In March Glass Cuttings will celebrate 10 years at Piggly Wiggly, yet this story spans four decades and is still going strong.
Gill Pryke’s adventure into new skills began in 1984, shortly after Gill’s mum noticed her being consumed by the daily grind of home-life with two busy little tykes and a broken vacuum cleaner. She said “Gill, you need to get out more! You should master one new thing each year.”
Gill swiftly embraced this wisdom and threw herself into all sorts of new pursuits including a flower arranging course, a pottery course, a hostessing course and the obvious, a stained-glass course. Glass work enchanted Gill, and she has remained a rapt student of this craft since 1984.
In 1999 she heard of someone emigrating and selling off all their glass work equipment, for which she negotiated the purchase. This enabled her to set up the first Glass Cuttings glass art shop on the Meander in 2001. Gill sustained her studio and shop spaces at various KZN Midlands sites before settling in at Piggly Wiggly in 2015.
Pictured here is Gill with the first stained glass item she ever made, a beautfiful bird, crafted over 40 years ago. Gill says “Everybody else in the class made little sun catchers but I decided to do something quite big. I keep it in my workshop where I can see its numerous faults. It keeps me on track and reminds me not to be overly ambitious.”
Visit the shop at Piggly Wiggly and for your customised orders chat to Gill Pryke. She makes a number of glass items including but not limited to suncatchers, jewellery, lamps, lanterns, terrariums and light boxes with loads more products in the pipeline.
WhatsApp Gill on 082 254 4798, she will respond during business hours.
Find out more at https://glasscuttings.co.za/
Visit at Piggly Wiggly - Midlands
