About Flow Glass

I'm Fiona Cooper. Over the years, I have been involved in buying and selling products for Aurora Jewellery, which is run by my husband Steven Cooper. Working with such talented artists, producing great products inspired me. Customers often asked if products, especially the fused glass, were made here in Orkney. At that point there were no Orkney based producers.

 

 

Our first taster of fused glass was a session at the Laldie Haans craft festival held in Orkney in 2016. It was great fun and sparked our interest. I’ve always liked crafts and have tried knitting, sewing, pottery and needle felting over the years and enjoyed creating.

Myself and Steven took a weekend course in the basics of fusing glass in 2017 which gave us an understanding of the processes involved. We went on to purchase a kiln which is the main piece of equipment required to make fused glass and started experimenting. Since then, we have been on other courses to learn new techniques that we’ve incorporated into our designs.

Our studio was completed in March 2019. I am the main worker but I am joined by my husband Steven who cuts glass and makes the bases for tea lights. Our daughter Daisy helps in the business. She was responsible for the design of the Ring of Brodgar and developed the Daisy range which has been very well received. She is off to University now so can't help as much. 

I am inspired by the natural environment here in Orkney especially the sea and beaches. After  experimenting with fusing sand in some of our pieces we now have several ranges incorporating sand from Scapa Beach here in Orkney. The rich colours of the land and the many blues and greens of the sea and sky are incorporated in our pieces. 

 

The Rainbow range came from loving the way light shines through the glass and casts colourful shadows and rainbow colours really work well for that. As the business have developed we’ve introduced more shapes moving from flat pictures and hangings to three dimensional waves and curves.

A recent project was a large splash back for our own sink in the spare bathroom which I really enjoyed making. I hope to develop this area in the future.