Teresa Chlapowski

Member of The Chelsea Art Society (CAS), The Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain (APA) and The Contemporary Glass Society (CGS)
I started exploring sculpture by using clay, but over the last few years, I have discovered glass and have started to experiment with it, pushing it to its limits.
This amazing, alchemic medium allows light to play such a wonderful extra dimensional part, giving both transparency and depth to a sculpture, as though an opening into an alternative universe of just light and shadows. I use Ceramic Fibre like a textile, folding and crinkling it, making piece specific natural ‘moulds’ into which the glass panels are slumped, creating almost fluid like fabric forms. No sculpture is the same, nor is it repeatable.

I have also discovered casting with glass, both in the kiln using plaster/quartz moulds and sand casting in a hot glass studio. Both these add yet another aspect to using glass and are just as exciting if more time consuming. Plaster/quartz moulds offer a lot more detail and can be open moulds or lost wax. Sand casting is literarily making an open mould out of sand (and Bentonite) and then either pouring the glass in, or casting with glass billets in the kiln. This method retains some of the sand when taken out of the mould and the shape is more indistinct, giving a rougher, more ancient look to the glass, as though just discovered in an archaeological dig.

The possibilities are endless!

My ideas come from the heart and emotions, from dance and movement, to photography, ancient art and archaeology, travelling and new cultures, spirituality and the soul. Usually the ideas come first and the media second so sometimes I mix different materials in one piece e.g. porcelain with glass, giving it the solidity of reality and emphasising the ephemeral transparency of the unseen soul.

With photography, distortions and computer graphics, my colour palette has expanded and allows for greater experimentation and freedom of form which cross-pollinates into my glass.