John Penman

John Penman is a New Zealander who was raised in Hong Kong, going on to study Glass Art at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design in America. Following his studies he returned home to set up his glass blowing studio in central Auckland.
Acknowledged as one of few artists worldwide to use 'photosensitive' glass, John employed it to capture images of natural materials as diverse as leaves and feathers in a very limited series of vessels. These rare works of glass art are subtle, in contrast to the saturated colour often used by glass artists.
Since the mid 90's, John Penman has offered a selection of his distinct studio glass through Gallery Pacific.

Glass Blowing process

Glass Blowing is a fascinating art form, with origins in the region of modern day Syria 2000 years ago.
In John Penman's studio, a ceramic crucible holds molten glass, which is 'gathered' on the end of a long steel blowpipe, manipulated and formed into shape with various simple hand tools. During the process the glass must be repeatedly re heated to maintain its malleability.
Owing to the challenge of working with molten glass, the artist is often assisted by another glass artist to achieve the desired outcome.
Once the glass vessel or object is finished, it is placed carefully in an annealing oven which allows it to cool down slowly.
Finally ,the glass artwork may have a treatment to alter its surface texture, be ground to flatten its base, and is signed by the artist.

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