As part of our professional practice module in second year, we are invited to attend talks given by various artists in the industry. A few weeks ago I witnessed a talk by Inge Panneels, who is a part time lecturer at the National Glass Centre in architectural Glass. I found this interesting; as one of the academic team at the university we are not always aware of the work and varied portfolios they have been a part of. We have also been to talks from Cate Watkinson, James Maskrey and Robert Winter who are all either lecturers or technicians at the Glass Centre alongside being an artist in their own right.
One of the pieces I found most impressive was her collaboration with Jeffery Sarmiento (who also teaches at the University of Sunderland) in which they created 6 glass panels over 6 foot tall, depicting a map of Liverpool. The panels were created using a range of techniques, mainly screen printing and fusing. Having done a small amount of screen printing myself, the idea of printing so many layers on such a large scale is almost baffling! Since working with glass I have discovered just how weak I actually am; I may need to start weight lifting on the side to have any hope of creating something even moderately large, so making something bigger than most humans is a concept I find almost incomprehensible. I think I'll stick to small for now!
One of the pieces I found most impressive was her collaboration with Jeffery Sarmiento (who also teaches at the University of Sunderland) in which they created 6 glass panels over 6 foot tall, depicting a map of Liverpool. The panels were created using a range of techniques, mainly screen printing and fusing. Having done a small amount of screen printing myself, the idea of printing so many layers on such a large scale is almost baffling! Since working with glass I have discovered just how weak I actually am; I may need to start weight lifting on the side to have any hope of creating something even moderately large, so making something bigger than most humans is a concept I find almost incomprehensible. I think I'll stick to small for now!