shewhomust | Forbidden fruit

The show we saw at the Glass Centre last week was called Harvest: Fruit Gathering, a collaboration between two glass artists, Neil Wilkin and Rachael Woodman (Neil Wilkin's website; Rachael Woodman's Instagram). If I've got this right, they both trained in glassmaking, but Rachael Woodman now works primarily on design, while Neil Wilkin is the primary maker. They are long time collaborators, but this is their first joint exhibition, previously shown at the Ruthin Craft Centre, and now touring a number of other venues.

Despite the title of the show, perhaps a third of the pieces made me think of fruit: another group were vases and bowls in glorious colours, very easy on the eye, but I didn't feel any urge to photograph them; what I did feel the urge to photograph was -

More fruits!

A notice on the door of the gallery asked you not to touch the exhibits. This seemed unnecessary: who goes touching things on display in galleries, especially things made of fragile materials like glass? (People who aren't going to be deterred by notices, that's who...) But these fruits were so irrestistibly tactile, so plump and juicy, my fingers began to twitch with the effort of not touching them:

Gallery lighting casts shadows:

And while I'm on the subject of shadows, here's a one-off:

It's called Vertical series: Out of the Blue. The internet knows that Rachael Woodman has been exploring the possibilities of the vertical for some time, always with the choice of colour a significant element; but it can't tell me anything about this particular development of the theme, which is unlike any of the others - and more to my liking!

All of these pieces are, I think, made by Neil Wilkin to Rachael Woodman's designs: but the thing that stays with me, the first thing I saw as I entered the gallery, was entirely Neil Wilkin's work.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green (and red and orange) towering over your head...

And blue:

I could take or leave any of the individual flowers - yes, even that blue one - but the overall effect just made me happy. Dewdrops and seedpods of clear glass reflected the blooms back at each other (and the visitors,too), but I haven't managed to photograph that: instead here are some similar pieces displayed in the Hannah Peschar sculpture garden. (I'd love to have seen that!)