Bigger Expo attracts bigger crowds

Around 4,500 people attended the 2019 Festival of Glass Expo at Christian College in Collins Street, Drysdale on Sunday 17 February.

Fifty artists and businesses showcased a wide range of glass art and Expo visitors could try their hand at creating jewellery, mosaics and leadlighting, in between watching the presentation of the Glass Art Awards and the draw for the Festival’s Treasure Hunt prizes of specially commissioned glass art.

Continuous demonstrations by the Festival’s three Artists in Residence - Karina Guevin and Cedric Ginart from Montreal and Davide Penso from Murano - drew big audiences. Some young spectators were invited onstage to receive their first lesson in glass blowing, to everyone's delight!

In the week before the Expo, Karina Guevin and Cedric Ginart ran their three-day workshop on using borosilicate glass "More is Better" (a Festival first) and over the ten days following the Expo, Davide Penso will run classes for beginning and experienced glass artists.

Rounding off the 2019 Festival in march will be a series of workshops by Bellarine glass artists. Topics will  include fused window hangings (David Hobday), bead weaving (Janet Jenkin) and glass mosaics (Diane Schofield), as well as glass enamelling and even glass garden art! Full details are on the Festival web site.

International artists blow glass, draw crowds

Internationally renowned glass artists Davide Penso, Karina Guevin and Cèdric Ginart captivated a 90-strong audience at “Twilight Flames”, an evening of spectacular glass blowing and sculpting on Saturday 16 February at The Range, Curlewis.

Davide Penso holds his glass seaweed

As the audience watched the artists melt, pull, shape and cut molten glass into fantastic creations, they enjoyed finger food and drinks from The Range, while door prizes of wine donated by Leura Park Estate added to the evening’s excitement.

Davide Penso is from Murano, Italy and was Artist in residence at the 2017 Festival; Karina Guevin and Cedric Ginart, from Montreal, Canada are visiting Australia for the first time.

Karina Guevin & Cedric Ginart

“Twilight Flames” is a highlight of the Drysdale-based Festival of Glass, which is held each year at venues across the North Bellarine. “At ‘Twilight Flames’, people can meet world class glass artists and watch them create unique glass art”, said Festival convenor Doug Carson. “We hope that it inspires our local artists to stretch their imaginations, just as they stretch their glass.”

Montreal comes to Drysdale

Glass artists Karina Guevin and Cèdric Ginart from Montreal are Artists in Residence at the 2019 Festival of Glass and their presence has added a distinct flavour to the events.

Karina and Cèdric are world renowned for their remarkable creativity, skill and - yes - humour in blowing and sculpting glass, especially their extraordinary hand-made glass goblets. This is their first visit to Australia and before they started work, they explored some of Victoria's surf beaches.

Karina creates a rabbit

Between Wednesday 13 and Friday 15 February, their “More is better” workshop at Drysdale’s Café Zoo introduced people to the techniques and skills required to work with borosilicate glass and their demonstrations showed just what is possible with imagination and ambition!

Cèdric creates a goblet

On Saturday 16 February, Karina and Cèdric joined Murano glass master Davide Penso - the Festival's other Artists in Residence - in “Twilight Flames”, a spectacular evening of glass blowing and sculpting that attracted ninety people to The Range, Curlewis.

The two artists finished their stay on Monday 18 January at 5.30 with “Torch and Talk” – an evening of demonstrations and conversations at Drysdale’s Café Zoo.

A Guevin-Ginart goblet

Black horse leads the field

On Sunday 10 February, the sounds of clinking bottles and gasps of surprise came from the fourth annual Historic Bottle Evaluation at Drysdale’s old courthouse.

David Bruce

The Bellarine Historical Society and ABCR Auctions had invited people to bring in any old bottles for experienced glass valuers David Bruce and Travis Dunne to appraise and value. This free event was part of the 2019 Festival of Glass and attracted around fifty hopeful locals.

David Bruce said, “We always look forward to this event, because in the past, people have brought in some real treasures. This year's standout item was a Black Horse Ale bottle, produced around 1860 by the Kent Brewery in Sydney and today worth between $600 - $700."

