Christmas Bauble Film

About a month ago I blew some new glass baubles for a few Christmas Crafts Fairs I was doing.  I blew them at Garage Glass, just outside Belfast and Adam Frew filmed me.

Unfortunately I couldn't upload this until after Christmas…so Happy New Year!!

Hot Glass at Flowerfield

From 16th - 20th April Flowerfield Arts Centre, through Creative Causeway and funded by the Garfield Weston Trust, hosted a range of hot glass activities, including workshops for University of Ulster students in glass blowing with Scott Benefield and lampworking with me.  On the Saturday Scott and I gave public demonstrations in glass blowing.  It was great to have the very skilled and knowledgeable Scott onsite with his wonderful portable studio! And I had the rare opportunity of blowing glass in Northern Ireland!

Adam Frew put together a short film of the events:

Hot Glass at Flowerfield

Over the next few weeks there will be quite a bit of hot glass activity happening at Flowerfield Arts Centre.

Renowned american glass blower Scott Benefield will be bringing his portable furnace to the Arts Centre in order to offer workshops to University of Ulster students and also for 5th and 6th form students of local schools to view glass blowing demos. This will take place from Wednesday 17th -Friday 19th April.

On Saturday 20th April from 11am-3pm there will be public glass blowing demos by Scott and myself. Needless to say I'm really looking forward to doing some blowing, and also seeing Scott at work.

Film of Scott glassblowing at Flowerfield last year

For the first time I will be teaching a night class in lampworking. This is due to start on Tuesday 16th April and run for five weeks, from 6.30-9.30pm every night.  This course will allow me to help students get a firm grip on making beads and also learn and experiment with form and pattern application. Fee: £82, £77 concession

I will also be teaching a one day class on Saturday 4th May from 10am-4pm.  Students will learn how to make a basic bead and also a variety of colour and pattern techniques. Fee: £55

For more information or to enrol on either lampworking class contact Flowerfield: 028 70831400

Lampworking Class

Christmas Gift

Well it's only five days to Christmas, so I thought I would give my readers a treat.  This is a film made just a few months ago of Ned Cantrell making one of his amazingly complex and beautifully crafted sculptural glass pieces.    He works from his studio in Aarhus that he shares with his glassblowing wife Karen Nyholm (nyholm/cantrell).  I had the pleasure of working there for a month in 2010 and learnt a great deal from both of them.  Ned has a very relaxed attitude to working with molten glass which gave me the confidence to try techniques I would never have approached before.  Karen has an aesthetic in her work that I greatly admire and strive for in my own work; a bold simplicity and a beautiful use of colour.

So here's Ned making a blown glass astronaut, enjoy!!

Christmas Pop-Up Shop, Belfast

Pop-Up Shop veteran Stephen Farnan, and his team of elves, are busily putting together a quirky shop filled with locally, irish handmade items...and I am busily getting my stock together to pass over to his capable hands!

The shop will be located in Cornmarket Square, right in the commercial heart of Belfast, at the entrance of Victoria Square shopping centre and beside Starbucks.  It opens on Thursday 8th November at 6pm and will run right up until Christmas, so be sure to call in for a present or two!!

Film of the opening night by Adam Frew

Making a Molecule Pendant

Adam Frew just made this film of me lampworking one of my black Molecule Pendants.

They are for sale on my website:

http://www.catherinekeenanglass.com/jewellery/

Cane pulling and blowing film

Blowing the Allianz Business to Arts Awards commission at the Stourbridge Glassblowing Studio in the West Midlands.  My glamorous (and very helpful!) assistant was Ian Bamforth.  It took a while to get to grips with the process of pulling cane and rolling them up, but we got there in the end! ..and it was a brilliant studio to hire.

Photos of the award to follow.

Film by Adam Frew