The Persistence of Craft

Cummings��� contribution to this text focused upon the emergence of a ���signature��� style amongst contemporary glassmakers and its fundamental relationship to specific material inquiry. Documented in the introduction to this text, is the fact that Cummings suggested the book topic to the publisher, Linda Lambert; who worked with Cummings to recruit Paul Greenhalgh as the editor. (Greenhalgh was then Head of Research at the Victoria and Albert museum.)Cummings was interested in documenting the development and evolution away from the industrial separation of design and practice. Where artists and designer in glass once exclusively planned the work and artisans made the work; the contemporary glass artist is an integrated artist/maker. This is an essential period in the evolution of contemporary craft attitudes and creativity, with special reference to individual methods and outcomes as evidenced in a variety of written sources, personal contacts and interviews. Working from an examination of the literature and personal contacts with fellow practitioners, Cummings develops the history of the evolution of the modern glass artist. Arguing that it was the process of learning the artisans��� technique and methodology that led the contemporary glass artist into the evolutionary process, whereby design ideas were worked out with an intimate knowledge of the materials and processes of making. The work builds on Cummings 45 year engagement with this area of practice, and his ongoing original research which embraces texts, images, illustrations and personal interviews with experts and pioneers in the field