I've been a master glassblower for 40 years and built 30ft garden sculpture - but even now I'm still learning

Watch as John Ditchfield crafts a beautiful glass sculpture from scratch, inside his Singleton studio. In the video (click to play above), John can be seen melting down glass, before shaping it, using highly specialist tools and techniques, in an inspiring video.

Watch episode 32 of Unconventional Brits on Shots! TV

John says that although he’s been a glassmaker for over 43 years, he’s ‘still learning’. In his custom-built workshop, John tells video journalist, Lucinda Herbert: “The furnace is never switched off.”

Stunning drone footage, in the above clip, shows the Dreamkeeper sculpture - a 30ft tall landmark which John built in his garden. He adds: “It took me about three years to make, in between other jobs. I can’t make anything really big in one hit because of the size of the furnace but I can put a lot of small pieces together to make a big piece.”

In Episode 32 of Unconventional Brits, John explains how, as a teenager, he just ‘needed a job’, and started an apprenticeship in 1968 with the Venetian Glass Company, at Squires Gate. He moved to the current location at Pointer House Farm in 1982 after working and travelling in Europe, and then initially having a smaller studio on Talbot Road, with his then partner Donald Sidebottom.

One of John's most popular products is his memorial glass - where the bereaved can get the ashes of their loved ones, including pets, immortalised in a beautiful glass ornament. Other items sold at Glasform range from vases and jewellery, to lighting and bespoke items.

Watch episode 32 of Unconventional Brits, featuring an extended clip with John Ditchfield, at https://www.shotstv.com/watch/vod/52819641

Unconventional Brits airs weekly on Shots! TV - Freeview channel 262 and Freely channel 565 on Friday’s at 7:15pm. The series is a celebration of some of the quirky, eccentric and unique people and places in the UK.