Pair hope to boost the number of Glass Artists

Published in Hamilton Press, written by Geoff Lewis

Hamilton glass artist Di Tocker plans to spend this year getting her work out into public view and spreading her enthusiasm for the artform.

Di opened an exhibition of her work at Artspost this week which will run until the end of the month, and returned recently from a glass casting symposium in Melbourne with fellow Hamilton caster Colleen Ryan-Priest.

The symposium, led by Canadian casting expert Donald Robertson, helped her develop new techniques and sharpened her desire to boost the number of people enjoying the art of casting in glass.

Di gained a bachelors degree in fine art in Melbourne 2002 majoring in glass. Colleen went to Auckland to train.

“At the moment there are only two glass casters in Hamilton. I want to get a group together and do a continuing casting course, and build up a larger group of glass casters in Hamilton,” Di said.

To this end Di has launched her own weekend glass casting courses. The course takes eight trainees at a time and the first intake for March is full and the April programme has only a few spaces left.

The glass casting programme costs $250 including materials. Using lead crystal glass supplied by Blackwood Crystal in Australia, trainees will aim to complete two small castings. The training sessions will be held at Colleen’s Casey Glass Studio in Casey Ave, Hamilton. Di Tocker can be contacted on 021 038 4057.