Glass art piece sold while still warm
 

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Glass art piece sold while still warm
Nyssa Skilton

A Klaus Moje glass artwork sold for $6000 on Saturday night in a kind of auction that organisers said was possibly an Australian first.
The auction was held to raise money to support one of Australia's leading glass blowers, Tricia Allen, who contracted motor neurone disease.
Moje, a leading Australian glass artist, finished the piece as it was being auctioned.
Head of glass at the ANU School of Art, Richard Whiteley, said it was a spectacular show.
"[Moje] decided while making the piece he would turn to the crowd, that were assembled here for the Ausglass Conference, and auction it live as it was being conceived and made," Mr Whiteley said.
"It was quite spectacular because you had not only the complexities of a team of artists working furiously to construct the piece, but Klaus also talking with the crowd and explaining his ideas and taking bids for the work."
The auction took about 112hours.
Mr Whiteley said the $6000 price tag on the artwork was very affordable for a Klaus Moje work.
Allen graduated from the Caulfield Institute in 1983 and eventually operated a full-time production studio in East Gippsland with her partner, Norm Borg.
The internationally renowned artist was diagnosed with motor neurone disease a few years ago and had not been able to work for more than a year.
Mr Whiteley said the whole glass community was touched by Allen's illness.
"Contemporary studio glass has a very strong community dynamic and because of that it's one of the reasons why artists want to rally around and help other people," he said.
Moje's son, Amos Enders-Moje, fused and cold-worked his father's piece yesterday, adding the finishing touches.
Moje is renowned for a technique named the Australian roll-up, which he used on the auctioned piece.
It involves fusing plates of glass, made from strips fused together, and eventually working them into a shape of a cylinder, by moving them in and out of a glory hole.
Moje, who was born in Germany, was the School of Art's first head of glass.

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