Collection: Shona Firman

Shona Firman was born in Whangarei in 1940. During her thirties she sailed the Pacific, later working as a designer and artist in Hawaii and Canada.

It was while studying for her Diploma in Fine Arts at Northland Polytech, majoring in glass, (where Keith Mahy was her tutor) - that her future really started to gel.

She was awarded a grant from the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council to attend the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle USA. On her return she tutored at Unitec in Auckland until setting up a studio with Keith Mahy in Whangarei in 1995.

Here she could combine her passions - the sea, yachts and  glass work.

Shona uses the lost wax method of casting. A wax master is formed and carved then covered with plaster of Paris and silica flour. The wax is removed with heat-leaving a cavity which is then filled with coloured glass bullets in a kiln heated to 850 degrees. This process takes about 8 hours after which the artwork is allowed to cool very, very slowly. This is called annealing and it can take days before the plaster is broken away and final cleaning and surface treatment completes the piece.

Shona is a gifted artist who has exhibited locally and internationally.