Black Horse Ale bottle

Bone china meets blown glass at a High Tea

Forty five discerning guests enjoyed the delights of a High Tea at Café Zoo in Drysdale on Monday 7 January, while watching local glass artist Glenda MacNaughton blowing and sculpting glass.

Happy faces at one of the High Tea tables

The occasion was the launch of the 2019 Festival of Glass Treasure Hunt, which has over a hundred pieces of locally-made glass art as prizes and involves thirty three businesses in Curlewis, Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Portarlington.

Treasure Hunt organiser Diane Schofield said, “Everywhere I looked, people were tucking-in to the yummy food, watching Glenda blowing glass or talking about what she was doing. The ten door prizes of glass bookmarks and decorations were especially popular!”

This is the Festival’s third annual Treasure Hunt and the launch was booked out two weeks in advance. Café Zoo owner Marc Rodway said, “We were very pleased that the High Tea was so popular. It was a great way to start this year’s Festival of Glass Treasure Hunt.”

The Treasure Hunt is the first event on the 2019 Festival of Glass calendar, which also includes an Expo with 45 exhibitors, the annual Glass Art Awards and demonstrations and classes by renowned glass artists Davide Penso (from Murano, Italy) and Karina Guevin and Cédric Ginart (both from Montreal, Canada).

The roadside signs are up!

The first wave of roadside signs for the Festival of Glass has hit!

Cnr. of Wyndham St. & Jetty Rd

There are large (6' x 4') signs for the Treasure Hunt and for the Festival as a whole throughout Drysdale (sponsored by Hayeswinckle Real Estate). They include a Festival sign at the front of the service station at the Jetty Road roundabout, which motorists will see as they enter the town.

The 2019 Festival will be launched officially at a "High Tea" on Monday 7 January between 3.00pm and 5.00pm at Café Zoo, 23 High St, Drysdale. the event will also launch the Festival's 2019 Treasure Hunt. Booking for the High Tea is essential; phone Café Zoo: 5251 5333.

In the meantime, Café Zoo is hosting Glass Inspirations - an exhibition of glass art around the theme “Birds of the Bellarine Peninsula”. The exhibition features large and small pieces of glass art jewellery and sculptures created by local glass artists. Each piece will be unique and hand-crafted on the Peninsula, making them ideal gifts.

Glass Inspirations will run to Monday February 11th 2019, between 9.00am and 5.00pm.

"Glass Inspirations" in Drysdale

Monday 3^rd December 2018 saw the opening of Glass Inspirations – an exhibition of glass art at Drysdale’s Café Zoo.

Glenda MacNaughton "Cockatoo Woman"

Local glass artists have created large and small pieces of glass art jewellery and sculptures for Glass Inspirations, around the theme “Birds of the Bellarine Peninsula”. Each piece will be unique and hand-crafted on the Peninsula, making them ideal gifts.

Visitors to Glass Inspirations can admire the glass art, identify the birds and, perhaps, buy one of these delightful pieces. If the pressure of having to choose gets too much, Café Zoo can always supply a restorative snack!

 “Glass Inspirations gives people just a hint of what they’ll see

Marina Villani "Pelican in flight"

during the three months of the 2019 Festival”, said Festival convenor Doug Carson. “Then in January, the start of our annual Treasure Hunt will see treasure hunters young and old searching businesses across the North Bellarine for glass ‘tiny treasures’.”

Glass Inspirations will run from Monday Dec 3rd to Monday February 11th 2019, between 9.00am and 5.00pm at Café Zoo, 23 High St, Drysdale.

Cristallo versus crystal

In the late 17^th century, the invention of crystal challenged Murano’s centuries-long dominance of the European glass goblet industry.

In the mid-1600s, the glass makers of Murano created extraordinarily ornate and complex glass goblets, exploiting the great clarity of cristallo glass, which had been invented in the mid-15th century by glass master Angelo Barovier. The style of these goblets - Façon de Venise - has been admired and emulated ever since. (See “Competing tastes in glass goblets” on this blog 28^th November 2018)

Ranenscroft goblet 1677

Later in the 17^th century (1673), Englishman George Ravenscroft challenged Murano’s near-monopoly on glass technology with his invention - lead crystal, in which lead replaces the calcium of ‘standard’ (potash) glass.

