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: When you founded London Glassblowing in 1976, what was your vision for the space? And has this vision become a reality, or something different, or more? There are a number of contemporary Czech glass artists, for whom I have great admiration, although I don’t feel that I have been greatly influenced by my Czech heritage. He was very tickled when eventually I found my way into glassmaking. : I was born in Prague because my father, who was Austrian, was working there in a glass factory.
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Layton is also the founder of the Contemporary Glass Society, which is Britain’s foremost organisation supporting and championing the work of glass artists, both established and new. He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bradford for his contribution to arts and crafts in Britain. Layton’s colourful and painterly works of glass art can be found in numerous public and private collections, both at home and abroad, including the Victoria and Albert Musuem and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Since its opening, London Glassblowing has nurtured and produced some of the world’s leading glass artists, including (most recently) Elliot Walker of Netflix Blown Away fame. In 1976 he founded London Glassblowing, his internationally renowned glass workshop and gallery, now located in London’s Bermondsey. He discovered the art form while teaching ceramics in the US in the mid-1960s, and upon his return to the UK in 1968 he began to experiment with his own glass designs inspired by the environment around him. Peter Layton has been at the forefront of British studio glass since the late 1960’s.