Canberra Glassworks is seeking your support to commission local artist Sui Jackson to build and blow glass from a Wood Fired Glass Furnace which he has designed and has been wanting to create for many years.  

Many people will know Sui from his work at Canberra Glassworks as our Make Your Own Artist on weekends.  He works from the Hotshop on a one to one basis with visitors, guiding them through the process of working with hot glass.  In each 20 minute session they get the opportunity to make their own stylish paperweight or bird paperweight.  They shape the glass themselves, adding colour and using different tools to create their own unique designs.

Through these Make Your Own experiences, Sui's been responsible for inspiring many people to take up glass, through Canberra Glassworks courses and workshops, or through the ANU School of Art.  He's made a massive contribution to the glass community over the years.

 As a thankyou from Canberra Glassworks, we'd like to make his vision for a Wood Fired Glass Furnace happen.  We're really fired up about it!

The Sui Jackson Wood Fired Glass furnace will be fired for the first time as a spectacular feature of the Glass 2015: Winter Glass Market which will be held at Canberra Glassworks from 4pm on Saturday 20 June 2015.  It's a free community celebration of glass and glass-making revealing the power of glass and light at Canberra Glassworks and in celebration of 100 years of Kingston Power House.  Canberra Glassworks is raising funds from this event to support its Creative Fellowship program.

After the event, the Wood Fired Glass Furnace will live at Strathnairn Arts Centre and used by Sui and other Canberra artists.  It will be returned to Canberra Glassworks for public events and demonstrations.

Canberra Glassworks is raising funds to commission Sui Jackson to build and blow glass from his Wood Fired Glass Furnace o Saturday 20 June 2015 at the Glass 2015: Winter Glass Market. 

The estimated costs for this project are as follows:
- Artist Fees $1000 (Sui Jackson and assistants for 12 hour firing plus blowing during the event)
- Materials (furnace bricks, manufactured steel base, etc) $500
- Transport (trailer hire, fuel) $500
- Purchase of firewood $300
- Documentation $300
TOTAL $2600

The modern world is used to seeing glassblowing in a high-tech state-of-the-art environment like the Canberra Glassworks.  Gas-controlled furnaces with superfine control gives a pristine product. But for thousands of years glassblowing was done in a more primitive fashion. Glassblowers learned to blow with wood as the primary source of heat, watching the colour of the flames and learning through years of experience how to tend a fire to make good glass. And to work quickly with what radiant heat they could sustain creating more individual pieces in an environment where the first time you blow and bend a shape determines what that object is going to look like.

This furnace gives us all the chance to see what glassblowing was like for most of human history. To get to the flaming heart of the meeting of sand, fire and flux to make the most alluring substance that man has ever known – glass.

Building off the skills that have grown in the wood-fired ceramic community over the last few decades, a combination of ceramic and glass artists will bend their skills to unite the ancient technology and modern glassblowing for all fans of flames to experience. The Canberra Glassworks Glass 2015: Winter Glass Market event on 20 June 2015 is a great opportunity for those who use glass in all its forms to bring together their talents to share a truly unique experience with the wider community.