The British Glass Foundation came up with a wonderful project as part of the Interntional Festival of Glass held in Stourbridge (28-31 May 2015) – asking celebrities to provide doodles which were then realised in glass by a team of talented glassmakers throughout the Festival. All pieces were auctioned on 24 October to raise funds for the work of the British Glass Foundation.
As the Master Glass Seller, I was asked to prepare a Doodle. What better than a typical London Cityscape.
I had the opportunity to see the Doodle in progress when I visited the Festival and decided to go to the auction with the intention of bidding for the piece. I did, and I outbid my rivals!
This is what glass artist, Nadia Lammas, said about making the piece:
I never make anything look the way it should look, it’s a sort of combination of an illustration and caricature of itself.
The biggest challenge was to tone down my usual colour palette and reign myself in a bit, I wanted to include the vibrancy of the city and its greenery but not over do. With this in mind,the original St Paul’s Cathedral was bright yellow and looked a bit like a temple, so I made this again.
Each piece of glass has a combination of two or three firings – in fact the gherkin had four! This is to build up the layers of colour and detail. Each piece starts clear then coloured powder is added then finally layers of enamel applied with a paint brush then fired. I then cut grooves into the wood ready for the glass to be added, this is the fun part, putting it all together!
Many people ask if I use driftwood and where do I get it from? In fact I use teak root that started life as a piece of furniture.
Nadia’s painstakingly created a real piece of art which I shall treasure always.
From Doodle to Glass Artwork
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