About Karen Lilley

My love of glass started very young whilst watching flame worked glass animals and flowers being made in a shop next door to Brighton railway station and finding this fascinating.

My journey into glass making started around 1990 with a course at Bristol School of Art.  Here I learnt how to cut glass, paint, stain, etch and enamel it along with all the processes to lead it to make a window.  Part of my enjoyment of glass is that many of the techniques used have been unchanged down the generations and a sense of I am part of that continuation of makers.

In 2010 I had the opportunity to widen my understanding of glass when I took a part-time one year course in glass techniques at the Liquid Glass Centre in Wiltshire, UK. This allowed me to learn how to blow glass, kilncast, flame-work, fuse and slump glass, so many different techniques each with their own demands, limitations and opportunities!  That is another aspect I enjoy, that I don’t expect to ever stop learning about this amazing material!

I work from my studio in North Somerset and used to hire a blowing studio to make my blown work, here I am re-heating a piece in the glory hole, momentarily looking at the photographer rather than the piece!

re-heating 4