The Whitby glass artist whose art mimics life

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 prevents air traps. Using this technique is like capturing the fingerprint of nature. It’s an intricate process, fraught with disaster.

“I often gild certain details with gold leaf to accentuate their beauty. Each piece has a polished base, like a tiny window. It allows you to see the interior of each piece. I then engrave my signature on each one in my incredibly small handwriting.”

Burns continues: “I’ve always created small-scale pieces, even for public spaces. My work may seem different now, but it’s about the same thing. However, since the pandemic, it has become more important to me to make things that could be held in the palm of your hand, particularly because of that fact that we couldn’t touch anyone for so long.

“On my walks, I collect things I’m drawn to - a beautiful shape or form - but with the eye of an artist, rather than a botanist. They’re chance finds, maybe gathered after the wind has been blowing.”

Having lived in Scarborough for much of her early life, where her father was curator of the town’s Art Gallery, Burns completed a foundation course in art at York before setting her sights on becoming a glass artist and heading to the University of Sunderland to embark on a 3D Design Glass with Ceramics degree.

“I knew I really liked making things and I came from quite a creative household. My sister and I always had a nature table. I also enjoy recycling and repurposing items.

“Glass is a very beautiful material to work with, it can transform a space. However, there were not many places teaching it so I went to Sunderland because, historically, that area was really important for glass-making. A lot of that glass making industry has now gone, but artists like me are holding on to those skills and using them in different ways.”

After university, Burns remained in the North-East for more than 20 years, working on a wide variety of public arts projects. This included delivering an outreach project for the National Glass Centre in Sunderland and the V&A Museum, the world’s leading museum of art and design, that involved teaching young people how to engrave glass, as well as working with the charity Marie Curie.

Since relocating to Whitby in 2017, Burns has focused on making her own glass art on a full-time basis and it’s clear that her new home town is a constant source of ideas and inspiration.

“I now live between a museum and the sea, two of my favourite things. I also have a garden for the first time, where I’m now growing things to cast in glass,” she says.

Some of the fruits that Burns has grown in her garden feature in a forthcoming exhibition in Leeds organised by the Contemporary Glass Society to coincide with the International Year of Glass. Entitled ‘The Joy of Glass’, it is on display at the Craft Centre and Design Gallery until 23 July.

Meanwhile, glass mushrooms cast from fungi that she gathered on walks last autumn are currently on display in the Armitt Museum and Gallery at Ambleside in the Lake District, alongside beautiful watercolour paintings by the writer and naturalist Beatrix Potter. They will remain there for much of the year.

Further afield, Burns’s work is being exhibited in the imposing surroundings of a medieval, Bavarian castle as part of the Coburg Glass Prize 2022, and a collaboration with contemporary jeweller Emily Georgina Jones, who is also based in Whitby, will appear at the Earth/Sea/Sky exhibition at the London Glassblowing Gallery in Bermondsey from 1 to 23 July.

“It’s nice to be able to collaborate with others again after the pandemic. Together, Emily and I made a necklace and brooch using a glass bead that I cast from an acorn found in Pannett Park here in Whitby.”

She added: “People might think it strange making mushrooms and acorns but for me it was a logical career progression. As a child, I was always outside making mud pies and building dens, but I’d also collect grass seeds in jars and use them to play shops. We didn’t have the plastic stuff, we used what we found outside.”

For more information about Effie and her work, visit www.effieburnsglass. co.uk