Jurlique: 40 Years of Nature, Nurture and Art

Born in Cantonese region in China, Shirley Jianzhen Wu is a multidisciplinary artist based in Adelaide. Wu completed a Master of Design (Contemporary Art) at the University of South Australia (2019). Previously she studied a Bachelor of Arts in Jewellery & Accessories at Middlesex University, England (2009–2013).

Wu’s practice centres around the transmigratory experience (hers and other’s), holistic healing and meditative processes. Through glass forms, jewellery, installation, performative actions, videos and audios, Wu reflects a tension in her life: growing up in a Chinese patriarchal family and an evolving feminist awareness as an Asian immigrant.

Recent accolades include the 2025 Adelaide Fringe Best Workshops & Talks Award, a 2024 Pilchuck Glass School Partner Scholarship, and participation in the Guildhouse Catapult Mentorship Program (2024). She has undertaken residencies at Nexus Arts (2023), Sauerbier House (2023), and the Canberra Glassworks Graduate-in-Residence program (2022). Wu was also a Co-Director at FELTspace from 2022 to 2024.

Wu has been recognised with awards including the Brighton Jetty Emerging Artist Prize (2022) and the SALA Festival City Rural Emerging Artist Award (2021). Her work has been selected as a finalist in notable prizes such as the Fuse Glass Prize (2022), MilanoVetro-35 (2020), and the National Emerging Art Glass Prize (2020).

Collaborating with Jurlique felt intuitive and meaningful. We share respect in sensory experience and botanical healing. I respond my experience of Jurlique with soft, feminine, organic glass forms that invite moments of stillness, reflection, and reconnection with oneself.

My practice is grounded in sensory experience. I infuse emotion, memory, space, and rhythm into the materials I work with. Making, for me, is a healing ritual, a way to return to the body through breath, movement, and deep attention to the present moment.

I work across glass, silver, clay, stone, performative act and video, medium that speak in their own voice. I explore their materiality and how they hold memory and evoke intangible experiences. Glass, in particular, captures the ephemeral: a blooming form frozen in time, a breath held in space.

Working with molten glass becomes a meditative act: the shifting flame, the inhale and exhale shaping the form, the heat that softens and transforms. Each piece captures a moment in time, a trace of gravity, temperature, breath, and bodily gesture.

My glasswork is also influenced by aromatherapy and Chinese calligraphy. I find resonance between flamework and brushwork, both demand controlled breath, physical rhythm, and full presence.

Through this collaboration with Jurlique and Guildhouse for the SALA Festival, I hope to offer a space for pause and reconnection. Installed at the Jurlique Farm shop, my glass sculptures respond to the aromatic, natural surroundings, inviting visitors into a multi-sensory experience that connects body, nature, and self.

与 Jurlique 的合作对我而言是一种直觉上的共鸣，也充满意义。我们尊重感官体验与植物疗愈的价值。我用柔和、女性化、有机形态的玻璃作品回应我在 Jurlique 农场的感受，邀请观者在片刻的静止中，沉淀、反思，并重新连接自我。

我的创作实践以感官经验为基础。我将情感、记忆、空间与律动注入我所使用的材料中。对我而言，创作是一种疗愈的仪式，是通过呼吸、身体动作和对当下的专注，重新回到身体与心灵的一种方式。

我主要使用玻璃、银、陶、石材等媒介进行创作——它们都拥有各自的语言。我对材料的物性充满好奇，也在探索它们如何承载记忆、唤起那些无形却真实的体验。玻璃尤其擅长捕捉转瞬即逝的状态：像是一朵花开的瞬间被凝结，一口呼吸悬浮在空间之中。

与熔融玻璃工作的过程本身就是一种冥想：火焰的流动，呼吸的收放，热度的软化与转化——每一件作品都记录着某个当下的痕迹，包括重力、温度、气息与身体动作的轨迹。

我的玻璃创作也受到芳香疗法与中国书法的影响。我在火焰塑形与书写之间发现了相似之处：两者都需要有节奏的呼吸、身体律动以及对当下的全然投入。

 通过这次与 Jurlique 及 Guildhouse 在 SALA 艺术节的合作，我希望为观众提供一个能够放慢脚步、重新连接自身的空间。这组玻璃雕塑作品安装在 Jurlique 农场的商店中，与周围芳香而自然的环境产生回应，引导观众进入一场与身体、自然与自我之间的多感官体验。

