Cloud Garden VII

Sculptural vessel

Glass sculpture: Height: 52cm, Width: 38.5cm, Depth: 23cm, Weight: 10.5kg

Steel plinth: Height: 110cm, Width: 15cm, Depth: 15cm, Weight: 30kg

“My Cloud sculptures are the largest pieces in all my artwork. It is quite unusual in glassblowing to find pieces of this size and scale. This is mainly because glass artists are limited by the size of the furnace opening, the size of the reheating furnace (glory hole), and the size of the annealing ovens. Of course, with nine kilos of hot glass flopping around on the end of a blowing iron, the process places huge physical demands on my team and me. To achieve the final oval form, a very large sphere is blown, and then flattened using cork paddles, so paradoxically the piece is actually even bigger before it is flattened.”

A celebration of colour, this sculpture was inspired by the vibrant colours of 17th Century Dutch flower paintings. The colouring method uses a combination of glass shards and canes. The sculpture is attached to a free-standing steel plinth, naturally weathered to create a rustic contrast with the smooth surface of the glass.