A Murano glass master at the 2017 Festival?

The 2017 Festival of Glass is inviting expressions of interest from beginning, intermediate and advanced glass artists interested in working with Davide Penso, a master glass artist and teacher from Murano, Italy.

Davide is an internationally renowned glass artist and teacher. He runs a glass art jewellery business in Murano, teaches at Murano Glass Academy and has exhibited, demonstrated and taught internationally. Murano is an island off the coast of Venice that has been renowned for its glass art for centuries; and Murano glass masters such as Davide have world-wide reputations for their skill and creativity. (www.davidepenso.com)

From Davide's 'Daniela' collection

The Festival committee is inviting expressions of interest to see whether there would be sufficient support to fund Davide’s visit. At present, his visit is planned to include one-day, two-day and three-day workshops between February 20^th to 25^th February 2017 at a planned cost of $400 per person per day. There will be a maximum of 8 students in a workshop and standard tools and materials will be supplied. The workshops will be held at Totally Shattered Glass Studio, 1480 Portarlington-Queenscliff Road, Point Lonsdale, Victoria.

Davide will design each workshop to teach specific knowledge and skills; and students can also ask in advance for Davide to coach them in specific techniques, such as applying silver and gold to glass; glass encasing; creating glass rings; making mosaic, floral and tiger beads; and designing, marketing and selling glass jewellery.

From Davide's 'Doppiconi' collection

People who are interested in attending any of Davide’s planned one-day, two-day or three-day workshops should contact Festival of Glass Convenor Doug Carson (festivalofglassdrysdale@gmail.com) by mid-June 2016. If there is sufficient interest in the workshops, the Festival will contact the people who have expressed an interest, giving details of the programme and requesting a deposit of 50% of the cost by July 1 2016.

The City of Greater Geelong's Arts & Culture Department has a fund to support artists' professional development and council officers have said that attending Davide's classes would certainly qualify as professional development. Applications must be in well before the end of this financial year; contact Doug Carson if you would like to know more about this funding opportunity.

A range of benefits

Davide’s visit could benefit a wide range of individuals, groups and businesses in Geelong and the Bellarine:

·      People in the general community can watch Davide demonstrate world-class glass blowing and torchwork and have a unique opportunity to try making simple pieces of glass art with a master glass artist.

·      Local glass artists and artisans can develop their creativity, knowledge, skills and business acumen by engaging with a glass master.

·      Local businesses can boost their reputation by being associated with Davide’s visit; and they can boost their custom by hosting demonstrations of Davide at work. Glass blowing is visually spectacular and we anticipate keen media interest in Davide’s appearances.

2016 Festival offers "Glass Inspirations"

The 2016 Festival of Glass will feature internationally renowned glass artists Peter Minson and Mark Eliott in a series of activities under the title “Glass Inspirations”.

1. "Endangered in Glass" – a Masterclass (19 February 2016)

Minson and Eliott will each make glass sculptures of the locally endangered Hooded Plover and

Weedy Sea Dragon. Mark Eliott

Orange-bellied Parrot, while talking about their techniques and their involvement with glass. Large video screens will give ‘close-ups’ of their work. To complement their commentaries, Wathaurong elder Uncle David Tournier will give an Indigenous perspective on the birds and their habitat - the area known originally as Bella Wein.

The Masterclass is a collaboration between the Festival, Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-op and several local environmental groups; and the glass replicas will be auctioned to assist the birds’ survival. Subsequently, they will tour the region, raising awareness of the birds' plight and of the beauty of glass art.

2. "Inside and Outside the House of Lamp-Work" (22 – 25 February 2016)

Minson and Eliott will run two fee-paying workshops exploring interplays between structure and

Untitled. Peter Minson

improvisation in the creation of glass art. The workshops are for beginning and established local glass artists, who will be encouraged to exhibit at a Festival of Glass and/or to enter its Glass Art Awards; and a mentorship programme will assist them to do so.

3. "It’s Your Turn" – free workshops (20, 21, 26 February 2016)


These free workshops will offer local people who may be newcomers to glass art an insight into its creation. In each workshop, Minson and Eliott will demonstrate basic glass-working techniques, then invite participants to create simple pieces of glass art and to create a collective glass sculpture for the venue. One workshop will be for the general community and will be part of the 2016 Festival of Glass Expo on 21 February 2016. The other two workshops will be for the elderly and for young people and  will be held in circumstances familiar to each group.

 

Peter Minson

Mark Eliott

In “Glass Inspirations”, the Festival of Glass collaborates with Peter Minson and Mark Eliott to inspire local people to create glass art, to exhibit at a Festival of Glass and/or to enter its Glass Art Awards. The aim is to grow the Bellarine Peninsula’s reputation for glass-related activities by attracting creative and economic investment in the region's glass artists.

