The Studio Glass movement began in America in the early sixties by Harvey Littleton.

Up until that time glass was designed by the design department in the office and the glassblowers would attempt to produce the designs handed to them. This worked well for several hundred years during the industrial revolution. However the system began a gradual breakdown and by the time Harvey Littleton started to set up his glass furnace at the university where he was a ceramics lecturer, the time was right for something new.

The ceramics movement of the forties and fifties created a precedent and format for studio glass. Taking control of the whole process from conception to execution of the work was a liberating experience and proved to be feasible because of the development of the small glass-melting furnace.

Studio glass has grown to include blown, cast, fused, and various combinations of techniques in a bewildering array of forms and colours.

In New Zealand interest in hot glass started to build in the mid seventies, Mel Simpson and Tony Kuepfer bought from America the basics of getting equipment and rudimentary blowing skills together. Also at this time John Croucher, Ann Robinson and Garry Nash the group at Sunbeam Glassworks were setting up equipment. There were also several one-man-back-yard attempts in Auckland and Wellington and one unique set-up in Nelson.

It was an interesting time for those of us in this small band of pioneers, as very little was known about a really complex technical engineering feat. Glass melting furnaces have never been readily available commercially, then or now, and the great expense and limited life of the equipment made all these early attempts very risky ventures. The almost total lack of a hand made glass industry in New Zealand meant that there were no suppliers of glass, so as soon as the first shaky furnaces were running we all had to work out how to make glass from available materials.

By 1980 it became apparent that we were so isolated from the main stream that we needed to either travel overseas frequently or bring leading exponents here to teach us the techniques necessary to evolve our craft. We developed some interesting ideas from working in such isolation, but were always in danger of reinventing the wheel. It was deemed most efficient to form a society, New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass, to bring visiting glass artists to New Zealand to keep us up to date with techniques from around the world. This tradition has continued and has kept our glass current in the overall glass scene.

Garry Nash
Sunbeam Glass Studio
September 1998

Pacific Light: 1997-1998

NZ Society of Artists in Glass planned "Pacific Light Symposium" as an opportunity for New Zealanders to be exposed to international practitioners of high calibre.

The aims were:
-To challenge and extend New Zealand practitioners beyond the scope of their current work.
-Provide the members of NZSAG with incredible international tuition, by some of the worlds greatest glass artists and give our people a chance to interact on a more personal level.
-To raise our profile not only in New Zealand but also in Europe, the U.S.A, Japan and Australia.

Creative NZ provided a substantail grant for the organisation and management of the event in Auckland.