Leanne Williams and Jim Dennison

After a career in teaching, Leanne Williams followed her dream and made a career change to study fine arts in Whanganui, developing her skills in painting, ceramics and sculpture.

Jim Dennison had studied botany and ecology for a Bachelor of Science degree and worked as a landscape gardener before he too changed direction to study cast glass at Whanganui Polytechnic, graduating in 2002.

In 2007, by then known as the Crystal Chain Gang, Williams and Dennison, received a Creative New Zealand grant to take up a residency at the Wheaton Glass Centre in New Jersey, USA. There they developed the pressed-glass technique they still employ today in their much-admired bespoke chandeliers.

Crystal Chain Gang chandeliers respect the opulent historical origins of this iconic light fitting yet remain utterly contemporary in subject matter. Each completed work is more an art installation in its own right than simply an object of function and decoration.

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