Wendy Hannam is a wonderful Wendy.  She lives in Adelaide, South Australia.  A great little city with many artists, good food and it’s a stones throw from some of Australia’s  nicest beaches and wineries.  She has been making and creating for quite a long time now. Her glass pieces are always interesting, evolving, geometric and with a style all their own.  A lot like Wendy herself in fact, except the geometric part, she’s definitely no square.

Tell people a little about yourself.  Where were you born/grow up, did you study?

Born in Adelaide, South Australia. Lived here until moving to Sydney at 20…worked as a graphic designer for textiles until studying ceramic design at East Sydney Tech. Moved back to Adelaide at 25 to take up further study… Bachelor of ceramic and glass design at Uni SA. Was seduced by glass and became an associate designer in the glass studio at JamFactory in 1997/98. Began independent practice 1999.

What do you do now, is it what would you like to be doing?

Am currently on a sabbatical from glass making…would love to still be making but finances do not allow for play at this time…very frustrating!! Have kind of lost my passion for ‘playing the game’. Taking lots of photographs and always drawing.

What does a typical day for you involve?  Or a typical week?  Is typical even a word for you? 

Don’t really have a typical day or week…I do gallery installation and de installation at the Australian Experimental Arts Foundation as I am required so some weeks are full time and then there can be nothing for a month. I also work in the Dark Horsey bookshop when the manager has time off, my schedule is very open ended.

Weekends are totally about enjoying being at home (unless I’m working)…gardening, cooking, making cocktails, going boxing (I love boxing).

What mediums do you like to work with?

I work with blown glass forms, sculptural objects, no function intended…although am planning to make some kiln formed work in the near future…wall pieces and panels.

I love the sandblaster and my engraver.

Where do you work? 

Blowing happens at JamFactory glass studio as does sandblasting but my engraved work happens on a rickety old table in my house, stereo blaring and at my own pace, any time of the day… just me and the cat.

Who or what inspires you most – at the moment? 

At the moment I am revisiting alot of the music of my past. My garden makes me feel good, watching food grow and cooking with the results of my time and effort.

Walking through the urban environment inspires me, I love architecture and the patterns created in the manmade landscape.

Do you have a favourite blog and/or book to recommend? 

I’ve been enjoying your blog, I don’t really take much interest in blogs but yours is fun. Books are so subjective, I really like Haruki Murakami, am currently reading Dostoyevsky, but my guilty pleasure is Ayn Rand’s “The fountainhead’…so cheesy but strangely empowering…

Best thing you’ve ever made?

That’s a hard one…I think it could be my ‘big black book of beautiful things’…still in progress. Sketches, photos, words and ideas that have inspired me and inspire the work I create…I continue to look back on it and add to it.

What is the coolest thing to do in your town?

Central markets, just up the road. Food, glorious food and coffee.

And one awesome place to eat there?

Thanh Thanh Vietnamese restaurant and Ying Chow.

Is there something you’re bad at?

Time management and being pushy. I’m a shy wee flower…

Did you ever want to be rich or famous?  What drives you?

Not necessarily rich or famous but independently comfortable and valued for my contribution, whatever that may be…if I knew what drives me maybe I could fathom why it drives me mad…

Thanks Wendy!!  Big black book of beautiful things is awesome.  I love the sound of that. On a side note – Wendy was probably my first regular client for haircuts many years ago, what a brave lady!  I wish she could come by the salon now for a visit and a proper pampering!