​In Concert With Glass

'Mourning Lace' explores loss; specifically the loss or separation or end of a romantic love. Throughout the years and in vast amounts of literature, poetry, music, and film, romantic love is a storied concept:  idyllic, idealised, and fairytale.  But love, like glass, is as fragile as it is strong. In 'Mourning Lace', I examine the handkerchief (a loaded, symbolic object and token of romantic love) as also a vessel for our emotions.  I suggest in this work, with the play between the delicate glass and intricate patterning and boldness of the black mourning colour, that loss can be quite beautiful and revealing in terms of desire and memory. Technically-speaking, my hope was to combine the two European craft traditions of glass and lace in this work. This piece was a finalist in the European Glass Experience and traveled to Spain (2014) and Italy (2015) for exhibition. (Images: Lisa Naas)