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Scottish Borders Art Glass are a small family run studio situated in the Scottish Borders, staff include Peter Holmes (Master Glass Maker)
Peter Holmes: was born on the 3rd December 1947 in Bourton-on-the-water Gloucester England. He moved to Scotland in 1958 so his schooling was in both countries. Whilst at school in 1962 he helped the village blacksmith where he lived as a Saturday job. The blacksmith used to repair and sharpen the tools of a well-known glassmaker called Paul Ysart. It was Paul who persuaded him to take up an apprentice in glassmaking at Caithness Glass in Wick, where he was the training officer.
On January 21st 1963 he started his apprenticeship. Later on during his training Paul asked him to work with him in a private capacity which meant working in the evenings and weekends when the factory was empty, this was the beginning of a second apprenticeship which included paperweight making. This he did until Paul left Caithness Glass. In 1972. Peter intended to leave Caithness and join Paul but through a series of mishaps with Pauls financial backers it was not to be.
In 1977 he left Caithness Glass to form a company called Selkirk Glass in the Borders of Scotland, with Ron Hutchison from the sales department of Caithness Glass.
Paul helped them in the early days of setting up the new company.
After 25years of building up the company, a lot of time was spent on administrative duties. As the company grew, he got further away from the glassmaking he enjoyed. Peter realised that as time went on, the skills that he had developed over the past 40 years plus all that had been passed on to him through Paul Ysart and previous generations of his family would probably disappear.
As a consequence of these thoughts. Peter and Andrew Holmes in 2002 opened a small studio in Hawick called Scottish Borders Art Glass with the sole purpose of concentrating on the art of glass making and allowing Peter the time to train Andrew in the skills of glass making, as Peter feared that the skills would be lost. By making this decision the skills would now be carried on and developed further by the next generation.
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