Ruth Shelley's glass is vivid, colourful, and dramatic. She is an award-winning glass artist who has been working with coloured glass for over 25 years. Her main interest is colour, especially how it is affected by shape, form and pattern. She is especially interested in the control of flow of glass when heated and the reflection and refraction of light as it hits a glass object.
Much of her work is inspired by her beloved landscapes of mid-Wales where she grew up. Her Harmony Series was inspired by a community Garden in Aberystwyth, in West Wales, focusing especially on particular flowers, especially Echinacea, Chrysanthemum Florist's Daisy and the Campanula Cerveceria plant.
Her main interest is colour and how it is affected by shape, form and pattern. She is especially interested in the control the flow of glass when it is heated in the kiln as gravity is introduced to form complex and interesting vessels. This often includes, experimenting with unknown methods which pushes the limits of stretching and manipulating the glass.
Ruth Shelley has exhibited at the British Glass Biennale in 2015 and 2017 and won the prestigious 'Glass Sellers' Award Biennale in 2015 and won the Winner of the People's Prize for Contemporary Glass Society in 2017. She has also received many awards form the Welsh Arts Council and is a member of the Contemporary Applied Arts and the Makers Guild of Wales. Her work can be seen work in many UK galleries including London Glassblowing, Contemporary Applied Art and European galleries and has sold internationally.
Selected Exhibitions
Bircham Gallery, Norfolk
British Glass Biennale, Ruskin Glass Centre, Stourbridge
The Byre Gallery, Kew, Richmond
The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne
Roundhouse Gallery, Derbyshire