For over fifty years the Harris family has been associated with the unique design and creation of outstanding decorative and functional studio glass. Continued on by second generation glassmaker Timothy Harris , many pieces made at this world renowned glass studio are held today in royal, museum, gallery and private collections around the world.
Everything in our shop made a few feet from where it stands. Each piece is worked by hand, by eye, and by judgement acquired over decades, and no two pieces are ever quite the same.
MICHAEL HARRIS: THE BEGINNING
The work produced here still emanates from the design genius of our founder, Michael Harris (1933–1994), a prodigiously talented and pioneering British designer and craftsman.
Michael graduated from the Royal College of Art with first class honours in 1959 and later returned as a tutor, establishing the College's hot glass facilities in 1967. The following year he left for Malta, where with Eric Dobson he founded Mdina Glass. There he worked alongside Vicente and Ettore Boffo, glassblowers from the celebrated Whitefriars factory, producing the striking and richly coloured glass for which Mdina became known.
He returned to Britain in 1972. A year later, together with his wife Elizabeth, he founded Isle of Wight Studio Glass in a converted barn at Old Park, St Lawrence. He could have settled anywhere in the country and chose the Undercliff, and the Island's light, coastline and colour have shaped the work ever since.
Michael led the studio until his premature death in 1994.
TIMOTHY HARRIS: THE SECOND GENERATION
Timothy grew up in the heat and smoke of his father's studio and took up a blowing iron as soon as he was able to hold one. By the age of thirteen, perched on a beer crate in front of the furnace, he was making the small glass birds he christened Diddybirds.
He completed his formal training at Brierley Hill College of Glass Techniques and Technologies and returned to the Island in 1980 to take his place at his father's bench. It was during these years that ranges including Undercliff, Nightscape and Seascape entered the studio's history.
Timothy is recognised today as one of the finest and most innovative glassmakers this country has produced. More than fifty years into his working life he continues to experiment, constantly finding new ways of working with hot glass in his pursuit of excellence.
Each time I make a piece of glass I ask myself: what is the material going to teach me today?
Timothy Harris, Master Glassmaker
OFTEN IMITATED, NEVER SURPASSED
In 1978, in collaboration with Royal College of Art student William Walker, the studio developed Azurene: coloured glass fused with 22ct gold and sterling silver leaf while still at working temperature.
The Design Council recognised the achievement in 1979 with a Best of British Design award, presented by the late Duke of Edinburgh, and the international studio glass movement took note. The technique has been imitated many times in the years since and has never been surpassed.
Gold and silver leaf remain central to our work today, and can be found throughout collections including Vine and Featherspray.
A ROYAL CONNECTION
The Royal family's regard for the studio's work spans more than thirty years.
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A Graal perfume bottle presented to the Queen Mother on her 90th birthday in 1990
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The Queen's Bowl, a gift from the people of the Isle of Wight, presented personally to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in her Diamond Jubilee year of 2012 and later exhibited in the Royal Collection
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A set of whisky glasses commissioned for King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, on his 70th birthday
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A unique piece created to mark the Platinum Jubilee in 2022
RECOGNITION
Timothy's contribution to British craftsmanship was recognised in 1990 with a scholarship from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, which exists to support excellence in British craft. As a QEST Scholar he took up an artist's residency at Penland School of Craft in the United States, returning the following year to join its teaching faculty, and afterwards held a residency at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington.
He has since helped establish studios in several countries and is a member of Homo Faber, the international community of master artisans. The studio has been named Tourism and Leisure Business of the Year, sponsored by Visit Isle of Wight, and has featured on Channel 5's Isle of Wight: Jewel of the South.
THE STUDIO TODAY
In 2013 the studio was revitalised and moved to purpose-built premises at the top of Arreton Barns Craft Village, above the pond and the church. Glassmaking began here in March 2014, and Timothy has worked at this furnace with a small and highly skilled team ever since.
We remain a family business. Every piece is still made by hand, using tools and skills that a glassmaker in Ancient Rome or Medieval Venice would recognise, alongside techniques developed here and found nowhere else.
Visitors are always welcome, we are dog friendly and admission is free.