Jill Matthew

I love all types of glass art, but it is glass fusing that has captured my heart and imagination. I love how glass is such a constructive medium to work with; how I am able to transform sheet glass into wonderfully tactile and aesthetic artworks.

I am inspired by the qualities of glass, the way it can be either transparent or opalescent in nature, or both; and how heating these types of glass in a kiln generates depth and interest in a finished piece. I have recently begun working with reclaimed glass also, to rescue glass from landfill and give it new life, is a joy.

I love what I do, my favourite part is opening the kiln, sometimes after days of waiting. That moment, when I find out how the glass has melted, and if it's behaved how I engineered it to, is always a thrill.

Artist Bio

"Believe you can, and you're halfway there" Theodore Roosevelt

Originally from Putaruru in the South Waikato, now residing in Cambridge with her husband and two children, Jill Matthew fell passionately in love with glass art during a two-year recovery from a serious illness. Until then, she had enjoyed a career in nursing, but having to learn to walk again gave her a 'life's too short' moment, and she decided it was time to change her focus. Her interest in fused glass was born when, as a boredom buster during her recovery, she started off melting glass with a tiny microwave kiln, swiftly growing to two bigger kilns.

Jill works from her home studio in fused glass; a medium which is challenging and rewarding. Fused glass, is the heating of glass layers, powders, or shapes of glass in a kiln to many hundreds of degrees. The processes to produce one piece may involve several firings - many hours long each. She uses many techniques to make her pieces, and it is an involved process of assembling, multiple firings, then cold working to a quality finish.

A few years on, Jill's passion continues to grow. While still retaining and using her first "real" kiln, she now fuses in a very large glass kiln Margo. She has work in outlets around NZ, and has recently been featured in a book by New Zealand author Marilyn Jessen Her Space: She Sheds, Back Rooms

View Jill Matthew's art page