CELEBRATING THE BEAUTY OF GLASS OVER 20 YEARS

CELEBRATING THE BEAUTY OF GLASS OVER 20 YEARS

When Greg and Virginia Saward noticed a beautiful, slumped glass partition in a cafe while on holidays in Canada, they were instantly inspired to bring this process back home to their glass business, Saward Glass Designs, in Tasmania. The business partners immediately started their training in slumped glass production. Virginia fell in love with the beauty of coloured slumped glass, while Greg concentrated on using slumped glass to enhance their commercial and residential glazing projects.

Master Glazier Greg Saward started the business in 2001, offering just glass replacements and security screens to start with. Ten years later they installed their first slumping kiln and developed a range of textured kiln-formed glass products. ‘This kiln opened up a niche market for our business and allowed us to work closely with our customers to create one-off pieces for their projects’, explains Greg Saward. ‘We now use slumped glass in shower screens, splashbacks, and even in double glazed units. Virginia works on the coloured glass, I focus on glazing, and we share the business admin.’

In 2021, Saward Glass Designs received Highly Commended in the AGWA Design Awards. ‘We were extremely surprised and delighted to receive the award. It goes to show you don’t need to have 40 staff and a massive workshop to be able to create awesome work with glass’, says Greg. ‘The Awards are a great platform for glazing businesses to showcase their talents.’

The Highly Commended winning entry was a residential slumped glass splashback project, inspired by nature and organic forms. The client was a Huon pine cabinet maker, and already very creative in his own right. He gave Saward Glass Designs great artistic freedom, and Greg believes this ‘creative expression really showed in the end results’.

Greg is most proud of the hard work that’s gone into starting, growing, and expanding to offer new products over the last 20 years in the glass business. He obtained Master Glazier status in 2018, which along with an Accredited Company status, gives Saward Glass Designs’ customers the confidence that they will get quality workmanship that meets Australian Standards.

‘I still love working with glass and all that you can do with it’, ends Greg.