Glass Blowing

B. JANE COWIE / Beginner to Intermediate

"Multi Component Installations with Hot Glass Components"

B. Jane Cowie has been working with hot glass for almost 20 years. More recently Cowie has focused on multi component installation artworks that incorporate hot glass components and metal support structures. She brings this knowledge and experience to the hot glass course. The class will be fun and very busy. Getting hot in the hot shop is the aim of the workshop with as much hands on experience as possible. The course will start with a series of exercises where students learn about posture and a basic philosophical understanding of the material. From there, with practice, students will develop skills to enable them to make a variety of hot formed component pieces that will go together to make larger installation works. Understanding the movement and flow of hot glass is the focus. Students will have the required skills after this course to take up glass making as an interest or passion and/or continue to further develop their own work. Students will become familiar with the equipment and each other as they create various hot sculptured forms and vessels, as they consider the application of the components and installation considerations. Bubble blowing and cane making can occur, depending on the interest of the students present. Students will have the opportunity to creatively explore their ideas in glass. Experimentation with the glass will be encouraged. A lot of glass will be produced: precious, extraordinary, weird and crazy, all created within the 2 week teaching session. Gravity, heat and centrifugal force are our main tools. Learning glassmaking skills will occur through repetition and practice, while the fundamentals of team working are concurrently explored. Emphasis is on posture and a philosophical understanding of the material and how it moves. Hot glassmaking offers an exciting and challenging area of exploration for artists interested in creating artworks that may not be considered as objects, but as installations while gaining an intimate understanding of the glass.

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B. Jane Cowie

B. Jane Cowie has been working with glass for over 20 years. She studied at Sydney College of the Arts, and was awarded a degree in the Visual Arts in 1983. Her commitment and desire to learn about glass has inspired her to travel extensively. She has worked in glass studios and factories in England, Europe, USA and Japan to develop technical skill and an intimate understanding of the material. Now based in Singapore, Cowie continues her practice as an independent artist while teaching (in her home studio). She works on large private, public and commercial commissions as part of Art Glass Solutions Pte Ltd, a company she established in 2008 with Dominic Fonde from the UK and B. Gopinath from India.
A glass artist with an impressive international experience, Cowie recently completed a Master Degree in Visual Arts at the University of South Australia where she examined the history and practice of glassmaking in South Australia using an ethnographic methodology to provide a glassmaker's perspective of history. With specialist knowledge, Cowie was well placed to undertake research as a participant / observer, as she worked in South Australia for over 10 years. Cowie has owned and operated her own glass blowing studio, the Spinifex Glass Studio, was a Board Member of the JamFactory, South Australia's premier glass art centre and founded the Blue Pony glass makers' cooperative studio in Adelaide. She has worked around the world to learn more about different glass making communities, techniques, skills and unique glassmakers' tacit knowledge. Cowie taught at Bild-Werk Glass School, Germany, Lasalle-SIA College of Arts in Singapore, the University of South Australia and was President of Ausglass: the Australia Association of Glass Artists and coordinated numerous glassmaking Conferences in Australia during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Exhibiting widely in Australia, Europe and Asia, Cowie is included in a number of public and private collections. In keeping with her ideas about place and community, Cowie maintains a teaching practice in her home studio which has seen a large number of her students go on to purchase their own equipment and begin their own glass making career. Art has an important role to play within Singapore, as it can assist communities shape and influence an appreciation of art and life. Cowie continues her commitment to glass art by supporting and being a part of the burgeoning art glass community as a teacher and exhibiting glass artist.
www.bjanecowie.on.net
www.artglasssolutions.com

* An additional €20 registration fee is charged during application
** The amount of deposit to be paid is €300
*** The accommodation is full board and the fee is € 40 euro per person/per night in room for 3-4 people. Single and double rooms are limited.
Please click www.glassfurnace.org/yeni/kampus_en.php link for details.