About Me
Kayleigh Young is a West Midlands based glass maker who specialises in hot sculpting and iridised surface design. She works out of a small, converted train station in Shenton on the Bosworth Heritage Railway. Born in the West Midlands, UK in 1986, she was always creative with an interest in all aspects of artistic practices both historically and visually. In the final year of her A-levels at age 18 she saw glass being blown for the first time at Stoke University. From that moment she was hooked.
After a year in college learning about many different materials and processes including fused glass, she applied to every university in England with a glassblowing course. Choosing to attend Sunderland University because it seemed to have to most varied course. Three years later she returned to the West Midlands with a Bachelors Degree in Glass, Architectural Glass and Ceramics. She followed this up with a Masters Degree in Art and Design specialising in Glass from Wolverhampton University. Kayleigh began working for a company in Stourbridge as a hot shop assistant where she learnt some of the basics of production glassblowing and iridised surface design. The company had to move premises and unfortunately never relocated and has since ceased trading.
Soon after Kayleigh began working at Station Glass for a couple of days a week assisting Richard Golding. Here she learned more about surface decoration and the process of iridising. Richard taught her more about the equipment used to make the glass and how to tweak it to suit a specific making process. She got another job working at Top Glass for Stuart Fletcher where she was introduced to hot sculpting which has featured heavily in her work since as she particularly enjoys the process. Today Kayleigh uses a combination of hot sculpting and iridised surface decoration in her work and is aiming to push the boundaries of both in new and exciting directions.
