Hot Glass!

Glass-Blower  Hot Glass! is a groundbreaking study day that provides a unique first-hand experience into glassmaking. Participants will experience at first-hand most of the processes fundamental to forming fine glass, including blowing, pressing, casting and hand-made paperweight making. They will also visit a new museum, the first dedicated to 20th Century British Domestic Glass.
Hot Glass! is staged at Nazeing Glass Works, on the Essex/Hertfordshire border, a short drive north from M25, Junction 25. The company can trace its lineage from 17th century London and is still family-owned. It moved to its current site in 1928 and is now Britain’s second-largest fine glassworks, second only to Dartington.
Pressing  Nazeing still makes a wide variety of glassware, ranging through architectural and marine lighting, railway and airport runway lenses, laboratory glass and reproduction ‘Bristol’-blue decanters and goblets.
Hot Glass! study days are held exclusively by appointment all year-round, with extra staff brought in for the day to demonstrate the full range of glassmaking skills. A limited number of participants will be able form pieces of glass themselves, which they can to take away at the end of the day.

The Format
The day, spanning 10am-3.20pm, comprises:
•Welcome from Nazeing owner Stephen Pollock-Hill over tea & coffee.
•50-minute talk on Nazeing & Glassmaking from Andy McConnell.
•Comprehensive factory tour with expert guides in parties of 8.
•Opportunity to make a piece of glass [numbers limited].
•Lunch.
•Tour of Nazeing’s Museum of 20th Century British Domestic Glass.
•Talk on 20th Century British Glass from Andy McConnell.
•Tea, biscuits & tour of Nazeing’s spacious factory shop.


Nazeing History
Nazeing-Glass-c1936  The most collected items from Nazeing’s history are swirling pastel-tinted ranges of art glass that it produced during the 1930s and ‘50s. These were originally retailed through fashionable London stores but are often mistaken today for the products of better-known works.
Since the late-50s, when public taste switched towards cooler Scandinavian styles, Nazeing has found its bread & butter elsewhere; hand-pressed advertising ashtrays, produced at the rate of 3 million annually during the 1970s & ‘80s, for instance, and making stemware for BA’s Concorde services.
Nazeing has produced an astonishing variety of industrial, pharmaceutical, lighting, glazing, architectural, promotional, catering and domestic glassware, and bombproof prison windows. Nazeing also developed a vitrified glass for the nuclear industry. It has undertaken commissions for hundreds of clients, including Nestlé, Avon, Woolworth and the Royal Academy of Arts.


The Museum
Nazeing-Museum  Nazeing’s Museum of 20th Century British Domestic Glass is the brainchild of the works’ owner, Stephen Pollock-Hill. Occupying three former offices, its 800 examples represent Britain’s leading 20th century glassworks and their designers with a particular emphasis on the post-war era.

Stourbridge’s Big Four, [Webb, Webb Corbett, Royal Brierley and Stuart], are all represented, as are the Northeastern pressed makers, like Sowerby and Davidson. However, most emphasis is placed on the output of Whitefriars, Dartington, Kings Lynn/Wedgwood and, of course, Nazeing itself, which produced several ranges for Dartington and Wedgwood amongst others during the 1970s.
Whilst Stourbridge makers are served by their local Broadfield House Glass Museum, Nazeing is the first museum to concentrate on the glassware most commonly used in British homes in the post-war era and a tour of its exhibits kindles warm memories in most visitors.

Location
Nazeing Glass is located about 5 miles north of M25/Junction 25; half a mile east of Broxbourne mainline railway station, off the B194. Warning: the main entrance is not yet recognised by some sat-navs.

Contact
For further information about Hot Glass! contact Andy McConnell at Glass Etc: 01797 22660 or via andy@decanterman.com
For Nazeing Glass Works visit http://www.nazeing-glass.com.