I know, I know. Late again.

My American summer got buried in art fairs, our new Santa Fe resource center and just keeping my head above the flood waters.

I’ve just landed again in the Northern Highlands of Scotland – after an inspiring visit to the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge – and elated to be back in the place where I and 13 artists left our hearts earlier this summer.

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It’s hard to turn around in northern Scotland without bumping into a church. They seem – to me at least – nearly as ubiquitous as the sheep. This is probably due to the numerous religious schisms that resulted in denominations of Catholic, Presbyterian, Free Church, United Free, Wee Free and even Wee Wee Free erecting or maintaining an increasing number of places of worship for an ever-decreasing population.

To be honest, I’m not sure which faith St Mary’s represented. Like so many churches in the area today, it is derelict, despite the fact that it sits prominently on the main street of Lybster village and quite close to the studios of North Lands Creative Glass.

Like many decommissioned church properties, its gutted shell was sold in recent years, but due to extreme costs, not yet refurbished. This has not stopped years of artists at North Lands from exploring its bones and leaving their delicate marks on its mysterious interior.

Like Harbour House, St Mary’s is a testament to the indomitable spirit of a place that, while tumbling down, still has the power to lift souls.

This June some of those souls looked at St Mary’s, as they did Harbour House, with an eye to “kiln-glass in the built environment”. Their visions ranged from topographic renderings to site-specific sound and light installations to adventuresome plots for community-building, all anchored in the conviction that art – and glass as an especially evocative medium – can reconnect the lost threads of time and place.

NEXT: The Artists-in-Residence

The traditional houses of northeast Scotland are typically stone, intensely practical, and hauntingly lonely. “Harbour House” is almost iconic in its reflection of the style, a simple, squat, double-gabled building with chimneys on both ends and symmetrical window/door placement on the front that sometimes gives the lime-washed houses a Friendly Ghost face.

That this particular house is perched so tenuously on the steep hill above the village harbour adds power to the metaphor. There is a precariousness to life in this place. A building like Harbour House has survived – for various reasons. Many others in the area have not.

That Parrish and Klein selected Harbour House as one of the two case studies for this residency insured that the participants would have rich material to mine as they considered the place of kiln-glass in the built environment.

And mine they would. But Harbour House was just one way in.

Next: The Other.

I’m back home in Portland, Oregon after five weeks bouncing around Britain, juggling everything from an art fair in London to lamb watching in the Scottish Highlands.

Smack in the middle of it all I got to watch an amazing residency that over eight short days knitted together thirteen artists, two old buildings, and one tiny village  – with a glass thread that I expect to hold strong for years to come.

Day before the residency begins: Steve, Karlyn & Richard experience  the slippery slope outside Harbour House.

It all started with two remarkable artist/teachers, Steve Klein and Richard Parrish and the idea to explore “Kiln-glass in the Built Environment” in a private residency at North Lands Creative Glass.

They called the project “IN PLACE” and over the space of many months selected eleven participants from around the world.

NEXT: The Places.

By the last day of COLLECT we’re running out of time. After years of working at Bullseye Gallery, Jamie announces she’s never seen glass blown (it is possible to take this gotta-be-Bullseye-gotta-be-kilnformed thing too far).

Adam Aronson takes pity and invites us for breakfast and a lesson at his hotshop in West Brompton. Charming neighborhood, good croissant, and Adam proves to be a brilliant teacher.

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