Meet the young artists pushing the boundaries of glassmaking
The art of glassblowing was popularised in a recent reality TV series, but these Australian artists are forging their own paths in the creative process of sculpting this tricky medium.
When glassmaker Isobel Waters works in the hot shop, using a blowpipe to form and shape molten glass bubbles, she often spends an entire four-hour shift on a single piece.
The furnace temperature can reach up to 650°C, and manipulating the glass is intensely physical work.
"It's a great practice of mindfulness," the South Australian-based artist says.
"You're hot, and you're grappling with this very challenging material, but it's really satisfying."
ACT glassmaker Madeline Cardone works in a kiln rather than a hot shop but says that approach is also intense in its own way.
Madeline Cardone says working in a kiln is a more drawn-out process than a hot shop, and gives different results. (Image: Brooke McEachern)
"It's a slow and meditative process where you're working on your own in the kiln," she says.
"You're planning your compositions, putting the glass in, taping it on and walking away for a day. It's more drawn-out, but more introspective."
A unique material
Waters and Cardone are two of the artists showcased at Glass Chrysalis II at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, a triennial exhibition featuring six of Australia's best young glassmakers.
While they both became engrossed in the world of glass while studying, Victorian Hamish Donaldson is a third-generation glassmaker and grew up with a hot shop at home.
Hamish Donaldson, who grew up in a family of glassmakers, says the work is physically and artistically demanding. (Supplied)
He and his brother Calum are also both part of the exhibition.
Donaldson did some odd jobs in the hot shop for pocket money as a kid, but it wasn't until he went travelling in South America and became inspired by the region's natural and architectural wonders that he decided to dedicate himself to the family craft.
"Time and contemplation shifted a lot of things around," he says.
"I had the spark to come back and take the opportunity to learn this craft.
"It's a unique material in its capacity, and it has such a broad function."
Donaldson says he enjoys how glassmaking tests artists both physically and artistically.