About

Bio

Before glass, there was a successful career in business — corporate change management, project management, the world of plans and deliverables. And before that, a restless creative curiosity that kept finding new outlets: painting, pottery, photography, drawing, film. I tried a lot of mediums. None of them quite stuck.

Then came glass.

"You don't choose glass. Glass chooses you."

That's how I describe it, and anyone who works with the medium will know exactly what I mean. Glass is demanding, unpredictable, and endlessly surprising. It rewards patience and punishes shortcuts. And once it has you, it doesn't let go.

Over the past decade I've built Red Hot Glass into a studio practice I'm genuinely proud of, working from my studio beneath Mt Ruapehu in Ohakune. I work across kiln-forming, casting, flame-work and, more recently, mixed media — combining cast glass with reclaimed metals including aluminium bronze, pewter and barbed wire to create sculptural work that sits at the intersection of fragility and strength.

My work draws on the world around me: the particular quality of light on the central plateau, the palette of the NZ coast, the forms that turn up in nature when you're paying attention. Whether it's a large wall piece, a delicate pendant, or a mixed-media hatpin that started life as an empty aluminium can, everything I make is created with the same intention — to be something genuinely worth keeping.

I've studied under many of New Zealand's leading glass artists, including David Traub, Evelyn Dunstan, Elizabeth McClure and Carmen Simmonds, as well as international visiting artists Daniel Clayman, Silvia Levenson and Kirstie Rea. I've exhibited widely across Aotearoa, and my work has found its way into private collections in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, England and the United States.

I'm also a driving force behind GAINZ — Glass Art In NZ — a community initiative dedicated to fostering conversation and increasing public awareness of glass as an art form in New Zealand.

If you're looking for a piece for your wall, a gift for someone you love, or something a little out of the ordinary — welcome. I'm glad you found us.

Kate at Murano (Venice, Italy) for the 2018 Glass Art Society Conference