The inclusion of lead results in glass that has greater ‘brilliance’ or shine and separates light into its component spectra, as a prism does. Further, crystal stayed clear even when thick, whereas cristallo tended to look dark unless it was blown thin. (The Ravenscroft goblet in the illustration is held in the National Museum of Warsaw.)

Another new fashion in glass
Ravenscroft and subsequent crystal manufacturers exploited these refractory properties of the relatively thick crystal, creating a new fashion that challenged the dominance of Façon de Venise. Indeed, the decline in the Façon de Venise style was a major contributor to the decline of Murano’s dominance.

Today, perhaps the best-known legacy of Ravenscroft's creation is Waterford Crystal, which is owned by WWRD Group Holdings Ltd., a luxury goods group which also owns and operates the Wedgwood and Royal Doulton brands, and which was acquired on 2 July 2015 by the Fiskars Corporation.

Source: Dunham, B. S. (2002) Contemporary Lampworking: a practical guide to shaping glass in the flame. Prescott, Arizona: Salusa Glassworks Inc.

This is the third in a series of blog posts about the centuries-old tradition of making glass goblets. Among the many and varied creations of our International Artist in Residence at the 2019 Festival of Glass - Davide Penso (Murano) and Credric Ginart and Karina Guevin (Montreal) - are extraordinary contemporary interpretations of this tradition.

‘Tiny Treasures' for Treasure Hunt businesses

Each business in the Festival’s 2019 Treasure Hunt is preparing to place its glass ‘Tiny Treasure’ – a small glass figurine for Treasure Hunters to find.

More than 30 businesses across the North Bellarine – from Curlewis to Portarlington – are taking part in the Treasure Hunt and each one has commissioned a ‘Tiny Treasure’ from a local glass artist.

The Tiny treasures will be delivered well in time for the official launch of the 2019 Treasure Hunt on 7^th January 2019, with a “High Tea” at Café Zoo (23 High Street, Drysdale).

Where's this 'Tiny Treasure"?

Even before the launch, eager Treasure Hunters can see what they’ll be looking for, because the ‘Tiny Treasures’ are on the Festival web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

The web site also includes an interactive map giving information about each participating business.

... and this poor bandaged soul?

When a Treasure Hunter finds a ‘Tiny Treasure’, the business stamps their entry form. (Each business will have blank forms.); and every ten stamps earns the Treasure Hunter a place in the Treasure Hunt draw at the Festival Expo (Sunday 17^th February), with specially commissioned pieces of glass art as prizes.

Many businesses have found it so enjoyable to be part of previous Treasure Hunts that they were happy to sign up for the 2019 event.

In 2019, you won’t miss the Treasure Hunt – it will be advertised in all the local papers and on roadside signs; and each participating business will have a poster in its window.

Getting a taste of the 2019 Festival

Monday 3^rd December 2018 will see the opening of Glass Inspirations – an exhibition of glass art at Drysdale’s Café Zoo

Glass birds by students at Mauro
Viannello's workshop, 2018 Festival

Local glass artists have created large and small pieces of glass art jewellery and sculptures for Glass Inspirations, around the theme “Birds of the Bellarine Peninsula”. Each piece will be unique and hand-crafted on the Peninsula, making them ideal gifts.

Visitors to Glass Inspirations can admire the glass art, identify the birds and, perhaps, buy one of these delightful pieces. If the pressure of having to choose gets too much, Café Zoo can always supply a restorative snack!

 “Glass Inspirations gives people just a hint of what they’ll see during the three months of the 2019 Festival”, said Festival convenor Doug Carson. “Then in January, the start of our annual Treasure Hunt will see treasure hunters young and old searching businesses across the North Bellarine for glass ‘tiny treasures’.”

 

Glass Inspirations will run from Monday Dec 3rd to Monday February 11th 2019, between 9.00am and 5.00pm at Café Zoo, 23 High St, Drysdale.

An 'in-duct-ion' ceremony??

A small working group from the Festival of Glass committee has acquired yet another skill – creating a ducted ventilation system!

