Laura Birdsall

Vase

hand blown glass
height: 36 cm (14 in)

Laura Birdsall is deeply fascinated by the small details within nature, a tiny seed pod, a beach pebble or the edge of a fish’s fin. The micro worlds she finds are often the catalyst for her striking and beautifully tactile vessels.

Of her work she says: I make blown glass vessels with strong sculptural qualities. Continuing themes in my work are the relationship between the interior and exterior of a vessel and decoration that is integral to the form. As a maker I experience the hot material as soft and luminous. I try to preserve these qualities in the finished work. By layering transparent and opaque colours, I create vibrant and translucent objects that change with natural light, through the day.

Her pieces take time and patience, the layers of transparent and opaque colours are all subject to meticulous hand cutting and polishing to create vibrant and translucent objects that play with natural light.

Birdsall is one of a very small number of artists to have been selected for all three of the British Glass Biennale Exhibitions at Stourbridge as part of the International Festival of Glass. She was the recipient of the Charlotte Fraser Prize whilst studying for her MA at the Royal College of Art and in 2006 won the Best Newcomer award for the prestigious Bombay Sapphire Prize which toured to New Zealand, France and Italy. Her work has been shown in Switzerland, Estonia, Holland, the USA and extensively across the UK.

The present vase is an early work, purchased by Charlotte Fraser at Laura’s degree show in 2005. Charlotte is happy to offer it now to raise money for the current cause. Of Chiswick House she says: It’s always been a pleasure for me to visit Chiswick House and I have many happy memories of musical evenings held in the wonderful Grand Saloon.

Donated by Charlotte Fraser.