This year, I’m working on some exciting projects.

Here's a peek at the work I'm developing with my creative friends. I'm excited to share them with you!

Isla Osborne

Defense Mechanism

A vivid wall-based series exploring the intersection of domesticity, craft, and quiet resistance. Each piece features a cluster of brightly coloured glass-tipped pins, tiny weapons of precision and beauty, mounted in painted embroidery hoops like shields.

Lined up in their matching frames, they become both decoration and defence, a kind of domestic armour.

This growing collection celebrates the power of small things: the sharp edge of the everyday, and the resilience found in repetition, colour, and craft.

Liz McAuliffe | Isla Osborne

Small Observations

This ongoing collaboration with sculptor Liz McAuliffe brings together her finely detailed porcelain leaf and seed pod forms with my hand-blown glass domes. Liz’s work celebrates the quiet beauty of natural forms, inviting us to pause and really see what's so often overlooked. Together, we’ve created pieces that feel like contemporary heirlooms, echoing the curiosity and care of Victorian-era collectors. Each dome becomes a moment of stillness; a small, delicate encounter with everyday taonga.

Frankly Small
9 – 23 August
NZ Steel Gallery, Pukekohe

Jenny Mcleod Glass | Isla Osborne

Neptunes Necklace

A collaboration inspired by our native seaweed, Jenny and I have combined my blown glass beads with her fused elements to craft a series of sculptural wall necklaces that echo the movement of drifting tides. A playful dialogue in glass, they reflect connection, materiality, and decades of shared exploration. Purple Drift, from this body of work, is currently on show as part of Connection at Kumeū Arts, June 2025.

Exhibition | Isla Osborne

Drift

For the past few months, I’ve been slowly building something special – Drift. This installation of 120 glass leaves cascaded down the wall of The Collaboration gallery in New Plymouth as part of the Forest & Flora exhibition, May 2025.

RPJ Ceramics | Isla Osborne

Shifting Currents

Three textured ceramic stones each cradle flowing strands of glass seaweed. This collaborative work explores the fragile connection between land and ocean in Aotearoa.

Exhibition | NZ Glassworks

Gather '25

This series of pendants explores the interplay of translucency, and surface treatments on flame-worked glass. Each piece is individually crafted on the blowtorch and either cold worked or re-fired with lustres that reflect the light and give the glass a warm, iridescent glow.

Fig & Honey | Isla Osborne

Jo (from Fig & Honey) and I are working on something amazing together! She’s been foraging plants to dye her gorgeous silks, and I’m making glass beads to go with them. Think jewellery and art with a touch of nature — it's an ongoing project that I can’t wait to share!