2016 Glass Art Awards: entries now open

Entries are now open to the 2016 Glass Art Awards; entry forms must be submitted by 5 February 2016.

The Glass Art Awards are part of the Festival of Glass, now in its sixth year. Entries will be judged and announced during the Festival's Expo on Sunday 21 February 2016.

There are four Categories:

·      Functional Glass Art

·      Sculptural Glass Art

·      Wearable Glass Art

·      Glass-related Photography.

Each Category has two Divisions:

·      Intermediate (8 - 18 years old)

·      Open (19 years of age and older).

In each Category, the Intermediate Division has a first prize of $100 and a second prize of $50; and the Open Division has a first prize of $200 and a second prize of $100.

There are also two special Awards:

Second Life Glass Art Award ($1,000)

This Award will go to the best piece of glass art that is made solely by recycling glass. This is the second year of this Award, which is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Drysdale. The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful to the Rotary Club for its generosity. The theme of this year's Award is "A Gift to the World", to coincide with International Rotary's theme for 2015 - 2016 - "Be a gift to the world".

Entries will be judged by the 2016 judging panel:- Mark  Edwards (Wauthorong Glass), Mercedes Drummond (Glass Art Awards convenor) and a representative of the Rotary Club of Drysdale.

Bella Wein Glass Art Award ($500)

This Award will go to the piece of glass art that best interprets the identity of the Bellarine Peninsula. The Award celebrates the continuity between the past and the present - "Bella Wein" is the name given to the Peninsula by the area's original owners, the Wathaurong people. 

This is a new award and is sponsored by the Clifton Springs and Curlewis Lions Club. The Festival of Glass committee is very grateful to the Lions for their generosity.

Entries will be judged by the 2016 judging panel:- Mark  Edwards (Wauthorong Glass), Mercedes Drummond (Glass Art Awards convenor) and a representative of The Clifton Springs and Curlewis Lion Club.

Information, entry forms and conditions of entry for the 2016 Glass Art awards are on the Festival of Glass web site : www.festivalofglass.net.au

Growing the market for Jablonec glass

In Jablonec’s glass industry, competition for market share is favouring larger, more industrialised firms, which use modern equipment to achieve economies of scale. The smaller firms’ reliance on pre-industrial methods of production makes it hard for them to attract the capital investment they need to compete with the larger firms on their own terms.

Individual survival

In Jablonec’s glass industry, several of the small firms don’t operate in a factory as such. Instead,

Pressing strings of beads, Jablonec

each firm’s operations are dispersed across a number of sites. These may include:

·      part or all of a building, which the firm rents to run the business, store and distribute its products and, perhaps run a shop

·      small workshops in rented premises

·      private homes in which people make the firm’s products on a ‘piecework’ basis (i.e. they are paid for each piece of glasswork that they produce).

When asked, “What one thing would enable you to develop your business?”, the owner of one of Jablonec’s small glass firms answered that he would really welcome capital with which to buy premises in which to gather his operations together in one place. This would bring him several benefits: his premises would be a capital asset, rather than a drain on income through rent; his control over his whole operation would increase; and he could build a narrative through which to market his products – “tell the whole story”, as he put it.

Glass beads get pearlescent coating - Jablonec

A bank would seem an obvious first stop for a company seeking capital to develop. However, that same owner said that the local banks are cautious and conservative lenders. Instead of backing small companies wishing to develop, they restrict their loans to larger, wealthier firms. As ever, the wealthier you are, the easier it is to become wealthier still; and the less you need to borrow money, the keener the banks are to lend you some!

Collaborative development?

Jablonec’s smaller glass firms need alternative business strategies if they are to survive the local banks’ intransigence and match their larger competitors’ economies of scale. For example, the area’s glass firms could collaborate to grow the market overall for Jablonec glass. However, the firms’ present single-minded focus on competing with each other – while necessary for their survival - precludes anything more than minimal collaboration between them.

Hand-making glass beads - Jablonec

There is a vehicle for such collaboration - the local glass industry association, to which many of Jablonec’s glass firms belong. However, the association restricts itself to assisting individual firms to attend trade shows and exhibitions. This reproduces the firms’ individual competition, rather than advancing the interests of the local industry as a whole, or even expressing a view about what those interests are.

New sources of investment

If Jablonec’s smaller glass firms decide to collaborate – within or alongside the local industry association – they could get around the local banks’ reluctance to invest in them by approaching two alternative funding sources: the Czech Ministry of Regional Development and the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund.

