Glass artist's creative project

KIMBOLTON glass artist, Ben Sablerolle, is on a creative journey with material that he considers “awesome”.

Ben has been working with students from the Kimbolton, Kiwitea and Apiti Schools this year as part of a Creative Communities Scheme project aimed at presenting glass as an accessible art form to young people.

The project is funded by New Zealand Creative Communities (Manawatu District) and administered by Manawatu District Council.

Having worked with glass for 30 years, Ben is hoping the students will get some appreciation of the amount of glass in the environment and its possibilities as an art material.

“Glass is an amazing material, it’s everywhere and people take it for granted,” he said. “But it’s a unique material in terms of coming from a cheap source, and its applications are countless.”

He said that historically, glass had been largely inaccessible as an art material due to the technology and costs required to run a working glass studio.

“However, developments in glass technology and the advent of fusing compatible glass in the last 20 years have made glass accessible as never before.”

Ben’s current project involved three separate sessions – an introductory visit to each of the schools, an outing by the pupils to his Homeblown Glass Studio in Kimbolton and a return trip to the schools to evaluate progress.

During the sessions Ben covered glass from an artist’s perspective and the history of art glass and its working methods, as well as his approach to glass and its technology, equipment and safety, artistic identity, marketing and sales.

“It’s the first time I’ve done structured sessions with children in schools,” he said, “and it’s been enjoyable and energising. I feel very lucky in being able to teach them about such interesting material and they, in turn, bring in a lot of enthusiasm.”

A “compulsive maker of things”, Ben said the home-built equipment at his studio enabled him to work glass using traditional techniques applied to the new glass technology

He thanked Creative Communities and the MDC for their support in a project that he hoped would inspire a new generation of glass artists to share with their communities the beauty of their own creativity and of glass.