Sophie Longwill completed a joint major BA (Hons) in Glass Design and History of Art and Design in the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2016. She served as a board member for the Glass Society of Ireland for 5 years and in 2019 she founded her company Longwill Studio. She has been recognised as one of Europe’s master artisans by the Michelangelo Foundation’s Homo Faber guide, and has been selected for Portfolio 2021-2022 - recognition by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland as one of Ireland’s top 100 makers. In the last year she has been awarded a Marit Rausing scholarship award to attend the Royal College of Art pand scholarships to attend classes at the prestigious glass schools at Corning Musuem of Glass, New York and Pilchuck, Seattle. Her work has been selected for international and national exhibitions, including the upcoming British Glass Biennale in Stourbridge, UK and Evolution at the Glass Arts Society conference in Berlin. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of Irish Life, Dublin, Kildare County Council, the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Czech Republic and the International Biennale of Glass Collection, Bulgaria. She will be Artist In Residence at Southern Illinois University, USA from August - December 2024.
Artist Statement
I capture fleeting moments of everyday life in paper-thin glass. In everything I make I am trying to capture a sense of wonder, to transpose transient and intangible moments into visible form. The delicate fragility inherent in glass as a material accentuates the impression of ephemerality and preciousness.