The Czech Ministry of Regional Development (www.mmr.cz/en/Homepage)

The Ministry is an obvious potential source of funds to develop Jablonec’s glass industry. However, its website (in English) doesn’t describe its day-to-day activities; and while it mentions the spending of money, there’s no indication as to what this money is spent on or the criteria by which it is spent. Perhaps a direct personal approach would elicit more useful, practical information.

European Regional Development Fund  (http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/)

The ERDF aims to help reinforce economic and social cohesion by redressing regional imbalances and co-financing the conversion of declining industrial regions. It supports a rage of activities, including research, development and innovation; telecommunication, energy and transport infrastructures; and health, education and social infrastructures. In 2014 – 2020, ERDF support will concentrate on three themes:

·      research and innovation, including support to public research and innovation bodies and investment in technology and applied research in enterprises

·      creating and safeguarding sustainable jobs, through co-investment in small and medium-sized enterprises

·      climate change mitigation.

Clearly, the first two of those themes are relevant directly to the development of the glass industry in Jablonec.

Jablonec glass: from craft to industry

Today, hand-cut, engraved, blown and painted decorative glassware (from tableware and ornaments to chandeliers) from the former Bohemia is among the best known Czech exports and a favourite with tourists. This isn't to say, however, that it's a thriving industry.

Jablonec ("Yab-lon-etz") is a town of approx. 45,000 people in the Nisou Valley (the town's full name is Jablonec nad Nisou) north of Prague, in what used to be the kingdom of Bohemia. Together with neighbouring Moravia and Czech Silesia, Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until its fall in 1918, when the three territories were united as Czechoslovakia. Bohemia has long been famous for its glass.

In the 18th century, Bohemia displaced Venice as the centre of Europe's glass industry - especially through its 'trademark' cut-glass and cut-crystal. Over the next century, Venice fought to regain its pre-eminent position, introducing many innovations as it did so.

Bohemian glass suffered a real body blow when the Soviet-dominated Communist Party - which in 1948 instituted a one-party dictatorship of Czechoslovakia - pursued an aggressive policy of 'socialising' the glass industry, i.e. forcing hundreds of home-based glass workers into various forms of 'collective'. 1989's 'Velvet Revolution' replaced the Communist Party with a multi-party parliamentary democracy; and in 1993, Czechoslovakia split (peacefully) into The Czech Republic and Slovakia.


What next for Czech glass?

Semi-industrial glass blowing, Jablonec

In today's Jablonec, the glass industry is split between a large number of small, mostly home-based craft businesses and a smaller number of large industrial manufacturers and retailers. The larger businesses are able to achieve economies of scale which the smaller ones can't match - especially when cheap imports from China are flooding the global market.

On a recent visit to Jablonec, it appeared that unless there is major new investment in the smaller companies, they face significant decline. With them will go centuries-old traditions of glass working that today are maintained by a very small number of - often ageing - craftspeople.   

Jablonec glass - in search of a virtuous circle

Jablonec, in the Czech Republic, has been renowned for its glasswork for centuries. However, on a visit to the town in May 2015, it appeared that competition between the town’s glass businesses, compounded by an influx of cheaper glass products from China, is preventing Jablonec’s glass businesses from growing their market.

A 'factory house' in Jablonec

Jablonec (‘Yab-lon-etz’) began to develop as a centre of glass art in the Middle Ages, when it was part of Bohemia. By the eighteenth century, Bohemia had displaced Venice as the centre of Europe’s glass industry. Today, Jablonec’s glass industry consists of two broad sectors: several small manufacturers and a few large wholesalers. Between them, they make and sell glass sculptures, chandeliers, tableware, beads and buttons.

‘Zero sum’ competition

Competition in Jablonec’s glass industry - both within and between its two sectors - resembles a ‘zero sum’ game. Each business can only increase its share of the market (e.g. for glass beads and buttons) at the expense of other businesses, until only one business – or a small group – remains in each market.

In that ‘zero sum’ game, Jablonec’s smaller glass businesses find it hard to compete with the larger ones. The larger businesses use modern equipment and processes, achieving economies of scale that enable them to fill orders swiftly. Many of the smaller businesses rely for their income on a pool of glass workers whom they pay at ‘piecework’ rates (i.e. per piece, rather than per hour) to produce glasswork using centuries old techniques and tools - often in centuries old family premises.

Hand-making glass buttons in Jablonec

The smaller businesses’ reliance on old techniques and tools can make it hard for them to compete with the larger ones. This, in turn, limits their ability to replace their old equipment with modern versions; and this makes it harder for them to fill orders swiftly … and so on, in a vicious circle of competition.

