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Audrey Glass

Eden’s research focuses on the use of new tools and old tools to create an ongoing body of artworks that challenge the definition of craft.

The Audrey project was used to build on previous digital research through an exploration of how the use of CAD 3D software could add to (or limit) the creative potential of traditional methods of glass blowing. Eden was commissioned to work on the project with Venini glassmakers of Murano, Italy, a company that has an international reputation for collaboration with designers and artists.

The starting point of the Audrey designs was a desire to extend and test Eden’s experience through the heuristic development of a body of work created in close association with the Venini glassmakers. In contrast to the production of his previous artworks using Additive Manufacturing, the Audrey pieces investigated the transfer of CAD designs back into traditional materials and processes. In developing an understanding of the creative possibilities and technical limitations of designing artworks based on one set of experiences and transferring them to another through the medium of CAD, new insights were evidenced, both in the artworks and in associated writing: ‘…It’s precisely through the use of cutting-edge digital technology that a work deriving from the field of craft is able to assert itself and so radically recast the relationship of craft to art and design today.’ (Alex Coles, SOFA catalogue, New York)

The project was disseminated online including Dezeen, Core77 and Mocoloco. The pieces were exhibited internationally, including Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano, 2010 – 2012; Venice Architecture Biennale; Established & Sons Gallery, London. They were featured in publications, including New Technologies in Glass by Vanessa Cutler, Bloomsbury, and in lectures including a keynote at the opening of Design Centrum Kielce, Poland.