Formerly the Ontario Crafts Council, Craft Ontario is a not-for-profit service organization that works to have craft recognized as a valuable part of life. We promote and celebrate professional craft through providing member opportunities, and advocate for craft practice by educating and empowering diverse audiences.
Shay Salehi is a Guelph-based artist working with glass. She attended Sheridan College, where she explored her desire to face new challenges by choosing to work with a medium she had no experience with—glass. After a few years of exploring the different qualities and processes of the material, she began to find comfort in particular methods such as kiln casting and the pate de verre technique.
Shay has been interested in the fragility of glass and its ability to mimic other materials. Her current body of work studies these qualities using line, shape, colour and texture; formed by the pate de verre technique. She fuses glass beads into pure and simple forms, which play with negative space and texture. The lips on the pieces are rough, uncontrolled, and extremely fragile. These bowls do not display the well-known properties of glass, such as transparency or optics. At first glance, one may not even realize that her work is made from glass.
Shay graduated from Sheridan College's Craft and Design Program and is currently working in her new studio space in Guelph, Ontario. She was recently awarded the GAAC Project Grant and Best of Exhibition (Student) at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
Sliced
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Primary Bowls
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Form Study
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Medium Bowl
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Tall Bowl
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Tall Bowl
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Tall Bowl
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Tall Bowl
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Orbs
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Orbs, Medium (Detail)
Glass beads, pate de verre and applied pigment
Formerly the Ontario Crafts Council, Craft Ontario is a not-for-profit service organization that works to have craft recognized as a valuable part of life. We promote and celebrate professional craft through providing member opportunities, and advocate for craft practice by educating and empowering diverse audiences.