Spotted 2018 : Interview with Bethany Fowkes

Bethany Fowkes graduated from the Design Crafts course at De Montfort University earlier this year, she specialises in glasswork and is inspired by patterns and colours that are around her.

Following her graduation and degree show, we spoke further with Jess about her work and how she plans to move forward with her practice.

 

Where did you draw inspiration from for this collection?

I drew inspiration from the Memphis movement, taking elements of the graphic patterns and bright colours.

 

The fluidity and softness of shapes creates almost a marbled effect, is there a special technique that you use to achieve this?

The shapes of the vessels took inspiration from Scandinavian glass. The technique to create the colours are a series of colours all being added and either stretched to create a long line in the direction that I wanted and also cutting them with sheers into blobs to then shape into the glass that I have previously shaped before applying the colour. The shapes are achieved by a process of heating in varies places and creating jack lines using a jack tool to create the pinched in areas.

 

Where do you see yourself this time next year?

This time next year I hope to be push my creativity and design skills further and have my career within design started.

 

Which artists inspire you most?

Alice Heaton is a big inspiration to me as she similarly using bright colours within her glass, but we use the heat and the way the colours react together differently to shape our work, she using the colour reactions so shape her pieces with creases and dips, where as I have learnt what colours work together nicely without too much reaction against each other with the heat, this way I try and control the shape to achieve the shapes that I use within my work.

 

If you would like to see more of Jess’ work or to find out more, you can visit her Instagram or website.

Thanks for reading! We will be posting more interviews with our spotted graduates in the coming months!