Fused glass art at Zoom’s St Leonards gallery

Fused glass artist Rachel Hoath has an exhibition starting on Monday 10 April in the Warrior Square station gallery. Zoom Arts, which has organised the show, fills in the background.

Rachel works from her wonderful purpose-built studio in Bexhill, creating handmade individual and unique, beautiful but affordable, one-off pieces of fused glass, from wall art to tableware.

She also designs and makes a unique range of jewellery, mostly with sterling silver findings, which includes pendants, bracelets, rings, brooches and cufflinks.

A lot of her work is done to commission, working with the client to create the perfect piece. The New Pembury Hospital in Tunbridge Wells commissioned her to make a piece of wall art, The Art of Healing which is on permanent display. Rachel also makes cast glass art, and has recently been working on a series of net huts.

French base

Rachel and her husband John own a property in the Charente-Maritime area of France, which they are currently renovating. This will house a larger studio/workshop with gites and campsite, which will give them an opportunity to develop their interest in making larger pieces and outdoor installations, as well as holding creative workshops and holidays. They will continue to divide their time between the Charante-Maritime and their studio in England.

Rachel’s most recent exhibitions were with Pure Art, South East Open Studios, Hastings Art Forum, Zoom Arts at Stade Hall in Hastings and St Leonards Warrior Square station, and Murmurations Gallery in Bexhill.

“I find I am constantly influenced by many unrelated things – architecture, nature, light, colour,” Rachel says. “Also the painters of the early 19th century, including Matisse, Van Gogh, Klee, Kandinsky and Mondrian. I often feel that I am not working with glass, but with light and colour as a painter might.

Sea and solitude

“I have recently been delving into the world of glass casting, and am currently exploring themes of the sea and solitude. I am working on a series of ‘Net Huts’, as well as other sea and nature related pieces.

“The process for my cast glass pieces is many faceted. Firstly I make a clay or wax model, then a plaster mould with a special mix for strength. Once the clay/wax is removed from the mould it has to be dried completely, which, depending on its size, can take several weeks.

“Once dry, the mould is filled with my glass of choice and fired at temperatures in excess of 800C, and because of the nature of glass this can be many days in the kiln. Once cool the pieces have to be cold-worked.”

Illumination: An Exhibition of Light & Colour by Rachel Hoath Zoom Arts Warrior Square Station Gallery, King’s Road, St Leonards-on-Sea. Monday 10 April-Saturday 15 April, 11am-4pm.

See Rachel’s website, which also has details of a series of workshops on glass fusing which she is running at her Bexhill studio through to late May.

She can also be contacted on 07879 474947.

Also in: Arts News