Glass artist Tom Rowney still has the first piece of glass he ever blew. A mis-shapen form that began as something else and turned into what might resemble an ashtray, he says.
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"It's the most treasured piece I have," says Rowney, who, after first trying glass blowing as a schoolboy, is now one of the world's most renowned glass artists.
"It went terribly wrong, but there's a looseness about it I could never replicate. And I can never go back and make that original piece again."
But that's Rowney's attraction to glass blowing, that even, after 27 years, he still never knows exactly what might come out of the kiln at the end of the process.
"If I put together all the information that I know then I have a fair idea of what I'm going to get but you still don't know what might occur," he says.
Rowney first became fascinated by glass blowing after doing it for work experience in Year 11, in Adelaide where he grew up. His first job was blowing lampshades in a factory and then he saw the opportunity to develop his art. He came to the Australian National University in the early 1990s to study the School of Art.
"I was first attracted to the physical aspect of how glass making was done, and still, to this day, the techniques involved intrigue me."
He is now one the world's most respected glass blowers and teachers of the craft. He has exhibited internationally and has been a studio artist at the Canberra Glassworks since it opened 10 years ago.
His work will feature in Tom Rowney and Zeljko Markov, a joint exhibition at the Glassworks from April 6.
Markov, who lives and works near Canberra, works across a range of mediums and disciplines but is best known for his contemporary working investigating and pushing the properties of wood.
"I like the quiet and highly considered thought processes involved in Zeljko's work," Rowney says.
"They are beautifully conceived and crafted and there's incredible attention to detail. I definitely see similarities in how we approach making new work."
This will be the first time Markov has exhibited at the Glassworks and he has a great respect for Rowney's works.
"We both have a strong craft background, we're very comfortable with traditional materials and techniques," Markov says.
"There's a kind of understanding between us, some connection through our use of line."
Glassworks artistic director Jane Cush says the exhibition explores concepts of highly skilled making, through thought, form and finish.
"Both artists reference the traditional within their medium, Tom with glass, Zeljko with wood, however, their practice extends well beyond this," she says.
"Each element, a line, a curve, is highly considered and developed, creating form and function so refined that the most subtle intersection or plane melts into the next."
Tom Rowney and Zeljko Markov, a joint exhibition, Canberra Glassworks, Kingston, from April 6. Gallery Floor Talk with the artists on Saturday April 29, at 2pm.
