Laurie Young & Christian Arnold

Laurie Young has been working with cold glass and stained glass since 1974. She became interested in fusing and warm glass after moving to Australia and began experimenting with kiln formed glass in Gippsland in 1984. After spending a number of years working first as a disability worker and then as a psychiatric social worker she returned to her first passion and began working with glass on a full time basis in 2000.

Laurie is interested in color and motion- the unique properties inherent in glass that allow much freedom of expression and emotion to be conveyed through the medium. Particularly in these complicated times she is interested in the joyfulness and playfulness of life, and how that can be expressed in glass. Never a minimalist, Laurie rejoices in the complexities, richness and abundance of life and endeavors to incorporate this in her work.

Laurie works mainly in the ancient French technique of “Pate de Verre” which allows very precise and intricate color placement by the use of powdered and fritted glass, and combines this technique with aspects of casting, fusing and slumping.

 

Christian Arnold was born in 1969 in Heidelberg, Germany, but spent his childhood years growing up in the small German village of Gemmingen, surrounded by farmland. In 1983 he moved to Australia with his family and settled in Melbourne. All of his life, Christian was surrounded by glass and craft/art. His father was a consummate scientific glassblower and his mother an adept of many different craft disciplines, such as German folk painting, water colour painting, book binding and paper construction being just some of the multitude of her talents.

In 1991 Christian began to study the discipline of scientific instrument making in glass with his father and after gaining a solid grounding, he struck out from the scientific glass field into more artistic endeavours two and a half years later. In 1997 he began tertiary studies at Monash University and concluded them in 2002 at RMIT. Since then he has produced a plethora of work for exhibitions, galleries and commissions, nationally and internationally.