" I have worked continuously as a designer maker since leaving Stourbridge College of Art in 1978. I spent two years as artist in residence at Royal Brierley Crystal making one-off pieces in glass and metal. Then in 1980 I joined the Glasshouse in London where my style of thick clear blown glass, enhanced by the use of cold techniques, to enrich the form and reveal its inner life began to evolve. By 1985 and the formation of Glass-Works(London)Ltd, my work encompassed repeatable functional pieces and deeply carved one-off forms with a purely abstract sculptural identity. In 1997 I formed my own company, Catherine Hough Glass.
All my work is based on free blown forms using a mass of glass which is then transformed through the use of cold techniques such as carving, cutting and texturing with diamond and carborandum wheels, grinding and polishing, and sandblasting and brushing. My interest in these techniques arose from a desire to further develop the blown form, rather than for surface decoration as they had traditionally been used.
Ideas and their development have evolved through this continuous making process, but there are a few themes that emerged fairly early that I still draw on.
Pebbles, geological strata, land formations and plants are a constant source of inspiration. My black lined pieces were based originally on the lines of quartz in pebbles. Other pieces on these themes include “Nucleus” a one-off pebble form now in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, and a three part "Pebble" structure in the V & A Museum in London. Birds and fish have inspired numerous designs such as the large-scale one-off winged forms.
I have now been working for over twenty years producing glass according to my own aesthetic sense with the aim of counterbalancing the opposing characteristics of movement and stillness, weight and balance through the mass of the clear glass forms. This personal involvement in every part of the making process has enabled me to develop an individual style through which I am always striving to grow technically and artistically. "-Catherine Hough