Growing the market

An investment of fresh capital could break that vicious circle, but one small glass business owner said that the local banks are reluctant to lend money to smaller businesses; and anyway, the availability of that pool of home workers reduces the urgency of the search for investment.

However, unless something is done soon, the smaller glass businesses will start to go under. Their current glass workers know that their skills and techniques are centuries old, and that there is a good chance that their skills and techniques will die with them. They are an ageing population, working in conditions that often sit uneasily alongside contemporary health and safety concerns; and local young people are reluctant to take on the jobs because of the poor pay and conditions. So unless the smaller local businesses can devise new business models that will attract younger people, the glass industry in Jablonec will contract into a small number of large companies. The ‘zero sum’ game will be played to its end.

 

From vicious to virtuous circle

One alternative business model would be to grow the market overall, increasing the income of each company within it - “The rising tide lifts all the boats” as US President John Kennedy described it.

Simply growing the market would reproduce the current disparity in wealth between the industry’s large and small companies. However, the disparity would be at a higher level of income, increasing smaller companies’ ability to not just survive but to innovate and diversify their operations. This would strengthen Jablonec’s glass industry as a whole, turning the current vicious circle of competition into a virtuous circle of economic and cultural development that could keep alive the area’s traditions of glass art, craft and industry.

It's 'Hands up' time!

The 2015 Festival of Glass committee is inviting Friends and supporters of the Festival to join-in the activities that make up the Festival Expo.

The committee has worked hard and long to put the 2015 Festival tExpo ogether, but its success depends on people who help on the day. We'd like to know just who's coming to help and when, so that we can create a Volunteers Rosta. You can spend as little or much time at your job as you wish.

A job for you, maybe??
There's a list of jobs below. Browse the list as if it were a box of chocolates and choose your favourite/s! Then just let us know (dryclift@bigpond.com) your choice/s. All jobs start at 10.00am onwards, except the Door Monitors and the Information Desk.

Door monitors (3) 7.00am to 9.30am
Each exhibitor has been asked to enter the building via a specific door, to avoid traffic jams! This job entails guiding exhibitors to their sites via the correct door.

Information desk 9.30am onwards.
Giving visitors general information about the Expo.

Raffle Table
Selling raffle tickets, keeping an eye on the box containing the ticket stubs and on the raffle prizes - glass collectibles.

Silent auction
People write bids for an item and place their bid in a box. This job involves accepting bids and keeping an eye on the box and on the items for auction - glass collectibles.

Glass Art Awards
The winners will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to make sure that they stay secure.

Photography display
The winners of the 'Glass-related Photography' section of the Glass Art Awards will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to make sure that they stay secure. 

A new Bellarine glass artist

Jutta Larcombe is about to exhibit her work for the first time at the 2015 Festival of Glass!

Jutta  became interested in glass after attending the fourth annual Festival of Glass in February 2014. In July 2014, she joined a weekend class with local glass artist David Hobday and, with his help and encouragement, created her first Dragon, small plates and coasters. Jutta was hooked!

"It's great therapy!"
"When I work with glass, I become totally engrossed with it and forget all around me", she said. "It's great therapy! I love the whole process, from getting an idea to getting the finished thing out of the kiln. Amazing, I never thought I could do anything like it."

The Festival committee is delighted at the emergence of a new local glass artist and pleased to have played a part in it. Festival coordinator Doug Carson said, "A major reason for holding the Festival is to develop the area's reputation as a centre for glass-related activity, so we're pleased to see the Festival encouraging new glass artists like Jutta."

Naked Sheep promotes Glass Art!

Haberdashers The Naked Sheep, in Ash Road, Leopold currently has an unusual window display - glass art.

The display features the work of glass artist Lynda Rogers, of Klassay Glass Art and is a win for both her and business-owner Amanda. Lynda gets to exhibit her work at a striking location and Amanda gets an unusual and eye-catching window display.

Festival-business links
Lynda is an exhibitor at the 2015 Festival of Glass and her collaboration with Amanda around the window display shows how local businesses can benefit from the Festival of Glass.

Other businesses might consider a similar arrangement, where they invite a local glass artist to exhibit their work in some (or even all!) of their shopfront. Alternatively, a business could offer special 'on the day' discounts to Festival visitors; or it could increase its local profile by sponsoring an aspect of the Festival (e.g. one of the Art Glass Awards).

Volunteers wanted!

As the 2015 Festival of Glass Expo draws closer, we'd like to hear from anyone who'd like to be part of the event.

The Expo will happen on Sunday 15 February between 10.00am and 4.00pm at Christian College, 40 Collins Street, Drysdale.

