As part of the New Designers Awards 2012, the Contemporary Glass Society awarded associate prizes and commendations to outstanding glass-work from new glass makers to watch, including two students from Scottish Universities.

The judges were acclaimed glassblower Simon Moore; international glass artist Anna Dickinson; Leo Duval, Director of Plateaux Gallery; and glass artist Karen Murphy, representing the CGS.

The first prize included £250 in cash, a £100 Warm Glass voucher, a professional photo session with Simon Bruntnell worth £750, and a promotional and marketing package worth £400, including two years’ CGS membership. Craft&Design provided a year's subscription to the magazine and space in the Makers Gallery pages, together worth £180. The runners-up received vouchers from Creative Glass UK, and a promotional package worth £100, including a year’s CGS membership.

Emma Hollins from Sunderland University won the main award for her work, Emerging Image – Linear Abstraction (pictured, top). The judges chose the 22-year-old St Albans based artist for work that “showed great understanding of her material and drew the viewer in to engage with its depths”.

“I have visited the show before and love seeing the use of different materials – I am fascinated by materials. I am about to exhibit at the Zest Gallery, so I am going to put the money towards materials. I believe in doing something you enjoy,” said Emma “at school I was never encouraged to follow creative avenues, but to pursue academic subjects. But I did a Foundation and discovered glass,”

Runners-up were Melissa Vogel from De Montfort University and Shaun Fraser from Edinburgh College of Art.

There were also commendations for Choi Keeryong from Edinburgh College of Art; James Alexander from Bournemouth and Poole College; Candice Paffey from Falmouth University, and Alexander Pearce from De Montfort University.

Craft Scotland spoke to Shaun Fraser and Choi Keeryong, who both studied at Edinburgh College of Art.

Shaun Fraser (work pictured above) said “Much of my work comments upon connections with ancestry, heritage and past. It is the premise of this work that our links with tradition are collapsing and our sense of convention receding. On a more personal and precise level this work explores my links with my own Highland heritage, taking into consideration the tragedies and realities of the region’s harsh history. Through the course of communicating these episodes as a part of my work, I embarked upon, not only, a discovery of Ghaidhealtachd heritage and the diverse zeitgeist of Highland society, but also my place within this – a consideration of self-identity. It is for this reason that much of my research is conducted through travel. This is in order to fully grasp this concept within it’s true context and to gauge this on a ground level.

I make my work because of a desire to connect with the history, landscape, language and the people of the Highlands and Islands and to attempt to bring this special culture to others.”

“At the moment I’m desperate to get back to making. I hope to complete a number of artistic residencies in order to further develop my thoughts, as well as undertaking courses at places such as Northlands Creative Glass in Lybster.”

On receiving a runner-up award, Shaun said: “Receiving recognition such as this means the world to me. It means that what I've done up until this point has all been worth while, it’s also immensely important as it means that someone else out there appreciates and understands my work. To be marked out within the glass art community in this manner is also really surprising for me, given that as little as three years ago I had very little knowledge of glass as a material or as an art-form.”

Speaking of his work, Choi Keeryong (work pictured above) said “My intention for creating the invented Oriental images is to explore the deeply forged cultural perception of individuals both in the contemporary Western and Eastern societies.”

“The investigation into the application into contemporary glass art the ancient Korean “Saggam” (Inlaid) pottery technique is to determine whether it allows me to use the medium as a primary vehicle to convey the idea of misguided cross cultural experiences, which are, I believe, founded upon the action of universalized cultures in the history. My approach to the concept is focused on the link between the historically-accumulated traditional aesthetic value system of art in pre-modern period and the new value system in contemporary. Use of English manufactured porcelains and invented patterns is to restructure the new values with the help of utilising the misguided cultural interpretations.”

“I am currently on third year in my PhD at Edinburgh College of Art. The CGS commendation award works are part of my PhD research works which I wanted to observe how the public engage their cultural experience with my works at the New Designers 2012. My future plan, regarding my glass work, is to exhibit my works in many other western countries in order to explore my research subject as well as my home country South Korea.”

The New Designers Associate Prizes (part 1) were awarded on Thursday 28 June to graduates exhibiting at the New Designers show, which introduces exceptional new talent to the creative industries.

This year, the Contemporary Glass Society New Designers Award was especially significant as it formed part of the Contemporary Glass Society’s nationwide celebration of glass – Glass Games 2012.

Glass Games 2012 is part of a two-year programme by the CGS to put contemporary glass on the map. A festival of events, including exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations and open studios, runs until September 30, bringing the magic of glass to more people than ever before. Find out more about Glass Games 2012.