Artists

Annette Blair is a glass-maker based near Canberra, Australia. Working out of the Canberra Glassworks as well as her home studio in Burra NSW. Annette has worked in glass for over two decades and has dedicated her practice to refining technical processes in order to make beautifully crafted objects and create one-off artworks for exhibition. With a broad skill-set, she also works regularly as a gaffer; fabricating glass works for other high-profile artists as well as traveling to teach glassblowing and glass painting nationally and internationally.

Completing her honours degree in 2004 at the Australian National University, Canberra School of Art, Annette then relocated to Adelaide where she completed the hot-glass associate training program at JamFactory contemporary craft and design centre. Returning to Canberra in 2008 she works with a talented team of glassblowers and continues to grow her diverse practice.

‘Inspired by our connection to people and place, the current ‘traces of stillness’ series explores the residues of passing time. Simplified forms reference familiar objects which may have once been passed down through generations or forgotten in the dark corner of an old shed. I build up layers of glass enamels and rust to celebrate the imagined narratives of these objects and their decay. The malleability and permanence of glass allows me to reimagine these forms while at the same time preserving them.

‘I employ both control and surrender to the material while creating these works, using heat and material knowledge to engage with the work. These piece’s have been blown and coldworked to achieve the desired form and surface texture. I then apply multiple layers of glass enamel paints before embedding metal filings into the surface of the glass which rusts and continues to change over time, further adding to the narrative of the object’.

Annette Blair, 2024