Maker Focus: Helen Eastham Cornwall Crafts Association

MAKER FOCUS

Helen Eastham

Capturing adventures and memories in glass

Where is your studio? At home in Newquay, in the garden. There’s a lot of light, and on blustery days I can hear the gulls and the sea. It’s a lovely space to work in.

What inspired you to take up glass work? I’m a lifelong learner and have always been a maker, I discovered glass as a medium 14 years ago by doing a day’s course with Amanda Copson. Glass just fitted and still does.

What appeals to you most about the medium? I love the qualities of glass with its juxtaposition of liquid or solid, fragile or strong, clear or opalescent. It’s a mesmerising, exciting and surprising medium to work with. It’s a material that allows me to play, have an adventure, be surprised and escape from the everyday pressures of life for a small amount of time.

What makes your work different to that of other glass makers? I make sculptural kiln formed vessels, which hold the narrative of my life’s experiences – all the encounters, journeys and adventures - and epitomise the connections we make in life. They allow me to bring the outdoors indoors. My work is about evoking a physical emotion, asking people to remember a special walk by the shoreline, on the coast path or eating fish and chips on the harbour wall. What do they remember seeing and experiencing? The bright white froth of the breaking waves with the bubbles escaping to the surface? The bluey-green colour of the sea next to the bright blue sky, and the horizon in the distance? Or the shapes and forms of the flora on a winding coast path? I want people to make their own connections to my work, but to recognise why the connection to them is important.

How has Cornwall influenced your passion? Can specific aspects of the landscape be detected in your work? I was born and brought up in St Austell. My father and brother were keen surfers, so we spent a lot of time on the north coast chasing the waves, winter and summer, immersed in the cycle of coastal living. All those experiences have shaped how I see and view the world, and I now make work which reminds me of those places and the people who I have had those adventures with. The shapes and forms of pebbles, sand-pools and rock-pools are present in the forms that I make. For example, my Actinia vessels are the interpretation of the small anemones we used to explore the rock-pools for at low tide; Shorelines are about beach walks with family and friends, and Buoys are about the fishermen and their adventures. Recent work has been about coastal walks in the winter months - once, after a particularly fierce storm, I found goose-barnacles. You're a member of Cornwall Crafts Association. What's it like to be part of a collective? I was selected recently and feel privileged to be able to exhibit alongside so many other talented craftsmen and artists. It feels very supportive and encouraging. The gallery at Trelissick has spring, summer and autumn/winter exhibitions, so the work on display changes frequently and there is always something fresh and inspiring to be seen. Members also hold focus exhibitions, and I’ve been invited to do so in November, which I am really excited about.

You also teach - tell us more about this Yes, I teach at Create (Cornwall) CIC, a contemporary craft hub I set up in Camborne with fellow artists Jane Smith and Angela Hatherell. We’re providing community crafts facilities and courses, specialising in glass, ceramics and jewellery. It’s in the early stages of development, and is an extremely exciting initiative to be involved in.

What do you have planned for the future? I’m going to be at the Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey with Design Nation in June; I’m in discussion with Elaine Dye at The Byre Gallery, at Mount Edgcumbe in south-east Cornwall, about future opportunities; and have an artist feature planned with The Poly in Falmouth, as well as with other associate applications for upcoming selected exhibitions at the Penwith Gallery in St Ives. All in all, it’s a busy and exciting time. l