Glass art is becoming more and more popular, with a vast array of vases, sculptures and jewellery available to purchase and admire. High on the success of last year's event, the organisers of the 3rd Annual
Festival of Glass have spread the festival over two days this year, allowing enthusiasts to enjoy all that our local and national artists have to offer, and perhaps pick up a few classic pieces along the way.
To be held, once again, at the Bellarine Basketball Stadium in Drysdale (on Sunday 17 February) the Festival will run from 10am to 4pm and feature everything you can imagine relating to glassworks. There will be stalls from over forty diverse exhibitors, whose wares range from jewellery to tiles, from vases to leadlighting, and from vintage bottles to homewares.

The event will be held at the Bellarine Basketball Stadium once again
Some of these exhibitors will also be holding demonstrations, where visitors can view the techniques used to create each individual piece. Most of the demonstrations promise to be quite interesting, with examples of beadweaving, leadlighting, enamelling, glass painting and glass fusion on offer. While simply watching these glasswork skills in action can be stimulating enough, for some people, this could be the calling to a new hobby or interest, of which the exhibitors will be more than happy to help encourage.

Why not pick up some handcrafted glass pieces at the Festival?
On Sunday, a raffle will also be drawn (tickets will be available for purchase on the day), where you have the chance to win from over twenty different pieces, each donated by the exhibitors of the Festival. Items include jewellery, homewares and vouchers. Several more of these donated pieces will be auctioned off as part of a new addition to the Festival of Glass- a food, music and art glass auction event to be held the night before (February 16). Bookings for this event at
Harvester Moon Café (next door to
Bellarine Estate) are essential and tickets cost $55 per person. Admission includes dinner, entertainment from bottleneck (slide) blues guitar player
Alister Turrill and his band, and the chance to bid on plenty of gorgeous glass items.

There will be all sorts of glassware on display at the Festival of Glass
The Festival Of Glass is one of the more unique art events to be held on the Bellarine Peninsula, but judging by the turnout at last year's festival, it doesn't disappoint.