I am fascinated by kiln-formed glass, with the depth of colour and the size of pieces which can be produced: it is like stained glass without the leading. I dream of having a kiln-formed glass window. Other people may dream of fame or riches but I could be perfectly happy with a glass door panel like the one Kim Bramley made for Anam Cara – a retreat centre in the Scottish Highlands.
The waves of colour look like water and the added texture produced by kiln carving – placing the glass on top of a layer of ceramic fibre paper or board in the kiln – or engraved with a lathe, look like sea creatures. Nature is a big influence in Kim’s work. The colours of nature – blues, greens, ochres, burnt sienna, appear often in her collections. “I am strongly influenced by colour,” Kim says, “Glass and colour are fabulous together: you can easily be seduced by the colour.” I know how she feels. Kim is inspired by the effect of light on landscapes. Light shining through the glass can be “utterly dramatic”, she says. “The light will change and you get great contrasts. “It is important where you position pieces. A piece can look totally different from the morning to the afternoon.”
Each piece is formed by layering sheets of coloured glass on top of each other, or placing grains of glass – called frits – on top of a sheet of glass, or by painting or dotting powdered glass over the surface and melting them together in the kiln. This creates a fluid look. The process of producing one piece can take several days. Large pieces have to be fired for two days as the kiln goes through its different temperatures very slowly in order not to create stresses in the glass (which would crack it) as it goes from solid to liquid and back to solid. If the pieces have to be shaped into bowls or dishes, they have to go through a second firing.
Kim has also been working with opalescent glass, in her ‘Cut Ripple’ series. “As it doesn’t have light going through it, working with it is more like painting,” she says. She creates dishes and tiles with layers of different coloured glass, so that you can see the layers on the rims of the tiles or the dishes and then cuts into the top layer with a lathe to reveal the colour underneath. The designs also have the feel of water about them.
And she has even created without colour in her ‘Clarity’ series of plates and dishes. “I wanted to remove the certainty of colour because I have worked with it for so long, and concentrate on texture.” The kiln-carved patterns really stand out when placed on a dark surface.
The fact that Kim uses so many different techniques with her glass is probably down to her background in fashion and textile design. “Texture is where my textile training finds its way into the glass,” she says. “There are so many different techniques to play with.” And that’s where the beauty of Kim’s work comes from, her love of playing with materials and tools.“I am a maker. I know that when I find a new material and something that excites me, I do wonder what I could end up making.”
She began working in glass 12 years ago. She had just completed a weekend course in stained glass and copper foiling glass when a friend offered her a kiln. “I thought: ‘this would be fun; I’d like to do this.’ “I realised that what I’d been doing in textiles with collage and layering could work in glass. A collage way of working is natural in kiln-formed glass. I could cut the glass up into shapes and layer on. “There is also a connection to water colour. By layering the glass, you are applying a wash of colour and then another over the top to build up the colour.” Kim’s latest technique has been to bring figurative art into her glass in her ‘Solitude’ series after taking a life drawing class. She cuts out the figures in kiln paper and places them under the glass on the bed of the kiln. The kiln paper can be washed away when the process is finished.
Kim Bramley sells through various art galleries. You can see her work and where to buy on her website.
