“I am drawn to the quiet poetry of transformation. Glass fascinates me because it holds opposites — strength and fragility, clarity and mystery, control and surrender. Working with it feels like a dialogue, one that asks for patience, precision, and trust in the unexpected.
My inspiration often begins in nature. I’m drawn to fleeting details and the small miracles we almost overlook. In my studio, I try to translate that sense of wonder into form, capturing moments that feel suspended between stillness and movement.
Each piece is an exploration of balance — between what I can shape and what the material chooses to become.
Through my work, I hope to offer moments of reflection — quiet spaces where light, form, and feeling meet.”
Practise
Andrea Spencer makes work that is inspired by nature, drawing on natural forms and structures, to create pieces which correlate with aspects of human nature. Often the work deals with the transformation of a natural form (translated into glass) into an unnatural hybrid that shares an embodiment with its source material. This becomes a surreal manifestation of the process of artistic creation, wherein an object transcends its status as a mere construction to become a different order of reality.
“An object that is drawn from the natural world, transformed by a process that evokes both science and craft, becomes a metaphor that carries a multitude of interpretations”.
Starting with glass rods and tubes, these are manipulated, blown, cut, stretched and sculpted in the flame. Her work posess qualities that reflect the intricacies of the natural world and usually contains elements that highlight its beauty and transience.
Process
Her work tends to appeal to those who are drawn to the ephemeral and impossibly delicate. Her practise is a lot about process, often starting with collecting and laying out natural specimens then moving into investigations in glass. In the studio natural objects, manmade creations, drawings and text intertwine and layer up over time, becoming juxtaposed and forming a series of dialogues. This process of collecting and curating develops into temporary installations, groupings and isolated objects to create an environment or an atmosphere.
Biography
Andrea Spencer is a glass artist based in rural Ballintoy on the North Antrim Coast in the north of Ireland. Working primarily with flameworked glass and mixed media, she creates ephemeral installations and delicate sculptural objects. Her practice is deeply inspired by nature, exploring organic forms and structures to reflect and connect with the human condition.
Andrea exhibits her work regularly both nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (USA), Collect Open 2024 (London), the British Glass Biennale, the Ireland Glass Biennale, and Made in Ireland, a survey exhibition of contemporary craft. Her work is represented in several significant public collections, and she was recently commissioned by National Museums Ireland to create a piece for the Natural History Museum in Dublin.
A recipient of numerous awards, Andrea was honoured with the Rosy James Memorial Trust Award (2025) and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Award (2022), alongside multiple grants from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
In addition to her studio practice, Andrea teaches at glass schools and private studios across the UK, Europe, and the USA. She also offers workshops, classes, and hands-on experiences from her own fully equipped flameworking and kiln-forming studio in Ballintoy.
CV
Education
1990 – 1993 Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, BA (hons) Architectural Glass
1989 – 1990 Middlesex Polytechnic, London, Foundation Art and Design
1987 – 1989 Stevenage College, Hertfordshire, BTec NDD Constructed Textiles
Selected Awards
2025 Rosy James Memorial Trust
Shortlist RDS Awards-Established Artist
National Museums Scotland and National Museums NI Makers
2022 Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Bursary
Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Rural Development Grant, Causeway Coast and Glens Council
First Prize, August Craft Month Showcase exhibition, Craft NI
2020 Craft NI Unlocked ExhibitionPrize Winner
Creative Bursary Causeway Coast and Glens
Covid Emergency fund Arts Council Northern Ireland
2017 Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, ACES Award
2013 Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
2012 Art in Action, Contemporary Glass Award, British Glass Biennale
2008 Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
2004 Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
2003 Support for the Individual Artist, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Mimesis - Natural World in Glass, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, USA
Tro.ne.ca.pe.way.pel.ler (Behold, Look Around), Poatina Tree Gallery, Tasmaina, AUS
Bravura 2025, Wexford Arts centre, Ireland
Royal Ulster Academy 144th Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
Christmas Show, London Glass Blowing Gallery, UK
2024 Collect Open, Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London,UK
Planet Earth - An Ode to our Wonderful World, London Glassblowing, UK
The British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge, UK
Brilliant Generations, Craft NI Gallery, Belfast, UK
Royal Ulster Academy 143rd Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
Festive Masterpieces, London Glassblowing, UK
2023 Ireland Glass Biennale, Coach House Gallery Dublin Castle, EIRE
Uncommon Beauty, Craft in the Bay, Wales, UK
Insight, The Oriel Gallery, Antrim, UK
2022 Collect 22, North Lands Creative,Somerset House, London,UK
Beyond Edges, Ards Arts Centre, Newtownards, NI, UK
Made in Ireland, National DesignCentre , Kilkenny, Ireland
British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge,UK
August Craft Month Showcase, Craft NI Gallery, Belfast UK
2021 Ground Zero 360, George Bush Presidential Library, TX, USA
Beyond Edges, Roe Valley Arts Centre, NI, UK
Made in Ireland, National DesignCentre , Kilkenny, Ireland
2020 Wir, group show, Labor im Chor, Schwäbisch, Germany
Unlocked, Craft NI Gallery Belfast, UK
Royal Ulster Academy 138th Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
2019 Royal Ulster Academy 137th Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
The Pilchuck Auction, Seattle, WA, USA
2017 Material Light: Glass, Messums Wiltshire, England
British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge, England
Five Artists Show in a Byre, Ballymena, Northern Ireland
2015 Solas, Glass Society of Ireland members show, Ireland
Royal Ulster Academy 134th Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Portfolio@Solomon:Glass, Solomon Gallery, Dublin
Fragile and Fugitive States of Being, Solo show, Sunburst Gallery, Newtownards,
2014 Vriji Glass Retropespective, Galerie SousTeree, Netherlands
2013 Winners! Vessel Gallery, London
Aesthetica Art Prize 2013, 100 contemporary artists, York St Mary’s, UK Gather, Irish contemporary glass,Shanghai Art Fair, China
New Glass - Ancient Skill, Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, Boness on Windemere,
