Jo studied at Sunderland University, graduating in 1986 with a BA Honours degree in Glass and Ceramics. After graduation, she worked in glass studios in London and Leerdam in the Netherlands, before relocating to Whitby where she currently lives and works.
This current body of work by Jo is entitled 'What Lies Beneath' and is inspired by the coast near where she lives in Whitby. Her love of the sea originated with a family move to Redcar when she was 10 with endless hours spent playing on the beach near her home. However, it was during the Covid lockdowns that she found the time to re-visit her childhood pleasure of exploring rockpools, enjoying the feeling of joy and excitement of discovering different things under each pebble, finding new inspiration for her glass work.
Through this work, Jo would like the viewer to look a little deeper and maybe feel some of that childlike excitement at making their own discoveries, in her work. She says, 'You can't just leave them on the table to look pretty. One needs to handle and touch them to feel the texture and look inside'.
In order to achieve her finished works, Jo has been collaborating and working with Scottish glass cutter and polisher Gordon Taylor. After leaving school in 1978 for an apprenticeship with Perthshire Paperweights, Gordon has spent many years perfecting his skills.
'When I am working, the wheel is spinning, so when I’m cutting I can’t see what I’m doing, so I need to go with touch and the feel of the wheel'.
Collaborating with Jo has meant that Gordon has had to learn new techniques in order to move away from his own orderly and regimented style to develop the organic, more natural forms that Jo wanted to create.
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