New Zealand Glass Artists Exhibit in Akaroa

The beach at Akaroa

Yesterday, on New Year's Day, we packed into the car and drove to Akaroa, a tiny seaside town just about an hour and a half's drive from Christchurch. Under blue summer skies, we drove through long stretches of pasture country and sun-bronzed hills.

Akaroa is a quaint and colorful town with a obvious French influence having been settled by French immigrants long ago. Charming old houses line the hillsides, some almost completely overrun by prolific gardens in full bloom. Street names are all in French. Akaroa is situated on the edge of an extinct volcanic crater that makes up the Banks Peninsula. The Pacific Ocean invades the crater from the East, creating a calm and breathtaking body of water. It's one of my favorite places to go.

View of Akaroa Harbour

Charming Akaroa Home

My friends Kay Butler and Lisa-Jane Harvey, with support from the NZGBA (New Zealand Glass Bead Artists) organized a glass artists exhibition at a well-known local art spot in Akaroa, the Andrew Firth Gallery. Andrew himself specializes in glass art and creates some of the most wonderfully executed and graceful glass sculptures and pendants I've seen. Many of the artists are into lampwork, which is creating art beads by melting colored glass rods in a torch flame.

Andrew Firth (far right)

A couple of years ago I took a weekend lampwork course from Lisa-Jane Harvey and met Kay Butler through her. It was a wonderful weekend exploring an exciting new art and I came away with a long string of my fledgling attempt beads. See post.

Kay Butler with her jewelery (in glass case at eye level)

The New Zealand artists represented in this exhibit were: Kay Butler, Andrew Firth, Frances and John Hansen, Lisa-Jane Harvey, Karen Irwin, Justine McInally, Karen Mitchell, Helen Moore, Selma Rainey and Greg Smith.

It was exciting to see what everyone has been up to. I was impressed with how Kay's work has progressed from when I first met her. She had a few lovely necklaces on display and she called me up today to say that she had sold two of them! How exciting! It's always very gratifying when someone loves your work so much, they simply have to have it.

New Zealand still has a comparatively small lampwork artist community. But it is growing. Annie Rose in Whangarei and Lisa-Jane Harvey's studio in Auckland 'Born to Bead,' provide wonderful opportunities for people to learn this exciting art.

Kay (left) and my Mom, Ginny (visiting from California). Ginny is a glass artist in her own right, making stunning jewelery with Dichroic glass and beads.

After looking at everything and having some champagne and nibbles, my Mom, Antz and I went on to explore the area a little bit, enjoying some fun little shops and having a lovely lunch by the shore with a nice breeze cooling off the hot afternoon. It was unseasonably hot yesterday (about 90 degrees F and over 30 degrees C) and without air conditioning in the car, it made for a toasty trip. We had all the windows open, hair blowing every which way, my hand 'porpoising' out the front window. Perfect summer day!