Vestige series
2006 (ongoing)

In October 2006 I was one of a group of four artists selected to take part in the Gulbenkian Kiln forming residency at North Lands Creative in Caithness.  Housed in a renovated old schoolhouse on Lybster's main street this remote windswept location with its open landscapes, vast skies and ever changing light was to be our home for the next eight weeks.  Living and working alongside three incredibly diverse artists; Margareth Troli, Glenn Carter and Jeff Zimmer each with their own very unique approach to glass making, inspiring and motivating they where the perfect group to have shared this experience with.

I had applied for the residency with the intention of learning the pate de verre (glass paste) process.  Met with grimaces by some when i professed a desire to learn this technique, i was a little apprehensive.  i have an ongoing fascination with memorial art and the way various cultures choose to remember their loved ones.  I have been extensively collecting old memorabilia in the form of old shoes, clothes and photographs all in various states of disrepair and had long harboured a desire to replicate these in glass.  Using the pate de verre process i could reproduce ghostly, brittle interpretations, the fragile delicacy of which i believed would capture the feeling of memories past.  As a complete novice i was prepared for some difficulties and was not dissapointed!  My early laboured efforts were infrequently rewarded with success.. However, perseverance and the uninterrupted luxury of time meant i could get to grips and i completed my residency with pieces that formed a successful starting point.


I have since made my return to Northlands as an invited artist to teach a skills class in pate de verre and also at
Bild Werk, Fraeunau Germany; Edinburgh University -College of Art, Glass department and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop amongst others.

'Smock dress'
two overlaid panels
pate de verre glass dress (L) 45cm
pate de verre wallpaper panel (L) 47cm

'Lace jacket'
2008
two overlaid panels
pate de verre glass (childs edwardian jacket) & pate de verre glass wallpaper panel

'Butterfly dress'
*two overlaid panels
**selected entry for the Jutta Cluny Franz Award 2009
Winner/shortlisted artists &  selected entries can be found in Neues Glass fall (03/09)




copyright 2021. Karen Akester