Growing up on a native flower farm in central N.S.W, Samuel Mulcahy has been fascinated with plant aesthetics and structure. The organised chaos of a plants growth can seem simple but is endlessly complex. Since 2016 the pretengineering of these plants into existence from the waste of construction has been the focus of his fantasy genus “tetnesteiis”. These plants draw attention to the natural world being paved over by these materials, and both the fragility and resilience of nature. 

Your artwork beautifully captures raw, yet natural elements that exist in nature. How does the Australian landscape inspire your work, and how do you see that coming to life on the Jurlique Farm?

Thanks! Spending my childhood on a native flower farm kicked off my fascination with natural forms and growth patterns. Jurlique has a lovely mix of natural bush landscapes and disciplined structure. This mix is a balance I’m trying to capture.

Your work turns scrap into sculpture – what are the most poignant lessons you’ve learnt from nature through your artistic process?

I’m always in awe of its brilliance, as should everybody if they are paying attention, I have spent a lot of time mapping leaf growth structures and uncovering the fractal growth patterns feel like peering into a universal source code. I also try and create new patterns and structures, only to realise nature’s already been there and done that in a much more delicate and sophisticated way than I. It’s fun to try and get close though!

What has it been like blending your vision with Jurlique’s nature-driven aesthetic?

Has been easy peasy! And a delight! After Cherie’s wonderful farm tour, we have many aligning values that I found myself nodding along enthusiastically to!

A professional practising glass artist all his working life, Tim Shaw‘s unmistakable style is a result of years mastering his skill and continually exploring his creativity.

Born in Cyprus and raised in Yorkshire, Tim has explored his artistic practice and glassmaking skills throughout the world. He has three degrees in glassblowing. Attaining his BA (Hons) from North Staffordshire Polytechnic in the UK in the early 80’s, he went on to study at the avant-garde Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, where he continued to develop and experiment creating a unique style of art glass. Upon his return to the UK Tim established a hot glass workshop in London. Whilst there he was invited to undertake his second MA at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London. Here he further refined and honed his glassmaking skills whilst pushing the boundaries of his artistic expression.

Moving permanently to Australia in 2002, Tim is currently based with his family and hot glass studio nestled in the stringy bark forests of the Adelaide Hills.

When did you introduce large scale sculptural works into your practice, and were there any challenges in working at larger scales?

I’ve always wanted to work on a large scale but there are physical constraints with working with hot glass. It just taken me a number of years to develop the systems I use for working on a bigger scale. Primarily I have developed the technique of using components along with making a physical amateur from metal. This is enabled me to scale up the size of pieces that I present to the public. I find this way of working very satisfying and exciting and the fact that I can present large dynamic and impressive pieces for exhibition. 

How have you arrived at this point in your career?

I’ve been working with hot glass all my adult life and whilst it’s taken me many years to master the Art of glassmaking it is now in the latter part of my career where I feel like I can  truly explore and express myself through my art glass. For me, this is the most exciting part of my lifelong obsession with hot glass. Every time I blow glass, I get that same incredible feeling that I can take a molten liquid and form it into virtually anything. I feel the only limitation is the extent of one’s imagination. For me, when I create my artwork with hot glass, I feel like the glass itself as alive. And to a certain extent it dictates the form it wishes to take, with of course,  a little direction from the maestro.

Colour is a distinct feature in your work – where do you gain inspiration for this?

I love colour. For me colour is one of the most important aspects of my work coupled with form texture and patterns. I use these elements to create beautiful works of art. These elements coupled with the transparency, translucency and opacity that are naturally inherent properties of glass, enable me to indulge my creativity through my chosen medium. I love and surround myself by nature that I find constantly inspiring both, in it’s amazing myriad of form and especially colour, my primary source of inspiration!