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From Furnace to Future: Building a Life in Glass

By Dr Ingrid Pears MBE

From building her own furnace in rural Nottinghamshire to creating work for international clients, British embassies and distinguished figures around the world, Dr Ingrid Pears MBE reflects on nearly three decades in glass — and on why mentoring, export, and the creation of The Ingrid Pears School of Glass matter more to her than ever.

Glass has shaped my life for nearly three decades. It has taken me into workshops, galleries, embassies, private homes and public buildings around the world, and introduced me to extraordinary people and places along the way. It has also taught me patience, resilience and respect for a material that never lets you become complacent. However many years you have worked with hot glass, it still demands your full attention. It can be beautiful, temperamental, exhilarating and humbling all at once — and I think that is one of the reasons I fell in love with it in the first place.

My own journey with glass began in the 1990s and was shaped decisively by my time at Middlesex University, where I studied BA (Hons) Three-Dimensional Design, specialising in Glass, graduating in 1998. Like many students, I arrived with enthusiasm and ambition, but without a neat plan for what the future would look like. What Middlesex gave me was confidence — the confidence to experiment, to trust my instincts and to believe that a creative passion could become a life’s work. I later continued my studies in glass techniques and technology at the International Glass Centre in Dudley, thanks to the support of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers. Those early years gave me technical grounding, but they also gave me something equally important: a sense of possibility.

I could not have taken those first steps without the support of my family, who have been my greatest champions throughout my career. They made enormous sacrifices to help me pursue my studies, putting their own dreams and ambitions aside so that I could follow mine. Later, when I began planning my own studio and imagining what a future in glass might look like, it was around the family dinner table that so many of those conversations took place — full of encouragement, ideas, practical problem-solving and unwavering belief. Their support gave me not only the confidence to continue, but the foundations on which I was able to build my business.

When I established my own studio in rural Nottinghamshire, I did so with a mixture of determination, optimism and sheer hard work. Together with my longstanding friend and fellow glass-maker Stephen Foster, I built my own furnace and developed a workshop from the ground up, gradually growing what is now Ingrid Pears Hot Glass Studio. Like many makers, I began by saying yes to opportunities, taking on commissions, learning as I went, and trying to balance the creative demands of making with the practical realities of running a business. Over time, that studio grew into something much larger than I could ever have imagined.

Today my work spans bespoke sculptural and architectural glass, jewellery, memorial pieces, awards and private commissions for clients in the UK and internationally. Over the years I have had the privilege of creating work for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for His Majesty King Charles III, and for British embassies and High Commissions around the world. I have also worked with collectors, institutions and private clients across India, North America, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. For someone who began with a furnace in rural Nottinghamshire, that still feels extraordinary.

A major part of my career has been built around export, and that side of my work has become one of the things I care most deeply about. In 2012 I was honoured to receive an MBE for services to the export business, recognition that meant a great deal to me because it acknowledged not only my own journey, but the wider value of British craftsmanship, design and innovation on the world stage. For a studio glass business, exporting is about far more than sending an object overseas. It is about building trust, understanding cultural contexts, managing logistics, and delivering consistently to clients who may be thousands of miles away. It is about relationships and conversations about passing on skills and ideas as much as it is about objects.

Large-scale international commissions often involve architects, interior designers, builders, project managers, embassies and institutions, all with different expectations, timescales and practical demands. Navigating that world has taught me that being a glass artist also means being a problem-solver, negotiator, communicator and businesswoman. You have to understand pricing, freight, installation, cash-flow, staffing and project management, while still protecting the integrity of the creative work. I have always felt strongly that commercial success and artistic seriousness are not in opposition to one another. If we want contemporary glass to thrive, we need sustainable studios and resilient businesses, as well as beautiful work.

That belief has shaped the way I run my practice. I have always wanted my studio to be more than simply a place where objects are made. I want it to be a place where people can encounter glass close up, understand the skill behind it, and perhaps imagine a place for themselves within it. Over the years we have welcomed students, apprentices, staff, volunteers, visitors and aspiring makers into the studio through demonstrations, training, mentoring and hands-on experiences. Some come out of curiosity, some come because they have always wanted to try glassblowing, and some arrive already knowing they want to build a life in the medium. All of them remind me how important it is that glass remains visible, accessible and alive.

Mentoring matters to me because I know how much encouragement and opportunity can change the course of a creative life. Glass can still feel intimidating or inaccessible from the outside, and the routes into it are not always straightforward. It is a highly skilled discipline, but it is also one that depends on shared knowledge, generosity and the passing on of tacit skills that cannot simply be learned from a book. You learn by watching, by doing, by making mistakes, by trying again, and by spending time in the company of people who know the material well enough to help guide you through it. If we want the preservation of the arts to remain meaningful, we have to create ways for those skills and that confidence to be passed on.

That is one of the reasons I have become increasingly passionate about the future of training in glass, and why my most ambitious project to date is the creation of a dedicated glass school in a restored medieval church in Nottinghamshire. The building, St Nicholas Church in Hockerton, was purchased from the Church of England and dates back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Over the last few years I have been working to restore it with my partner John (who is heritage builder) the aim of transforming it into The Ingrid Pears School of Glass — a place for learning, making, exhibitions and public engagement.

This project is about far more than creating another workspace. It is about legacy, education and access. I want the school to be a place where apprentices, students, emerging makers and the wider public can engage with glass in meaningful ways — through workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions, training and specialist learning. I want it to be somewhere that nurtures both excellence and curiosity; a place where traditional skills are protected, but where innovation and experimentation are equally welcome. Glass-making in the UK is an extraordinary art form, but it is also vulnerable. If we do not actively invest in future generations of makers, we risk losing not just techniques, but confidence, continuity and a rich body of knowledge that can only really be transmitted through practice.

The church project feels especially important to me for that reason. I have spent my career making work for a worldwide audience, but I have also spent it trying to advocate for glass itself — for its relevance, its artistry, its emotional power and its place within British design and culture. I want this next chapter to create opportunities for others, not just for me. If the school can help even a handful of young makers find their path, preserve endangered skills, and build a stronger future for studio glass, it will have been worth every challenge.

Receiving an Honorary Doctorate — Doctor of the University — from Middlesex University this year was therefore an especially moving moment. To be recognised by the university where my own creative journey began felt deeply full-circle. It made me reflect not only on what I have achieved so far, but on the people, places and opportunities that made it possible: teachers who encouraged me, supporters who believed in me, clients who trusted me, colleagues and staff who have stood beside me, and a material that has never stopped teaching me. It also reminded me that creative careers are rarely linear. They are built through persistence, risk, setbacks, instinct and the willingness to keep going even when the path ahead is not entirely clear.

Looking back, I can see that my career has never been solely about making objects, although making remains at the heart of everything I do. It has also been about building a business, creating employment, representing British craftsmanship internationally, mentoring others, and opening doors into a medium I care deeply about. There have been physically demanding days, difficult commissions, financial pressures and moments of uncertainty, as there are in any creative life. But there has also been immense joy: the thrill of gathering glass from the furnace, the challenge of solving a technical problem, the privilege of creating something meaningful for another person, and the pleasure of watching someone encounter hot glass for the first time and fall under its spell.

Glass has given me a career, a livelihood, a language and a future. My hope now is to help secure one for others too.

 Watch this space for the unveiling of our new studio and school of glass.

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