Ed Iglehart: (dad of Tom & Annabel) mate of Char
Born North America 1941,
Scotland since 1972 Credo
Glass design & execution, landscape design & execution, experimental structures & shelters.
Exhibits US, Europe, Japan & Palnackie
Senior Lecturer in Glass, 1985-90;
Lecture/demos: US, Uk, & Europe.
Organiser of "The Tent", for many years Scotland's premier annual Quality Craft/design event. Active in local Community Forestry & environmental events. A wide range of production and unique work produced in glass throughout three decades and still counting... Excuses

Dad&Kristine Filer
Other Associated Artists

Tom Iglehart: Born USA 1971
Scotland since 1972
Copper design & execution, glass design,
interior/exterior design & execution,
treehouses, chandeliers, graphic design.
Exhibitions:
Glastonbury, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Oxford, London, Palnackie etc.

Television:
"Time Team", "TV Dinners"
"The Home Show", "Skoosh"
Chandelier for "Midsomer Murders"
Press:
Independent, Times, Financial Times

	Kristine Filer, our local 'kelpie', works in many areas, including murals, rainbow crystals and stone. Collaboration is a powerful tool, and Kristine is a fine energy source, adding power to North Glen. Continually creating in copper, glass & firelight, she is also presently painting murals for rooms to dream in... Fantasy Rooms, decor & design.
		Kristines gable end mural at North Glen Gallery Chandelier by Tom Iglehart
	Swirling in ocean currents, Kelpie came to me, The wonderful water-horse of the Highlands. Kelpie lives in deep dark pools, Bridle golden sparkling jewels - A window on the Fearie worlds Man, woman or horse may appear, The pure of heart need have no fear. Just one touch for mortal gain, Underwater you'll go, Ne'er to be seen again
	Established at Palnackie 1973. A (slightly) converted granary and associated farmbuildings, woodlands and rough pastureland, situated overlooking the Urr estuary in Southwest Scotland. Glass workshop and gallery open most days, but before travelling long distances it is always advisable to telephone to be certain. (+44 1556 600 200) Worth a visit for anyone interested in wildlife, walking and quiet places. Advice on great local walks, cellular biology, mycology, anthropology, astronomy, global ecology, twig technology, pyromania, zen and the art of glassblowing. Peaceful places for picnics and ample grazing for horse-drawn transport

Decades ago,
We mostly walked to work,
Side by side with friends & neighbours
We worked and walked together,
Ate, drank, fought, loved & raised the young together,
Grew old, returned to local soil together.

Now it's better,
We have improved communications,
Roads & hyperspace, phones, TV, & cyberspace,
Keep us 'in touch' with world events,
Our glazed & insulated capsules keep us safe and warm,
And free from nosy, noisy, noisome neighbours.

This new species,
Encapsulated Humanity
A migrating herd, it follows its beaten tracks,
With unconscious choreography,
The ribbon of steel and red light
Snakes slowly cityward.

The big cat waits,
Sporting fluorescent stripe,
And purring sinew of steel.
From his elevated post,
He watches with laser eye,
Choosing only the swiftest as his prey.

Ed Iglehart, Homo Encapsulata, 1996

TOM EAGLEHART'S airy bedroom sits on a nest of timber
slung between the branches of seven tall spruce trees.

Roughly 30 feet above his parents' Kirkcudbrightshire farmland, he can hide from the world behind a curtain of whispering foliage; feel the trees bend and sway in the wind; enjoy a birds-eye view of the Scottish countryside rolling away from his woodland eyrie down to the Solway Firth.

Tom's treehouse is arranged as a stack of cantilevered platforms, connected to the ground by a ladder made from two long spruce poles. It is furnished with hammocks, a 15 tog duvet, television, video, a faded Persian rug, floor cushions and potted plants. more
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An original Eaglehart chandelier (Tom and his father, Ed, make them from cones of fiery copperwork, hand-blown glass and beach stones) swings from his leafy ceiling. Half the living space is roofed with canvas, so he can choose between sleeping alfresco or indoors.

Friends pop up. They have parties and barbecues. On cold nights (this is not just a summer house) Tom lights a fire in a bowl-shaped copper hearth made from the base of a defunct immersion heater. "Next, I'm planning to install a Turkish bath," he says. "Tree houses are very versatile. Anything is possible."
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Twenty-three-year-old Tom says he's hooked on tree-top life. The first time he stayed the night in his "sky temple" was more than two years ago, and he hasn't come down to earth since. "Being in an ordinary house is like going back to a twilight zone - it feels so enclosed and unnatural." His parents (who live in the nearby twilight zone that connects the tree house to an electricity supply) say that it's just a phase he's going through.

Tom's "phase" might be symptomatic of late development. Perhaps he's living out a ship wreck fantasy in which the tree house is a refuge from imaginary monsters and wild beasties?
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An element of escapism prevails, agrees Tom "There is a desert-island quality about living in the treetops." But he claims his unusual domestic arrangement is a way of "maximising the ability to be out-of-doors. I'm trying to push a concept to the limit of its possibilities."

Independent on Sunday
6 August 1995 p.60
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