling of this collection.
The three toucans belong together, but each has its own character.
It’s colourful and slightly mischievous, but it also brings back warm memories of my mum and the toucans I grew up with.
How could I possibly separate them now?
Video of Toucans: In production and final work
People often ask me whether I prefer realistic or abstract art?
Honestly, I don't really separate them.
To me they're all colours, shapes, balance and design. Whether I'm creating a toucan or something completely abstract, I'm solving exactly the same puzzle.
Abundance: Large round fused glass art collection
Where it began
Abundance began with the glorious excess of a summer garden.
Flowers don’t arrange themselves politely. They overlap, twist towards the light and compete shamelessly for attention. One colour appears behind another and every gap contains another leaf, petal or stem.
I wanted to capture that feeling without making a conventional floral display.
The central column of flowers began to spiral upwards, giving the whole roundel its movement. I then created two Miniatures based on individual flowers from the larger design.
Why I keep it
Abundance is full of energy.
My favourite part is the relationship between the roundel and its two smaller pieces. The Miniatures feel like flowers which have escaped from the main garden.
I can arrange the three pieces differently whenever I feel like it, so the collection never becomes completely fixed.
It’s joyful, excessive and full of colour.
Video of Abundance: In production and final work
Most of my commissioned work begins with somebody else's memories and ideas.
These pieces came from me.
They're all strong ideas that stayed with me for a while, compelling me to explore them.
Palm House: Large fused glass botanical artwork
Where it began
Palm House began with Sefton Park Palm House in Liverpool, but it was also inspired by glasshouses and botanical gardens I've visited in Montpellier and Lisbon, as well as Kew Gardens and Tatton Park.
I’ve always loved entering a great glasshouse.
There is that first change in the air, then the heat, moisture, greenery and sudden feeling that plants have taken over the architecture.
I wanted to capture all of that, using my own shapes and colours to reimagine a Victorian glasshouse.
More than 320 individually cut pieces of glass eventually went into it. I must have been feeling ambitious!
Why I keep it
Palm House remains one of the most intricate artworks I’ve ever made.
I’m proud of the detail, but I also love that the detail doesn’t overwhelm the whole design. The architecture holds everything together while the palms, flowers and leaves seem determined to burst out of it.
It gives me the same feeling as entering a real palm house. The longer you stay, the more there is to discover.
Video of Palm House: In production and final work
Already imagining something personal of your own?
See how I turn a collector’s idea into an original Hard Edge glass artwork.
Discover how commissioning really works
One thing you'll probably notice is the variety.
Birds.
Architecture.
Flowers.
Faces.
Landscapes.
Abstract compositions.
I don't consciously choose subjects.
I follow whatever takes hold of my imagination.
Stairs: Large round fused glass art roundel
Where it began
I went to Manchester Art Gallery to see an exhibition - but instead the staircase completely distracted me :)
It was full of spirals, strong curves and hard angles - everything I love!
I took many photos - holding my phone down the stairwell, hanging over the railings, looking up, looking down ... each one exciting my imagination in some way.
By the time I left, the beginnings of an artwork were already in my head.
Those Manchester stairs have a lot to answer for!
Why I keep it
Stairs has a sense of depth that was exactly what I originally imagined.
The curves and diagonals pull my eye further into the roundel, while the glass rods catch the light and strengthen the feeling of movement.
I love that looking at it still reminds me of looking up and down that staircase and seeing all those shapes and lines.
This is exactly why architecture excites me - they're a collection of shapes demanding to become glass!
Video of Stairs: In production and final work
People might imagine artists look for the latest art trend and then produce it.
I've never really worked that way.
When I'm creating for myself I very much enjoy following my curiosity and seeing where it leads.
Spectrum: Fused glass wall art
Where it began
Spectrum began with the boxes of glass offcuts in my studio.
I never throw glass away. Small pieces left over from earlier artworks are sorted by colour and saved because I’m convinced they’ll become useful one day.
Eventually I had so many of them that I decided to make an artwork from them.
I arranged them into bands of colour, then added glass rods and noodles to bring stronger lines into the design.
Almost every piece had already lived through the making of another artwork.
Why I keep it
Spectrum feels like a visual memory of my studio.
Fragments from many different projects have come together to create something with a completely new identity.
I particularly love the way it responds to light. Transparent sections glow, while the opaque colours hold their ground.
It reminds me that ideas don’t always begin with a grand subject.
And, of course, I still haven't stopped saving my offcuts.