The ventilation system takes shape

On Wednesday 26 September, the group assembled, tested and then disassembled an overhead ventilation system in a meeting room in Drysdale’s Cafe Zoo. In the latter half of February 2019, as part of the 2019 Festival of Glass, the ventilation system will turn Cafe Zoo’s meeting room into a customised venue for glass art workshops.

Mark (Cafe Zoo) wonders what to cook!

Workshop participants will learn how to sculpt, fuse and blow various forms of glass from our international Artists in Residence Davide Penso (Murano) and Cedric Ginart and Karina Guevin (Montreal).

The transformed room will also be the venue for a Festival first – jewellery designer Davide Penso's Glass Jewellery Lab – from wondering to wearing. 

At each event, a dozen participants will use gas/oxygen torches to create glass art; and in the process, they’ll create a lot of heat!

All the details about the workshops and the Jewellery Lab are on the Festival’s web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au

Introducing goblets

Glass artists Davide Penso (Murano), Karina Guevin and Cédric Ginart (both from Montreal) will be Artists in Residence at the 2019 Festival of Glass and their public demonstrations at the Festival are likely to include the wonderful spectacle of glass goblets being hand-blown.

Simple goblet

Goblets are part of a category of glassware known as “stemware” - drinking vessels on stems attached to a base or a foot. The stem is both decorative and functional – it allows the drinker to hold the vessel without affecting the temperature of the drink within. The word “goblet” derives from the old English word ‘gobelet’ meaning ‘cup’.

From pottery to glass

Glass drinking vessels began to replace clay or metal ones with the invention of transparent glass around 800BC. The attraction of glass was its transparency, which enabled a drinker to enjoy the appearance of a drink as well as its flavour, taste and smell.

Glassblowing was invented in the First Century AD in the Syria-Palestine region of the Roman Empire. Over the next three centuries, glassblowing spread swiftly throughout the Roman Empire and glass vessels spread beyond the exclusive circles of the wealthy.

Since then, goblets have became increasingly complex and decorative – as will be demonstrated in forthcoming posts on this blog!

This is the first in a series of blog posts about the centuries-old tradition of making glass goblets. Among the many and varied creations of our International Artist in Residence at the 2019 Festival of Glass - Davide Penso (Murano) and Credric Ginarta and Karina Guevin (Montreal) - are extraordinary contemporary interpretations of this tradition.

Meet our Canadian visitors

Cédric Ginart and Karina Guevin will join Davide Penso, a glass master and jewellery designer from Murano, Italy as Artists in Residence at the 2019 Festival of Glass.

Cédric Ginart

Karina and Cédric are renowned glass artists from Montreal, Canada. Cédric is a scientific glass blower and a glass artist. In both capacities, he has worked with scientists, artists, industrialists, designers and architects. At present, he works as a scientific glassblower at Montreal University, while also pursuing his career as an internationally renowned glass artist and teacher. 

Karina Guevin is a sculptor and a glass artist, renowned for her technical and aesthetic innovation in glass. She teaches flame working at many international schools and her glass sculptures and jewellery has been exhibited throughout Canada, as well as in the United States, France, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Karina Guevin

What a team!

Karina and Cédric often teach flamework together at international schools. Cédric has the quiet concentration you might expect of a scientific glassblower, while Karina has a riotous sense of humour and delights in small animals! Put the two together and the results are spectacular! Their modern-day versions of traditional Venetian-style goblets must be seen to be believed and, of course, you can do just that at the 2019 Festival of Glass.

A Guevin/Ginart goblet

You can see Karina and Cédric at work by joining their workshop, More is Better: sculpting, fusing and assembling borosilicate glass, from 13^th – 15^th February at Drysdale’s Cafe Zoo.

You can also sign up for their evening demonstration, Torch and Talk; blowing and sculpting a glass goblet on Monday 18^th February from 5.30pm – 7.39pm.

More information about each event is on the Festival web site (www.festivalofglass.net.au).

For more information about Karina and Cédric, visit their web sites:

* Cédric Ginart: https://www.cedricginart.com

* Karina Guevin: https://www.karinaguevin.com

This will be their first time teaching in Australia and the Festival is delighted to welcome them and host their visit.

