The Name
My name is Jackie, so you might wonder why my business is called Emma Grace.
The name is an amalgamation of middle names. Mine is Emma and my gorgeous daughter's middle name is Grace.
And so, Emma Grace Glass Art was born
The Inspiration
I love the ocean. It is my biggest inspiration for both painting and creating fused glass.
As a family we visit the coast as often as we can.
I am a calmer, happier person when I can see, smell and feel the ocean.
I like to find a horizon line in much of my creative work. For me the horizon gives me a sense of space and freedom. It is like a natural spirit level, giving me a sense of balance.
The waves create movement and texture and the ocean itself provides nature's most beautiful colour palette of blues and greens.
The Journey
Having always loved art and colour, I discovered glass making in 2013. I attended various courses in fusing and slumping in Bristol, and for me, it was love at first kiln firing.
I had no idea at the time that my great grandfather Andrew was a glass blower in the 1920's and 30's in Portobello, Edinburgh and then Glasgow. It seems that my love of glass was perhaps in my DNA.
Following a long and busy corporate career in HR, it took a pandemic, redundancy and change of lifestyle for me to take the plunge and begin my own glass making business.
I now create glass art in my small home studio, exhibiting and selling at galleries, artisan events and with independent retailers.
I am a warm glass artist, which means that I work initially with cold glass, which is then kiln formed into fused and slumped art.
Glass pieces can take many hours to create. One kiln firing is around 22 hours, so if a piece requires multiple firings, it is a lengthy process, requiring precision and patience.
Quite often when I paint, I am inspired by photographs I have taken or places I have visited (usually seascapes).
My homewares are inspired by contemporary home decor, combining colours, and finding unusual patterns in art glasses.
My abstract glass art pieces are usually borne out of my imagination. I try to always create work that I would like to own myself. If I don't think I will love it, then I don't want to invest time in making it.
My work incorporates glass in many forms including frits, powders, stringers and reactive glasses, as well as a range of inclusions from metals, wire, oxides and enamels.