Nick Mount

Nick Mount is a prolific maker of exquisite objects inspired by traditional Venetian techniques. Working from his Adelaide studio, he continues to experiment and explore the medium of glass, achieving the highest levels of skill and refinement.

When viewing the website of glass artist Nick Mount, the visitor will find the usual content headings, with the exception of “About us” which offers something quite out of the ordinary. There is a short bio followed by collections of photographs across six decades, from the 1970s to now. These images are of everyday life, in the studio and travels, but predominantly these photos are of family and capture Mount’s life from his marriage to Pauline Donaldson in 1974 through to becoming a father, and more recently a grandfather.

The photographs tell the story of the artist’s life and his journey from a young emerging practitioner to a skilled and respected glass artist. But what shines through in this portrait is the foundation of family and the presence of Pauline. She is the “us” who, together with Mount, founded Victoria’s first private hot glass studio in 1976, followed by the establishment of Budgeree Glass studio in Gippsland in 1978. What is evident in these early entrepreneurial endeavours is the desire to be an independent artist, to establish the conditions for a creative practice, to support family, and to work full-time on developing craft and skills.

A continuous thread throughout Mount’s practice is the influence of international techniques and styles, in particular Venetian glass and the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, US. During the 1980s and 1990s, Mount had the opportunity to work in the US alongside renowned glass artists such as Richard Marquis and Lino Taliapietra. His travels to Venice took him to the famed island of Murano where he started to engage with traditional glassblowing, grinding, and colouring techniques such as zenferico, battuto, and encalmo.

These formative experiences were key in establishing Mount’s approach to glass blowing and developing his unique style and vernacular. His signature sculptural forms of the scent bottle, fruit, and the plumb bob were evolving as his preferred vehicles to experiment with shape, colour, texture, and patterning. In describing his approach to working with glass, it is clear that Mount is a fastidious and patient maker. He talks about blowing the glass, then reworking the surface over and over, applying the Venetian techniques to polishing, grinding, and colour. “I love the idea that I have a close relationship with the materials, I understand it and ask it nicely to work with me on something. Each piece grows out of the last piece,” he says.

Since 1990 the family has been based in Leabrook, in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs. Whilst the glass blowing happens at a furnace at a local studio, it is at home where Mount develops his ideas, sketches them out, stores many semi-finished pieces, works and finesses the glass, and keeps his collections of hundreds of old and new plumb bobs from around the world. Mount says of this collection, “I have a fixation with plumb bobs, they are my favourite tool as they are the simplest tool, you don’t have to be educated and trained to use it. They are beautifully made, in a perfect alignment of form, function and weight.”

It is the bespoke and lovingly hand-crafted objects that are sought after by collectors and lovers of glass, and the galleries that showcase his works. With titles such as Plum, 2012, Reclining Bob, 2012, and Aylesbury Prune, 2020, Mount pieces are all unique. Often organically round or oval shaped, with a stem, brim, or cap, they are designed to be displayed as a solo work or collection of objects. The fascination with the plumb bob is realised in meticulously crafted pieces, detailed with patterning, and layered luminescent colours which are suspended with string or rest gently on a stand. The fruits are in lush greens, purples, and reds, and catch the light as if hanging from a tree in dappled sunshine.

For Mount however the most personal and re-worked object is the scent bottle. The fascination started following a three-year period from 1994-97 as head of the JamFactory Glass Studio in Adelaide. Now one of Australia’s leading glass centres, Mount’s legacy with his emphasis on training through production, building community, taking commissions, and a strong work ethic still permeates the culture of glass production at JamFactory. But a full-time job was not for Mount and after this experience he said, “I was looking for a motif that would carry me on, that was interesting and exciting to me, that was inclusive of all the kinds of things that are important in my life and craft and the scent bottle was the idea that I took on.”

With a history stretching across millennia, the scent bottle has been fabricated to hold precious liquid such as perfume, honey, and oils, and evolved as both a decorative and functional glass object. What is key for Mount though is not what the bottle contains but what it embodies, what he calls the scent of the maker—an illustration of artistry, skill, and personality. “A scent bottle for me is a foot and joining components, a vessel, a neck, a lid, and a stopper. In every one of those components is endless opportunities for geometric or organic shapes—historically relevant or futuristic—that can go into the construction to make up a scent bottle.”

Having now produced and exhibited a vast array of delicate and exquisite scent bottles over more than thirty years, they truly represent the craftsmanship and imagination of the maker. They have been exhibited in Australia and the US and have evolved through different life stages and interests. Asked if they will come to an end, Mount responds, “They are ongoing, I haven’t finished with them yet and I don’t think I ever will—they are a motif which is kind of endless.”

This sentiment is indicative of Mount’s approach to life, as an artist he is continually inspired and continuously working and is currently starting to plan for a forthcoming solo exhibition at Sabbia Gallery in April. All around him is endless creativity—in his workspace, in his garden, and in his home.

Exhibition
Nick Mount: A solo exhibition of new works in glass
9 April – 3 May 2025
Sabbia Gallery, Sydney

This profile was published in Artist Profile, Issue 70, 2025.
Images courtesy of the artist and Sabbia Gallery, Sydney