Welcome to Farrell Glass Design

We invite you to view the latest images of our finely crafted glass art. At our studio in Byron Bay we focus on creating unique and contemporary functional objects such as goblets, vases, perfume bottles and jewellery as well as individual sculptural forms. Visitors are always warmly welcomed to the gallery and studio to view this transfixing ancient craft.

Matthew Farrell is an emerging young Australian glass artist with extensive experience in both flame worked and furnace worked glass. He is currently creating works that reflect an intensive exploration of the contemporary and expressive potential of this fascinating and ancient medium.

Glass Artists Profile

Matthew Farrell creates works in glass that are the result of an intense exploration of the contemporary possibilities and expressive potential of this fascinating and ancient medium.

One of Australia's premiere young glass artists, Matthew is able to bring a fresh and unique perspective to his work through experience gained in both flame-worked and furnace-worked glass. A professional lampworker since 2000, Matthew has benefited from close creative associations with two of Australia's most celebrated glass artists, Colin Heaney and Noel Hart and is a regular contributing artist at Kirra Galleries' 'Glass on Flame' exhibition, the annual showcase of Australia's finest lampworking artists.

In 2007 Matthew further expanded his creative possibilities through the purchase of Heaney's glass blowing studio located at Byron Bay on the beautiful North Coast of NSW, where visitors are always warmly invited to browse the gallery and view the glass-working process. Here Matthew works with a small team of highly skilled glass craftsmen to create his stunning and distinctive pieces.

Philosophy and practice

It was while working with Hart (who had formally been a painter) during the early development of his 'parrot series' that Matthew began to explore the expressive potential of glass beyond its inherent decorative quality.

An accomplished musician specialising in instruments from India, Matthew says that, like music, glass art combines the seemingly contrary elements of improvisation with an exacting mind-body synthesis. The liquidity of hot glass and its manipulation with a hand tool in a circular fashion means it is sensitive to the slightest variation in centrifugal forces. By necessity you cannot approach working with glass with anything other than a single-minded concentration.