response to the inherited archive of family documents collected by my mother. Multiple pieces of thin pate de verre of varying degrees of verisimilitude, displayed on an antique french bottle dryer. The interior space is filled with glass cookie cutter images with partial portraits.
photo: Simon Bruntnell
Portrait of my paternal grandmother, with text by my father about her entry into a mental health hospital when he was a toddler.
Portrait in kilnformed glass
opalescent glass with glass powder drawing and silver stain. Concrete and zinc stand. Based on a friend’s tale of rescuing a toad under an orange hunter’s moon.
36x21.5x7 cm.
Cast glass head in concrete base. Lost wax casting.
20x10cm diameter
Pate de verre fused glass bowl ( non functional). Fine crushed glass is fused in a wet plaster mold and fired until the glass forms a solid body but retains the sparkle of the individual glass pieces.
10.5x7 cm (approx)
Pate de verre bowl with red glass nugget inclusions. Based on the image of Kashmiri Valley in bloom during saffron season. Red glass interior, yellow and lavender exterior.
7.5 x 10cm (approx)
Monogrammed pate de verre folded handkerchief, devised as the signature piece for the installation “Washday”. Having recently cleared my mother-in-laws house Ive been finding dozens of handkerchiefs where she embroidered her inititials, giving this added poignancy.
Blue glass powder, clear and white crushed glass frit.
Fine crushed glass is first fired to produce a delicate sheet, and then two more firings using heat and gravity allows the folding of this glass sheet.
11z11x5cm
pate de verre vessel. 10x10cm £85
Glass head - powder drawing and multi-process coloured glass fused together.
Glass 30.6x23, with stand 34x33x22
Images of street cafes in Montpellier, a charming central part of Cheltenham.
Two glass panels mounted on wooden panel using standoffs.
Overall size 53x45.5x7 cm
Tiny fused glass pate de verre bowl, fired to achieve a smooth glassy interior.
5cm x 7.5 cm diameter
Multi- process glass panel with vivid reds and oranges surrounding a glimpse of water and a reedy lake edge.
33 x 26 cm glass, with stand 10cm deep.
kiln formed, blown and found glass with sound. Vintage glass washboards formed the starting point of this work. The sound component is included reminiscences and reading from a report on the impact of laundry on the psychophysical wellbeing of residents in social housing.
The soundtrack was then used as the basis of the moving image piece “The Wash”
Photo Credit. Simon Bruntnell
writing including publications
a collection of short pieces exploring some of the issues encountered when living with dementia Voicing Dementia
Available direct from Black Pear Press, a small press based in Worcestershire. Black Pear Press Voicing Dementia
Novella with Rod Griffiths Adrift ebook
short videos showing aspects of the process of making my work (Under development)
Discovering whether the silver stain has made the moon gold
showing the unmolding following an online pate de verre tutorial
short film pieces
exploring loss of identity in dementia
Exploring the loss of capacity to keep the thread of ones thoughts with dementia
The loss of knowing where you are - using ‘what three words’ to both add precision and confusion to the process of finding home
Exploring the complications of managing laundry in inadequate housing