2012 Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
British Glass Biennale, Ruskin Mill. Stourbridge, England
Shanghai art fair, Shanghai, China
Engaging with Glass, Traver Gallery, Tacoma, WA, USA
Elements, Sheng Ling Gallery, Shanghai, China
2011 Engaging with Glass, Solstice Gallery, Navan, Ireland
2010 British Glass Biennale, Ruskin Mill. Stourbridge, England
Collections
2024 Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, USA
2020 Arts Council of Northern Ireland
2012 Gangtai Art Museum of Shanghai Gang Tai Cultural Development Co Ltd.
2008 Arts Council of Northern Ireland
2004 North Lands Creative Glass
Selected Residencies
2023 Sea Change, Artlink Fort Dunree and Causeway Coast and Glens
2012 Cill Rialaig, Ballinskelligs, Co.Kerry
2011 Belfry Arts Centre, Overstrand, Norfolk
2010 Belfry Arts Centre, Overstrand, Norfolk
Penland Schol of Crafts, NC, USA
2007 Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co. Monaghan, Ireland
2004 North Lands Creative Glass, Lybster, Scotland
2003 Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co. Monaghan, Ireland
2001 - 2023 AiR for Arts Care, Belfast and Northern Health and Social care Trust
Selected Commissions and installations
2018 Seeds, Lusk National School, Lusk
2017 Landmarks, Omagh Hospital, Omagh.
2016 Ebb and Flow, Northern Ireland Hospice, Belfast
2015 Ebb and Flow, Northern Ireland Hospice, Belfast
2015 CrystalHealing Wall, garden of Reflection, Derry-Londonderry
2013 Self similar, Architectural glass and bronze, Inner City Trust, Derry-Londonderry
2012, Irises, suspended sculpture, Glass and metal, New Acute Hospital for the North West, Enniskillen
2012, Meadows, architectural glass, , New Acute Hospital for the North West, Enniskillen
2011 Still blue water, New Macmillian Palliative Care unit, Antrim Hospital
2011 Waterlillies, New Macmillian Palliative Care unit, Antrim Hospital
2010 Heritage Reflections, sculptural glass installation, Portadown Treatment and Care Centre, Portadown
2009 On the Wing, Northern Ireland Cancer Centre, Belfast
Professional Experience
2026 Instructor, Of Loss and Light, Pilchuck Glass School, WA, USA
2025 Ausglass conference, Presentor and Demonstrating Artist
Instructor Pre conference workshop Sea Glass Flame Tasmania
Instructor Sea Glass Flame, Benefield Spencer Glass studio
Instructor small glassFlameworked West Dean College UK scupture
Instructure , Glass Making from Nature, Glass Hub, Wiltshire
2024 Instructor, Activating Space with Matter and Meaning, The Studio Corning Museum of Glass, USA
Instructor, Glass from Nature, Glass Hub, Wiltshire, UK
Sea Glass and Flame, Benefield Spencer Glass Studio UK
2023 Student Dare to Dream, Corning Museum of Glass, USA
Student Cartoon Realism, Coyle Condenser, Corning Museum of Glass, USA
Instructor, Observation and Making in Place, Benefield Spencer Glass, UK
Instructor, Elements of Place Formed by Fire, Benefield Spencer Glass, UK
Instructor, Glass from Nature, Glass Hub, Wiltshire, UK
Instructor, Flameworking Essentials, Benefield Spencer Glass, UK
2021 Instructor,Seeing through Nature, Bikldwerk, Frauenau, Germany
2020 Instructor, Form to Fuse, Glass Hub, Wiltshire, UK
Bridging Art and Science, Lecmo GAS conference 2020, Sweden
2019 Visiting Artist, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Instructor, Natural Transformations, Pilchuck Glass School, USA
Instructor, Form to Fuse, Glass Hub, Wiltshire, UK
Instructor Liminal Spaces, Ballintoy, Northern Ireland, UK
Instructor, Anatomy and Art, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
2018 Instructor, Form Within, Berlin Glas, Germany
Master class Alan Horsley, Glass and Anatomy, Northlands Creative, Scotland Instructor, Anatomy and Nature, Queen’s University Belfast.
2017 Instructor, Glass Hub, Wiltshire
Demonstrating artist, A Leap of Faith, Northlands Creative, Scotland
TA Annie Cattrell Materiality and Meaning, Northlands Creative, Scotland