Common Wharf keeps a small practice in blown glass and writes it up here. There is no catalogue here, only notes kept while the work goes on. Three short pieces follow: what the studio uses, how it works, and where.
The room
The studio is one quiet room with a long bench under a north-facing window. A second, smaller table by the window is for drawing and for nothing else. There is no front of house, only the bench and whatever is on it.
Stock
The studio keeps to a few materials and learns each properly before adding more. Every delivery is unpacked, labelled and tried before it goes on the shelf. Nothing is thrown out while it still has a test left in it, however small.
Method
Everything is drawn before it is made, and drawn again if the sheet argues back. What changed, and why, goes down on paper the same day, before it is forgotten. If a step goes wrong, it is repeated from the start rather than patched over.
Working notes
A drawing is redone until the proportions read cleanly from across a room. Most of the work here starts on paper, with loose sketches and a few measurements. Notes about the light in the room where a piece will end up travel with the drawing. Only when the sheet is settled is anything cut, mixed or printed.
Sheet brass is left to darken on its own rather than lacquered. Wax and chalk sit on the same shelf as the sandpaper, within reach of the bench. Materials are kept simple and local where the supply allows it. Pigments are ground by hand from a short list: raw umber, yellow ochre, bone black.
The studio is a former workshop with north-facing windows and a long bench along one wall. The kettle, the sharpening stones and the glue pot share the corner nearest the door. Shelves of samples are photographed under the same daylight throughout the seasons. The building has kept its skylights and a concrete floor that stays cool in summer.