For the past two years,  Pia Raeymaekers has based her studio at Flowerfield Arts Centre in Portstewart as part of the making it programme.

Taking inspiration from the sea, Raeymaekers' intricate and beautiful pieces can take up to two months to complete. 'I have spent the last year building up a new collection of work,' she says. 'This will be the first time it is being displayed.'

This is also the first time she has attended a trade show, but she feels it's the ideal opportunity to reveal her work. 'This collection will really appeal to galleries and glass collectors. Great Northern will be a fantastic opportunity for me to show what I have to offer.'

Eight large sculptures will be unveiled, as well as several smaller pieces. 'No matter what the size of the sculpture, it is a very time-consuming process,' she says.

'I start by sculpting clay then producing a silicon mould around it. Then I make a wax model and create a mould around the wax. I then steam the wax out of the mould before putting in the glass and placing it in the kiln. The final step is to polish the glass.'

Each unique piece, organic and abstract in shape, incorporates tensions between transparency and opacity, fragility and strength. Pia’s technical training and craft skills are now such that they allow her to give all her attention to imaginative design.

Pia has wanted to work with glass since she was a teenager. After completing a Masters in Fine Arts in Gent, she studied at the school for glassmaking in the Czech Republic.

Then, on the advice of the well-known glass expert Dan Klein, she travelled to the University of Sunderland to complete another Masters in Glass.

'The facilities in Sunderland are so impressive,' she says. 'It really gave me the opportunity to experiment and hone my craft on really large pieces.'

Pia has been supported by Craft NI’s Trade Show Programme, an initiative supported by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Arts Council Northern Ireland and the regional development agency Invest NI through the Creative Industries Innovation Fund.

The programme provides assistance to makers to attend commercial events and research export opportunities for their businesses.