Purpose
This site is for collectors and enthusiasts of Isle of Wight Studio Glass. We aim to make it a focal reference point by providing documentation and a visual reference for the wide range of art glass produced by the studio.
The glassworks was founded in 1973 at St. Lawrence, Isle of Wight, by one of the great innovators of the British art glass movement, Michael Harris, and his wife Elizabeth, also a noted designer. And the tradition of innovative glass design has continued after Michael's death in 1994 by his two sons Timothy and Jonathan. Jonathan left IOWSG in 1999 to found his own glassworks in Ironbridge, Shropshire.
Collections
On the Collections pages you will find links to all of the named glass collections produced by Isle of Wight Studio Glass as well as the experimental pieces produced in the 1970s. Some one-off pieces produced for the glassmaker's shelf will also be listed. This site will not cover Mdina Glass, which Michael Harris founded with his business partner Eric Dobson in 1968 on the island of Malta. Neither are pieces produced by St John's Glass on the Isle of Man under licence from IOWSG in the 1980s covered here (but see the Azurene page for items produced on the Isle of Man which could be confused with IOWSG). Glass produced in the Kerry Glass style is covered here only if IOWSG paper labels are on the piece.
For each of the IOWSG named collections you will find information on the dates it was produced, who designed the collection, information on the various colourways, and lots of images. The site will start out fairly modestly in 2008, but hopefully it will grow and flourish in years to come.
Contributing to this site
For the time being we will be restricting contributions to this site to those specifically invited. But we hope to open it up to general contributions, possibly in 2009.
Legalities
Please note that this site is not officially connected to or sanctioned by the company of Isle of Wight Studio Glass. It is purely an enthusiasts site. All text and pictures on the site are the contributor's own and not that of any other copyright owner except where specifically acknowledged. Images belonging to other copyright owners are used with express permission in writing kept permanently on file. Brief 'fair use' quotations from reference works, such as Mark Hill's excellent book Michael Harris: Mdina Glass & Isle of Wight Studio Glass or other sources will be properly acknowledged.
