Grinter Glass

Colourful Hand Blown Glass Works

Keith Grinter runs Grinter Glass in Whangārei, a studio alive with molten colour, creative energy, and deliberate craftsmanship.

Keith's work blends blown and painted glass, sculpture, and canvas, often rooted in blind-contour drawings he makes while walking, a practice first developed during his Master’s degree as a way of exploring the everyday.

Central to Keith’s current work is the shard pick-up technique, in which broken shards and thin glass wires are laid out, then picked up and incorporated into the molten glass as he shapes it. Each vessel or artwork begins in that hot, frenetic dance between furnace and bench, moving fluidly between blowing, reheating, shaping with wooden paddles, wet telephone books, tweezers and oversized scissors. Once the shape is set, the piece is transferred to an annealer where it cools slowly over days, securing its durability. 

Though his glassblowing mastery keeps growing, every new form or technique presents its own challenge, and Keith embraces the tension between spontaneity and precision. His painted and blown works resonate with a painterly modernism, driven by surface, texture, line, and reflect a deep fascination with process, material and the contours of everyday life.

Keith Grinter runs Grinter Glass in Whangārei, a studio alive with molten colour, creative energy, and deliberate craftsmanship.

Keith's work blends blown and painted glass, sculpture, and canvas, often rooted in blind-contour drawings he makes while walking, a practice first developed during his Master’s degree as a way of exploring the everyday.

Central to Keith’s current work is the shard pick-up technique, in which broken shards and thin glass wires are laid out, then picked up and incorporated into the molten glass as he shapes it. Each vessel or artwork begins in that hot, frenetic dance between furnace and bench, moving fluidly between blowing, reheating, shaping with wooden paddles, wet telephone books, tweezers and oversized scissors. Once the shape is set, the piece is transferred to an annealer where it cools slowly over days, securing its durability. 

Though his glassblowing mastery keeps growing, every new form or technique presents its own challenge, and Keith embraces the tension between spontaneity and precision. His painted and blown works resonate with a painterly modernism, driven by surface, texture, line, and reflect a deep fascination with process, material and the contours of everyday life.