The Making of Laure Prouvost's Bird 1

Most are unaware of the skill that Australian glassblowers have, completing the ACCA commission allowed the team to prove their competence on the International stage.
Laure’s birds pushed our collective glassblowing experience of more than 150 years. We hope the success of this commission gives other international artists the confidence to employ a strong team of Australian glassblowers to make complicated and challenging glasswork in Australia.
We received one watercolour drawing for each bird, this was all the sketched information we had to work with. Further dialogue and conversations were had after lengthy prototyping sessions and colour sample stages.
Laure was a brilliant artist to work with, understanding the making process she gave us a generous scope to interpret her birds from the watercolour drawing to molten glass.
To execute the scale and complexity of Laure’s birds the team travelled to Canberra Glassworks where the facilities allowed us to hire two glory holes, two benches, at the same time as well as employ the skills of Tom Rowney, Ben Edols, and Hugo Curtis, making up the team of 7.
After prototyping in Melbourne, multiple discussions were had with gaffer Tom Rowney to determine the best approach and methodologies to employ. From this knowledgeable perspective the team embarked on making the five complex birds.
The excursion was deemed incredibly successful and we returned back to Melbourne with the birds mostly cold worked. In our Melbourne studio we fine tuned the connections of heads to the bodies, attached the bronze legs and finessed the posture.
Birds blown by Ruth Allen, Nick Doran Adams, Juniper Maffescioni, Keely Varmalis, Hugo Curtis, Tom Rowney and Ben Edols.