Born in Gloucester in England, Nina Casson McGarva grew up in rural central France in the middle of the Burgundy countryside. Surrounded by a family of creatives & makers and growing up in an environment full of nature and craft, definitely influenced her life and art work. McGarva started learning the basic technical skills of glass blowing in the National French Glass school in Yzeure, then at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts on Bornholm where she started to use other glass techniques such as casting fusing and experimenting with several new processes. Since graduating in 2014, McGarva has been part of two Artist residency programs in the USA; one at Starworks in Star, NC and the Eair Program at Pilchuck Glass school in Stanwood, WA. She has shown her work throughout Europe and in the USA.

In her own words;

“The starting point in my work is nature. I take a detail of an element I find in nature and use it as a inspirational base to create my own abstraction, that then builds into a complex sculpture. My inspiration comes from cycles of nature that I associate with glass because to me the material goes through a cycle and is at it's most alive when it’s hot and being transformed. The end result is solid and doesn’t move any longer, it is at the fragile time before disintegration and maintains a dynamic form and rich structures such as dry leaves, feathers or sea shells. In the making process I shape it hot in an open kiln until the glass stops moving. When the glass transforms to be a solid, the piece is finished”

Curled Over, unique, 29cm H, 41cm W, 22cm D, £5000


Fresh Fall, unique, 25cm H, 45cm W, 25cm D, £4500


Moment in the Cycle, unique, 20cm H, 32cm W, 15cm D, £2000  


Changing Colours, unique, 33cm H, 33cm W, 20cm D £3000