News and stories from a British glass artist
So recent days found me in the garden inside my light tent (a small white tent shaped like a cube with an opening to stick your camera), covered in makeup, dressed up to the nines (from the waist up anyway) attempting to be on both sides of the camera at once. I am pleased with …
Continue reading "Being on both side of the camera…. the making of new images for my Essex Crystals"
I like cats, and I have a particular fondness for Schrödinger's. I often invoke this famous feline as a way of taming my anxiety about something that might or might not happen. Standing with my sister in Cophenhagen airport in 1999 after a long trip, waiting for the interminable trundle of the conveyor belt to …
For a few years, I've been trying to understand and recreate a historic gem often know as the Essex Crystal. In 2020 I was awarded an Arts Council 'Developing Your Creative Practice' Grant to really get to grips with it. I was interested in adapting modern glass casting techniques, glass engraving, enamel painting and gilding …
2020 was a year to experiment, to try things out and learn more about engraving on glass, miniature portrait painting in enamels and how I can bring them together with casting glass and gilding into my Essex Crystal Project. I thought it would be fun to see some sketches, samples and nearly finished pieces that …
Continue reading "Essex Crystals 2020 – a smorgasbord of weirdness"
When I started out with my Essex Crystal Project, a few people, whose opinion I really value, said that I should concentrate on making the figures more convincingly naive. Even though I value what these people think, I found myself absolutely not wanting to make my figures more naive, and it's taken me a while …
I've been working on translating the engraving and painting skills I've learned recently into my Essex Crystal Project. It's been quite a journey, and at every stage has made me more appreciative of the skills of the artists who work in these techniques. Thanks to my Developing Your Creative Practice Award, earlier this year I …
Victoria Scholes 