Rachel Mary Elliott

I am a glass artist based in Glasgow and I specialise in kiln-forming techniques that I use to create my sculpture. I am inspired by the prospect of capturing exact detail in glass and the technical challenges that presents.

Q&A

Artist Statement

My sculptural work is primarily representational, and I thrive in the process driven aspects of working with glass in order to create the structural forms and details that inspire me. There is also the constant and sometimes unexpected troubleshooting element that keeps me engaged with the material. Through this precise working practice, I attempt to explore contrasting concepts of fragility both within myself and the natural world around us.

What craft do you work with?

I work with glass, using kilns to heat the material, creating new forms from particles or fusing enamel surface decoration onto a piece. I discovered glassmaking as an evening class over twenty years ago which led me to study Architectural Glass full time at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with my BA (Hons) degree in 2007. Although I also learnt glassblowing during that time and have had the privilege to experience world renowned artists in this field, it’s never been a technique that I’ve had ideas for. It is the more solitary processes of kiln forming that I chose to establish my studio to facilitate.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

It may sound cliché but I find the material of glass itself, endlessly inspiring. When I first discovered it as something to create with it was the amazing colour palette of transparencies that changed when you applied opaque enamels to block the light transmitting through. Then when I learnt more techniques, it was the different forms glass can take when molten, cast, manipulated, carved, engraved and crushed. Glass is all around us yet seemingly overlooked as having artistic merit or potential when the possibilities of using this material are as abundant as it is.

How do you start your creative process?

Despite studying at art college, I’ve never been much of a natural sketchbook user. Indeed most of my notebooks contain cryptic notes on firing schedules, crude maps of how pieces were laid out in the kiln and vital remembering of how something accidentally succeeded. Currently my starting point has been surrounding myself with small piles of crushed glass, technically called “frit”, in a myriad of colours to choose directions for new pieces based on the relationships between their different particle sizes and tones.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

My studio consists of a single brick garage at my house that I converted when we moved here back in 2015. It’s the second studio space I have built out to accommodate kilns, lightbox tables and other specialist equipment needed to not only create my work but also hold classes for others. The kilns form an essential part of my processes and whilst I could hire these in other studios this would seriously impede my making due to the fragile state of the pieces until they are fully fired and the glass particles fused together.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

I would like to learn and experiment with airbrushing as a technique to apply enamels onto glass surfaces, either directly or onto refractory molds before casting.

What have you learnt or the best advice you have received that you would like to share with fellow crafters?

Persist. There is no right or wrong ways of being a maker as long as you aren’t hurting anyone, including yourself. Pausing can be difficult but sometimes a little distance and perspective is vital to moving forward with creating. It allows for even a change of direction to be done in an informed way and for the right reasons.

Personally, although I have been fortunate enough to have exhibited around the world and secured various awards, I would love to work more collaboratively with artists from other mediums and scales. The challenge and focus of presenting a body of work at a show such as COLLECT or SOFA has been a longstanding dream of mine.