Charlotte's Glass Dress

The British Glass Biennale 2010 exhibits an awarded piece (Charlotte's Dress) by Lisa Sheppy inspired by Charlotte Brontë:

The UK’s major exhibition of contemporary glass in association with the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers and the International Festival of Glass
This is the UK’s top contemporary glass showcase and will feature work of over 80 of the country’s leading glass artists with £11,500 in prize money being awarded. This is a rare opportunity to see a huge variety of work in a selling exhibition, from finely crafted vessels to bold sculptural works. The exhibition continues until 11 September.
27 August – 11 September
Open daily 10am - 5pm
Ruskin Glass Centre in Amblecote, Stourbridge

Worcester News carries an article about the artist:

Lisa Sheppy, who runs the foundation diploma in art and design course at the Worcester College of Technology’s School of Art and Design, was one of over 200 artists chosen to take part in the British Glass Biennale 2010 - the UK’s biggest exhibition of contemporary glass art.
More than 100 new glass works were selected for the exhibition and from that just 62 were put up for awards.
Mrs Sheppy’s piece, entitled Charlotte’s Dress, went on to win the Student Award.
Judge John Whiteman said: “Lisa’s winning piece is of an incredibly high standard for the student award; it is well thought out and technically very strong whilst telling a great story with humour and personality.”
Mrs Sheppy, who works from a studio in her Worcestershire home, is currently involved in a project at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire, which is where inspiration for Charlotte’s Dress came from.

On the artist's website there's more information (well, not any more but it still can be read on Google's caché):

Lisa Sheppy works from her studio which houses her glass and ceramic kiln in a quiet village in the heart of Worcestershire.
She is currently involved with a series of work inspired by the collection at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire, where she spent time making drawings and visual research based on personal items and the novels of Charlotte Brontë. The act of drawing was important in establishing a relationship with the delicate, fragile and faded objects and she felt compelled to use this experience in a new series of work.
The most challenging aspect of this project was how to translate this fascination with objects and storytelling in an appropriate form and Lisa soon discovered the fused glass process was an exciting new direction to take her work.
Fused glass immediately felt to be a natural way of working for Lisa. Her palette of inspiring materials includes copper, gold and silver leaf combined with enamel printmaking.
Lisa Sheppy’s use of a collage process has been on-going for some time, with her previous use of ‘chine-colle’ and monoprinting techniques. The methodology allows for a fluid, intuitive exploration of image, texture and colour which only reaches a static conclusion once the work is fired. While each piece of glass exists on its own as a separate environment, it is also grouped together to form a dialogue and ‘vignette’.
Through this research Lisa Sheppy has become part of a wider impact of the ‘Brontë narrative’ and has been able to contribute to a broad and far reaching audience. The exhibition has been on display at the University of the West of England, Bristol, as part of the MA degree show in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking, and has been met with universal appreciation.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Charlotte Brontë