Seeds of an idea
It is her love of museums and nature that inspires Whitby glass artist Effie Burns’ intricate and beautiful works of art. Lucy Oates meets her. Main pictures by James Hardisty.
Effie Burns cites her gallery curator father and nature-loving, textile artist-turned-writer mother as sources of inspiration for her stunning glass work. “I spent part of my childhood living in a museum. Since that time, I’ve been fascinated by how things are protected, curated and displayed,” explains Whitby-based glass artist Burns. Her threedimensional designs are created using simple, natural objects, such as acorns and mushrooms, foraged on walks in the countryside. And some of her work has been featured in a special exhibition in London to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Burns, who was born in Sheffield and returned to her native Yorkshire five years ago, had her The Box of Delights appear in ‘The Art of the Exceptional, a Jubilee Celebration of Makers’ at Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly earlier this year.
The exhibition’s theme seems all the more fitting given that the United Nations General Assembly has formally declared 2022 as the International Year of Glass to celebrate the heritage and importance of this material in our lives.
Presented in a Chinese lacquer box, Burns’s exhibit featured a collection of tiny yet exquisitely detailed glass objects, some of which she had gilded, that were all cast from real, natural treasures gathered on walks during the national lockdowns aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19.
“The antique Chinese lacquer box dates from an era when people travelled the world to collect botanical specimens. I made The Box of Delights in a time of restriction and the 15 pieces were collected on walks during the pandemic. They document the changing seasons and hold these natural objects in a perpetual present,” she explains.
“As the seasons unfold, I find myself continually collecting things. I enjoy working with the alchemic and ancient properties of glass to distil nature into something else. I forage things on walks along the cliff paths, through parks and woodlands. I like the smell of wet grass, the pattern of pine needles on a path and the crunch of pebbles as I search for treasure on an incoming tide. I like to work seasonally and create small collections of my unique botanical sculptures throughout the year.”
Burns has worked as an artist for more than 20 years and botanical specimens have often figured in her work, but the cast glass objects that she created during the pandemic are the latest iteration of her constantly evolving trademark style.
“My area of expertise is in cast glass, which is similar to the bronze casting process. I specialise in a technique called burnout. By making a mould around the botanical specimen, I can then burn out the original in my kiln, where it becomes ash.
“I am then able to reservoir cast glass into the empty space, using tiny terracotta plant pots balanced over each individual mould. The heat of the kiln melts the glass so that it runs through the hole in the bottom of the plant pot and down into the mould. Casting the glass in this way