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Greg Swinburne

I have always admired Japanese art and was looking for an excuse to study in that area. There is a close connection between all the arts in Japan, so I was able to draw on several to achieve what I wanted. I mainly looked at gardens, Ikebana and calligraphy.

The sculptures began with the ‘Heaven’ line from Ikebana. (The three lines they base the structure around are heaven, earth and man.) Heaven is the most upright and upward-pointing, or heaven-seeking of the lines. The other aspects I maintain through this series are minimal and monochromatic colours, simple line and simple form.

The ‘Offering’ sculptures are subtitled ‘Sculpture for a Zen garden’ and I envisaged them in size from tiny to man-sized. The title is an allusion to Ikebana in its original context as an offering at a Buddhist shrine

The sculptures are started with white glass then black is applied in an overlay, then several layers of clear to build up the required quantity of glass. They are blown as an elongated bubble, then reversed onto a punty and pulled out into a longer form.

Once blown the pieces are put, while still hot, in a kiln overnight. In the kiln they cool down at a controlled rate to allow all stress to be relieved.

When cold, the sculptures have both sides cut off in a diamond saw. There is then a long process of grinding and polishing.