Last year we featured in our blog the Celebrity Doodle fundraiser for the British Glass Heritage Foundation. Allister Malcolm was inspired by the story Damien Hirst giving a cabbie a doodle as a tip, which the cabbie then turned around and sold for £12,000, the fundraiser aimed to take doodles from celebrities and glass artists would then turn them into unique glass art. These would then be sold to raise money for charity. Jonathan Harris, a world renowned glass artist and engraver, has recently completed three stunning glass vessels for this fundraiser. Each intricately decorated vessel was handblown and engraved by Jonathan and features designs inspired by Elvis Preseley, his guitars and his famous logo ‘TCB!’ These designs were inspired by celebrity, Mark Hill – co-presenter of BBC2’s ‘Collectaholics’ and his lightning-bolt doodle. The designs were painstaking carved through multiple layers of 24ct gold and sterling silver leaf that we donated to the cause.
The complicated final stages of producing these gorgeous, one-off pieces was done in front of a delighted crowed at the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge. Jonathan, working together with Allister Malcolm and Dan Ridgway at Allister’s studio, completed the tricky final reheat stages that go into creating these reheated cameo pieces.
These fantastic art pieces are generating a lot of buzz through Jonathan’s own private collectors, Elvis and music fans and glass lovers who are looking for a unique, one-off artwork to add to their collections.
All three pieces will be offered at auction at the Decades of Design Auction on 24th October with all proceeds going to the The British Glass Foundation’s charity. All of the other ‘Celebrity Doodle’ pieces, that also included doodles by other celebrity’s including Beverly Knight, Frankie Valley, Raymond Blanc, & Lenny Henry to name but a few, will be auctioned later in the year to raise funds for the Glass Foundation. You can find more details on the auction at Fieldings Auctioneers.