Katherine Coleman: All year round 28 November - 23 December exhibition catalogue

Abstract

• Born in Sutton Coldfield in 1949, Katharine is a freelance glass engraver and designer. She was taught point, drill and copper wheel engraving on glass by Peter Dreiser at Morley College, Lambeth from 1984-7 and continues to explore these techniques at her workshop in Clerkenwell. Katharine engraves on clear lead crystal forms, overlaid with coloured glass, blown to her design. Her work requires close collaboration with glassblowers Potter Morgan Glass and Sonja Klingler. Once blown and annealed, the top surface of the glass is cut and polished to allow one to see inside the piece, usually with the help of coldworker Steve Frey of Cold Glass Workshop, Frome. It is then engraved on the outside surface. The engraved decoration reflects and refracts onto the inner surface,creating an illusion of one body floating inside another. The inspiration for her work ranges from natural history to the modern urban landscape. Katharine’s work has been exhibited widely in the UK and Europe, USA and Japan and can be seen in many public collections. She feels strongly that wheel engraving on glass does not need to be traditional in style or content. She prefers traditional techniques, engraving the glass surface with lathe-mounted copper, diamond and stone wheels, with which she is able to obtain the crispness, textures and fine finish; so difficult to achieve with sandblast and drill. Katharine was awarded an MBE for services to glass engraving in 2009. Public Collections include: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Germany; Alexander Tutsek, Munich; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead; Kamenicky Senov, Czech Republic