My Dream Studio. Ep. 1 – Kate Cornwall
Hi, Scott writing here – Kate’s husband. Right back when Kate and I started GAINZ in 2018 (wow, more than five years ago already), we had the idea that one thing we may do to encourage collaboration and share knowledge through the glass community was to visit various artist studios, and share how they are setup, the equipment being used, etc.
Now, in 2023, we thought we’d take a different angle. We are talking to various artists about what their Dream Studio would be, one they would be happy to have to live with forever. However, like life, there’s a couple of rules, and while the budget is unlimited, you are only allowed a limited selection of equipment, and they must be real – no making up a fantasy piece of machinery that does everything all in one, or choosing bundles of different pieces of equipment together. On the plus side, every studio will have an awesome audio system for music, and you get to invite a couple of people into your Dream Studio to collaborate with you.
So, for the first episode of My Dream Studio, we are putting Kate in the interviewee chair for a change and asking her about her forever Dream Studio.
If you don’t know Kate, as well as being the driving force behind GAINZ, her glass art adventures started with fusing, and has grown to include kiln forming, casting, blowing, and metal forging.
First off Kate, your Dream Studio can be anywhere in the universe, where will it be?
My ideal studio would be in Ohakune, surrounded by farmland and native bush, looking out at the Maunga (Mt Ruapehu). There would be no neighbours around, so I can work in peace and quiet or be as loud and noisy as I want.
The studio would be separate from the house, but connected by a well lit, warm, welcoming underground walkway. My Dream Studio would be built into the side of a hill, surrounded by earth, providing eco-friendly insulation. Beautiful large double glazed glass doors open out onto a large extended deck. Warm in winter, cool in summer. Some eco-friendly external cladding to keep moisture out, with wood features inside. A well wearing cushioned (maybe Lino) type flooring / hard wearing floor. Lino so the glass bounces, and more comfortable to stand on for long periods. There would be access to outdoor decking areas to each side of the studio and on the roof.
What else? It will need to have lots and lots of storage. A storage system that shuffles, like you see in lawyers offices, but for storage of glass sheets and ‘stuff’. There will be separate spaces for work in progress, for metal working, for clay, for flameworking, for moulding up, and a specially designed space for cold working.
Now let’s fit out your studio, for the studio equipment – you get the first three items for free, then you have will have to make a selection of only six other items. For the first three, you get the choice of a kiln, a glass supplier, and whatever unpowered hand tools you want.
So firstly – what kiln would you choose?
It will have to be a Nabertherm kiln, customised so that the top can be lifted off with a gantry and different size tops lowered on to the kiln base, kind of like what Perth Art Glass has, but the kiln tops are customised. The tops are able to be sectioned to smaller areas, of different heights and width, so I can make large kilnformed pieces, or smaller fused pieces, or have height for casting. And it will need to be able to do vitrograph, so the base can be raised up high and I can pull canes out through the bottom.
[Note from Scott – I think Kate is gaming the system here with a fantasy kiln that can do everything].
What glass supplier would you choose?
It will have to be Bullseye, that’s a pretty easy choice for my fusing work, and the type of casting I do at the moment. I like that I can use the same glass for kilnforming, for flameworking or for open cast work.
And for your third free item, the unpowered hand tools, any particular choices there?
A good sheet glass cutting system – The Creators Cutting Mate, with waffle boards, and curve and straight cutting would work for me.
A good range of flameworking hand tools will need to be included also, and a mixture of wax working / wax carving tools. Hammers, jewellery hand tools, paintbrushes – gosh I could go on!
Now you have only six other items to fit out your studio with, you will live with your choices forever, so choose carefully.
Item 1
For my first item, it would have to be a large variable speed Flat Lap. A Covington with a variable speed drive.
Item 2
A large blade glass saw, with foot pedal operation is a must have for me. One which is large enough for the big jobs and I can build jigs to lift up the smaller jobs.
Item 3
Definitely a Foredom rotary tool, with a hangar and all drill and grinding attachments included. Love Foredom tools!
Item 4
Next has to be a surface mix flameworking torch with an Oxycon, that works well for both soft and borosilicate glass. This is so I can work on bullseye glass and so I can sculpt with borosilicate glass – not that I’ve tried that yet – but I’m dying to!
Item 5
Now I’m going to try and game the system again haha - The studio will have articulated compressed air, which a sandblaster will connect to. The sandblaster will be large, have an internal light, and be foot operated. The compressed air will provide lots of power for the compressor, and could be used to power many of the tools, as well as used to blow dust out of moulds etc.
Item 6 - Last item
I love my DevilForge, so when it comes to a metal working furnace, the large DevilForge, with lots of space for getting tools around crucibles. And all the crucibles, tools etc!
Also in your Dream Studio you are allowed one luxury item, that you couldn’t live without in the studio. Anything at all but it can’t be equipment for making or production.
My studio will need a filtered sparkling water tap. Chilled of course.
Now that you have your dream studio fitted out, who is one New Zealand artist that you will invite into the studio for a collaboration, and what would that collaboration project be?
Oh that’s really hard – there are literally heaps of possibilities! If I want to bring it down to someone who works in glass, and from whom I could learn a lot…It would have to be Heather Kremen, and we would create fused and hot sculpted components which would be put together.
And final question, what is one other artist from anywhere, living or dead, who you would like to collaborate with in your dream studio?
I would love to work with Edgar Degas, to learn the sense of movement he has in his painting would be amazing, let alone his sculptural work realised in glass.