The good news is that most of the jobs involve very little activity! Essentially, they involve supervising a site/table. Some jobs involve providing visitors with information, which will be available at the site/table; and members of the Festival committee (identifiable via their jolly badges!) will be on hand to help throughout the day.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

There is a range of jobs to be done, so volunteers can choose jobs and times that suit them. Volunteers for each job can say when and for how long they are available. Anyone who volunteers for more than one job will be especially welcome!

All jobs are from 10.00am onwards, except the Door Monitors and the Information Desk.
Door monitors (3) 7.00am to 9.30am
Each exhibitor has been asked to enter the building via a specific door, to avoid traffic jams! This job entails guiding exhibitors to their sites via the correct door.

Information desk 9.30am onwards.
Giving visitors general information about the Expo.

Raffle Table
Selling raffle tickets, keeping an eye on the box containing the ticket stubs and on the raffle prizes - glass collectibles.

Silent auction
People write bids for an item and place their bid in a box. This job involves accepting bids and keeping an eye on the box and on the items for auction - glass collectibles.

Glass Art Awards
The winners will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to keep them secure.

Photography display
The winners of the 'Glass-related Photography' section of the Glass Art Awards will be on display in an area roped-off to keep them secure. This job is to keep them secure. 

The FoG bus!

Coming soon to a bus stop near you - the FoG bus!

As part of the promotional campaign for the 2015 Festival of Glass (FoG), a bus with an advert for the Festival covering its back end will be in service around Geelong. The bus won't be restricted to any particular route, so keep a look-out for it!

(This article was posted last week and disappeared from the blog, so the bus clearly moves very quickly!)

Building the campaign
The FoG bus is a new addition to the annual campaign to promote the Festival of Glass, which is in its fifth year in 2015. Media releases have been sent to local, regional and national media (of all types), to glass industry groups/associations and to relevant arts and crafts groups/associations. The Festival committee hopes that local and regional media will feature Festival events as they have done in previous years.

In another part of the campaign, entries for the 2015 Festival of Glass are starting to appear on local, regional and national tourism web sites, as well as on 'what's on'-type web sites. If you know anyone who's planning to visit Drysdale in early February, you might like to suggest that they include the Festival of Glass in their itinerary.

Launch of Drysdale's glass art mural set for 2015

Drysdale's Glass Art Mural - "Welcome to Drysdale" - is gradually taking shape and will be launched officially in 2015.

The mural is a steel-framed sign that says "Welcome to Drysdale" in glass mosaic tiles, surrounded by ceramic tiles depicting moments in the area's history. 

(Background to the mural project: "A mural project for Drysdale" 18 March 2014 on this blog.)

The ceramic tiles are complete. They were created by students at Bellarine Secondary College, led by their teacher Tess Grace and guided by Uncle David Tournier, of Wauthorong Aboriginal Co-op and by Festival of Glass committee members Kaye Clancy and Mercedes Drummond.

The steel and wood frame for the mural is currently being manufactured by local craftspeople.

Building the local community

The Mural Project is a partnership between the Festival of Glass, which is providing overall leadership, and Bellarine Secondary College, whose students are creating parts of the mural; it is supported by the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-op and the Bellarine Historical Society; and it is partly financed by local organisations.

The Festival of Glass is an initiative of the Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association (DCSCA).

Bellarine's glass-related history

The Festival of Glass has launched a new web site: Glass Reflections: the Bellarine and Beyond
 
Glass Reflections will gradually document the glass-related history of the Bellarine Peninsula.

As we've accumulated the information that is in the history so far, many people have said that they had no idea that glass had played such a part in the history of the Bellarine.

The items on the web site are searchable by date, so you can either scan the whole history or go to a specific period.
http://fogglassreflections.blogspot.com.au/

A role for you?
Please help us to build the area's glass-related history by telling us any facts that you know. If you can give a printed or online source for the facts, so much the better! Think of it as a 'wikihistory of the area!
Contact us at dryclift.bigpond.com

Space at the 2015 Fxpo running out!

The 2014 Festival of Glass Expo

Two months before 2015’s Festival of Glass, there are just five sites left at the Expo!

The Festival Expo is at the heart of each year’s Festival and next year’s happens on Sunday February 15. The Expo is proving so popular with glass-workers that exhibition space is booked earlier each year.

 

The Festival committee is pleased with this enthusiasm, of course, but we don’t want to turn away exhibitors. So if you or anyone you know is thinking of booking space at the 2015 Expo, don't delay - book today!

 

An information sheet for potential exhibitors, plus an application form, are on the Festival web site: www.festivalofglass.net.au