bodner051

I mentioned recently my acquisition of a piece made in New Zealand by Lino Tagliapietra during a demonstration and workshop visit he made here in 1990. This was one of quite a number of such visits organised by NZ Society of Artists in Glass over the years - I have mentioned those I know of in my article on the beginnings of NZ Glass in the book New Zealand Glass Art published recently by NZSAG. As well as the Tagliapietra goblet, I have been lucky to acquire two other examples of glass made in New Zealand during these visits.  Richard Marquis was one of the first American glass artists to study glass making in Venice, spending a year on a Fulbright scholarship at the Venini factory on Murano in 1969.  Subsequently, Marquis shared widely the knowledge and skills he had acquired by touring and demonstrating in many countries, including New Zealand in 1981 to coincide with the first NZSAG conference.  During that trip, Auckland Museum was given one of his fabulous teapots ...

Lino Tagliapietra was born in Murano in 1934, and has a long career as a maestro in making glass.  Significantly, through his connection with Dale Chihuhly, he fostered the process of sharing the Muranesi glass making skills, until then closely guarded secrets, with the wider world.  Lino taught at Pilchuck in Washington in 1979, and undertook teaching, classes and demonstrations in many parts of the world. In 1990 Garry Nash and NZSAG arranged for Lino to give a masterclass at Garry's Sunbeam Glass studio in Ponsonby.  I was thrilled to have an opportunity to visit one of the sessions at Garry's invitation.  Lino made a number of pieces during his time here, and I was delighted recently to be able to add one of those to my collection after it was offered on TradeMe. This dolphin goblet is a classic example of Venetian glass making, but it is signed Lino Tagliapietra NZ 90.  It's made in clear glass, but the eyes are red murrini with white centres.  It's ju...

While I'm on the subject of architectural glass (a relatively new area of interest for me, though I've loved mediaeval church windows since first seeing Sainte Chapelle in Paris), I should mention a recent acquisition, a small panel by Kiwi/British artist Kathy Shaw-Urlich, who now resides in the small rural Far North settlement of Whatuwhiwhi.  Kathy exhibited this at a small gallery in Awanui in April 2011, and I was delighted to acquire it. The work is titled Maunga Tapu , or holy mountain. Although she was born and brought up in the UK, Kathy's Maori heritage has always been important  to her. She has whanau links to Whakapara, north of Whangarei, where another of her windows may be seen.  In 1998 her whanau asked her to make a window for behind the altar at St Isaac's Anglican church. I am delighted that there is a connection between these two windows, since Kathy has told me that the glass she used for the maunga in Maunga Tapu was a piece left over from the mau...

Auckland glass artist Michel Androu has made a window for the new Mangamuka Clinic of Hokianga Health which opened in April 2011.  The window depicts the mountain Maungataniwha and the Hokainga Harbour.  It bears the inscription 'He ika koriparipa me he tangata toitu', which has the sense of 'a healthy fish can swim against the tide, and a healthy person can overcome anything'.   The window is placed to be seen from within the entrance foyer.  The clinic is currently open only on Wednesdays from 9.30 to 2.30, but staff are very welcoming if you want to view  the window during those hours.

One of the pioneers of glass in New Zealand has died in Wairoa. James Walker graduated in commerce from the University of Michigan in 1971, then went to travel the world. He first came to New Zealand in 1974 to join his brother on a boat. He worked selling water beds in Auckland, and would go to Australia periodically to renew his tourist visa (he eventually got residency). James was interested in glass. He saw Dennis Prior selling leadlight lampshades at Cook St market. At John Barleycorn Gallery he saw some of John Croucher's early experiments in glass, made while John and Eric Ineson were working at Claude Neon. James first met John Croucher on the day in January 1976 that John signed the lease on the Sunbeam Glass studio in Jervois Rd, Auckland. James became a partner in Sunbeam (pictured at right in 2005). Lots of different types of glass were being made by a range of artists. James became increasingly focused on architectural glass, and after the first NZSAG community se...

This year the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. One of the features of every NZSAG conference these days is an exhibition of members' current work. That will be true again this year, with the added bonus that there will also be included some of the earliest work by the pioneers of studio glass in New Zealand. Artists have been searching their basements to find the earliest examples of their work, but I am delighted to have been asked to lend a few pieces from my own collection. One is the Mel Simpson tall bottle I blogged recently, and another is the 1983 Robert Middlestead stained glass panel I blogged in August 2010. A piece by Libby Gray I blogged in January 2008. Here are some others: The piece at left is a vase made by Peter Viesnik, signed VIESNIK '80. It was in 1980 that Peter teamed up with the other Peter, Raos, to form the Hot Glass Company that they operated successfully at Devonport until about 1990, when the partne...

I have been delighted recently to acquire one of the oldest pieces by Mel Simpson that I know. The TradeMe vendor said it had been identified by Cordy's in Newmarket as a being piece by Mel. I was intrigued, since it looked more like a Kuepfer bottle, so I wondered how Cordy's knew. The vendor then said that in fact it was signed on the base. So imagine my delight when it arrived in the mail to discover not only Mel's name but the date '77 there too, in upper and lower case script - Mel Simpson '77. After completing his BFA at Elam and MFA in Design at Illinois, Mel studied glass at UCLA in 1975, with help from the (then) QEII Arts Council. He then came back to New Zealand to set up the glass studio at Elam. 1977 must have been almost his first year of production in New Zealand. This tall bottle form was a favourite of Tony Kuepfer's - I have blogged about Tony's bottles previously. The earliest bottles of Tony's I have seen date f rom about this ...