Fused: a journey from artist in the National Art Glass Collection 

• Richard Clements 12 Perfume Bottles 1980 - 1990, flame worked borosilicate glass

Cultural Background
Both of my parents were born in England

Place of Origin
London England

Start of Migration Journey
I left from South Hampton, UK in 1970 - I came over as a "₤10 Pom"

Place of Arrival in Australia
Sydney NSW

First Home in Australia
Bondi NSW

First job in Australia
The first year and a half I worked various jobs including a postman in Bondi and a porter at Sydney Hospital

Other Jobs in Australia
Lab Supply, Marrickville
Minsons Scientific, Paddington
My own business, Argyle Glass at The Rocks

Richard's story

At the age of eight my "Uncle" Bill who had an Australian wife worked as a photographer for Ilford. In about 1958 he got a job to travel all around Australia in an FJ Holden and take photographs. When he came back to England he gave me pictures of Aboriginals in tribal dress at Ayers Rock, black swans in Perth and posters of kangaroos. Since that early age I always knew I was going to Australia, it feels like it was almost preordained that I come here.
At the age of sixteen I did a five year apprenticeship in scientific glass blowing with GEC in London, my father worked in the research laboratory, that was my training in glass.
One day I walked into my local pub and said, "Who wants to go to Australia?" I went along to Australia House where I applied and in 1970 I came over as a ₤10 Pom. In those days the Australian Government wanted anyone they could get their hands on so for ₤10 you got a 6-week cruise on a liner. All you had to provide was your beer, and everything else like food and accommodation was paid for. The obligation was that you stay for two years. If you decided to come back before that time you had to pay for your own return passage and repay the fare out here.
One of the jobs I had when I first arrived in Australia was at Lab Supply in Marrickville, I had all these fancy papers from GEC and they immediately hired me. I had to work so hard doing extra hours to try and keep my job because I didn't have to do very much at all during my apprenticeship; I was now in a position where I actually had to produce something.
In 1972, I started Aryle Glass down at The Rocks in Sydney with John Schunman and Philip Broadbelt. Prior to starting this business I worked at Minsons Scientific at Paddington which is where I met Phil & John. We poured all of our collective money into this business. It was an unbelievable novelty at the time because there was no one else doing commercial glass making in front of the public in Australia. We worked incredibly hard long hours in those early days making animals, specimen vases and candlesticks, compared to the average wage we actually made a pretty good living from it.
At the end of 1974 I came down to Tasmania with an American guy who worked for us at the time, we were only here for the weekend and I fell in love with the place. Three weeks later I flew down by myself for a few days and ended up buying a house and moving down here, this was about February in 1975.
My three children all had a go at glass making, Jemma still does it and has been working from here for about ten years now. It's great having her in the studio and she loves it.
My work is represented in many public and private collections amongst them the National Gallery (Victoria), Power House Museum (Sydney), American Craft Museum (New York), Perfume Bottle Museum Kanagawa (Japan) and the Michael Rosenburg Collection in England. The majority of my work ends up overseas because of the type of places I sell through like the Uluru Gallery in Ayers Rock, the prices in Australia are very good compared to what they sell for overseas. I also have many collectors in Australia and New Zealand from all types of backgrounds, some with huge collections.
When I moved to Franklin it was an isolated little town where everyone knew each other and were related to one another. I was one of only about three outsiders, everyone was born in Tasmania but they always treated me absolutely fantastically, which is how I have generally found Australians to be. It has always been the lucky country and if you are prepared to work hard you can do so well in Australia.