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After a lot of hard work, the revamped website of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass is up and running at http://www.nzsag.co.nz/Home-0.html . There are galleries of Members' work, details of membership and news and information. Importantly, there are details of the upcoming Conference 'Outside the Square' to be held in Whanganui in February next year. NZSAG welcomes as members anyone interested in New Zealand glass (if you're not a glass artist, you can become an Associate Member). Membership entitles you to participate in things like the conference and to receive the wonderful 'Glass News'. It's highly recommended!

If you live in New York, you've probably just missed the wonderful exhibition 'Pacific Light' at the Chappell Gallery on W 26th St. Emma Camden and David Murray cast glass in their home in a former Masonic Lodge in Whanganui, on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. British born Emma came to New Zealand in 1991, and has taught and cast glass in Auckland and Whanganui. She has exhibited at Chappell Gallery several times. Emma's partner David Murray was initially a potter, but he turned to glass following a glass casting workshop taught by Emma in 1997, working initially as her assistant from 2000. Emma's work has an architectural quality as she has explored especially buildings and structures, as well as making smaller objects and tools with personal associations (I talked about one of these in my blog on 30 June 2007). David has drawn inspiration from artefacts such as stone adzes and bowls. These images show Emma's work (top) and David's...

This unsigned green decanter probably dates from the first period of glass making at Sunbeam Glass in Auckland. The lady I bought it from is certain she bought it in 1979 in Jervois Rd. She said "I remember going down an alley and here were these two or three glass artists at work." That would suggest she was at a glass blowing studio rather than a dealer gallery, and Sunbeam seems to be the only one to fit the description. The studio in Jervois Rd was behind the shop, shown at right. Sunbeam was established in 1976 by John Croucher and James Walker, but operated a bit like a co-op, with a number of people involved and working there in a number of media. After a reorganisation in 1980, Garry Nash and Ann Robinson became partners with John Croucher, and it entered its second phase, playing a leading role in the development of glass art in New Zealand. But in 1979 Ann Robinson and Garry Nash weren't there. John Croucher has said "I don't know who made this ...

The late James Mack, former Director of the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt, wrote that his father worked the night shift at the AHI Glass factory in Penrose, and as a 10 year old James was fascinated to see the workers 'pluck red hot beer bottles from the production line and fashion them into things fantastical.  Their best efforts were swan ashtrays, sensitively conceived but crudely rendered'. Most of these ash trays are brown, but there are clear and green ones, using milk and wine bottle glass. 'Kia ora' (or sometimes 'Kai ora' if they got the spelling wrong) is a common motto - this recent acquisition has 'Happy Days' an d the date 1966. Dates ar e not common, but all the dated ones I have seen are 1966. These epergne style ash trays are the most elaborate I have seen. They have no motto or date.

My latest TradeMe acquisition is the beautiful bowl on the right. I have two other pieces like it, in the same very distinctive 'tortoiseshell' pattern. It is not signed, but has Tony's distinctive cross-pontil mark. The others I bought several years apart at a second hand shop and a street fair. The bottle is clearly signed AWK '90, giving me a good date for the other two, since they are so similar. Tony was working at Whanganui at that time. It's nice to be able to assign some certainty to unsigned pieces.

Giovanni (Italian for John) was the name used by John Leggott and John Croucher for their Auckland partnership in glass between 1991 and 1995. Inspired by the glass of the Italian masters, they produced some remarkable and very distinctive pieces. I bought several at the time, but I have added second hand pieces from internet auction site TradeMe, including these two recent acquisitions. I suspect I paid less than the original price - NZ glass is generally not investment art - yet! At 46 and 47 cm tall, these are substantial pieces, in the truly glowing colours that the Johns made their hallmark. Nowadays, of course, they supply these colours to others, as the makers of Gaffer Glass, which they export from Auckland to glassies throughout New Zealand and world wide.

A quick trip to Auckland yesterday enabled me to catch the last day of Mike Crawford's show hue at Masterworks - see http://www.masterworksgallery.com/index.cfm?action=exhibitions&type=past&ex_id=96 I bought a gourd from Mike's first show at Masterworks last year - they are amazing. Mine is the red one in this Mastwerworks exhibition image. This time, as well as whole gourds he has also produced some 'cut' and 'carved' ones, reflecting even more strongly the links between his art and the Māori decorative use of gourds (hue in Māori), which were also functional objects, of course. It'll be interesting to see where he takes this fascination with gourds next.