Artists in Residence

The Festival started to feature an Artist in Residence four years ago in 2015, when Mark Eliott filled the bill. Since then, we’ve hosted Mark Eliott and Peter Minson in 2016, Davide Penso (Murano) in 2017 and Mauro Vianello (Venice) in 2018.

A glass mural to brighten Drysdale's arcade

The Festival of Glass committee is creating a glass mural to brighten the shopping arcade in Drysdale High Street.

"Before"

The arcade was painted a deep brown, making it a dark and uninviting place to visit or even to walk through. The Festival committee felt that the arcade could be improved by repainting it in a lighter colour, then installing a glass mural to make it a unique site of interest.

Business owners in the arcade were enthusiastic about the proposal, as were the arcade’s owners, so painting started in July. Festival committee members were joined by DCSCA committee members and by some Festival Friends (were you there?!) and after two coats of paint, the arcade looks better and brighter already – even before the mural!

"After"

Passers-by made lots of very positive comments to the painting team, who explained that the project is a Festival of Glass initiative and promoted the Festival shamelessly!

The Festival committee is now considering possible designs for a series of murals to decorate the arcade walls. Each mosaic will be created on a board, which will then be fixed to the wall.

The arcade project is the second mosaic in Drysdale initiated by the Festival of Glass. In October 2016, we unveiled the ceramic and glass “Welcome to Drysdale” mural overlooking the town’s ‘village green’. The mural was created in collaboration with Wathaurong Glass, Bellarine Secondary College and the Rotary Club of Drysdale.

2019 Artist in Residence programme announced

Davide Penso, an internationally renowned glass master and jewellery designer from Murano, Venice will return as an Artist in Residence to the 2019 Festival of Glass.

Davide will teach and demonstrate glass sculpting and blowing, using traditional and modern Venetian techniques at Festival workshops and at a number of public events. He was the Festival’s Artist in Residence in 2017, when he received very good reviews from his workshops and a lot of applause from his demonstrations.

Experiments at the Jewellery Lab

A highlight of Davide’s time at the 2019 Festival of Glass will be a 4-day masterclass – Glass Jewellery Lab: from wondering to wearing. This will be a unique event and Davide and the Festival of Glass committee are looking forward to it with great excitement and high hopes.

As its name implies, the emphasis at the Jewellery Lab will be on experiments! (BYO white lab coat!) Participants can test, try and perfect fresh, new jewellery ideas under Davide’s individualised expert assistance and guidance.

Even seasoned workshop goers are unlikely to have attended an event like the Jewellery Lab. The learning will be intense as each day, people swap and share ideas with each other and with Davide. The excitement will mount as participants’ creativity starts to bear fruit.

What can you do at the Jewellery Lab?

As a participant in the Jewellery Lab, you can let your imagination run wild and turn the results into wearable pieces:

·      Experiment with an exciting menu of glass jewellery components and materials – from the familiar to the extraordinary!

·      Test a range of glass jewellery techniques, including bead making on mandrels, blown beads, cold working, embroidery, engraving, flame work, fusing, grinding, head pins, sculpting off-mandrel, slumping and stringing.

·      Create jewellery that’s perfect for you or for gifts – because you designed it and created it!

·      Learn how to enter public exhibitions, increase your success in competitions and turn your jewellery hobby into a business.

 

The climax of the four days will be the “Glitz and Glam” gala evening on Sunday 24 February 2019, where the products of four days of creativity will be arrayed, displayed and applauded. “Glitz and Glam” will be a unique evening of fashion, flamboyance and flounces, where Jewellery Lab participants will display their finished pieces, delighting the assembled friends, family and admiring onlookers!

Glass Jewellery Lab: from wondering to wearing. Thursday 21 February to Sunday 24 February at Cafe Zoo, Drysdale High Street.

More information about Davide Penso’s workshops at the 2019 Festival of Glass: www.festivalofglass.net.au

You can book workshop places directly from the web site using Eventbrite. Places at each workshop are limited and if you think that now is too early to book .... some places are booked already!

The Festival started its Artist in Residence programme four years ago in 2015, when Mark Eliott filled the bill. In 2016, Mark Eliott returned with Peter Minson, Davide Penso (Murano) came in 2017 and Mauro Vianello (Venice) was Artist in Residence in 2018.