GLASS pictures created by a Haringey artist have gone on show for the first time at the Pavilion Cafe based in Albert Road Recreation Ground.

Ulrike Preuss, 55, of Crescent Rise, has been hand crafting glass for two years after a car accident brought her career as a photographer to an end.

Ms Preuss, a grandmother of one, was left with a back injury and found it difficult to work sitting down.

She said: "I had to find something that I could do standing up at a table.

"A friend said 'you're really artistic, why don't you do something with glass?'. So I did."

She took classes in glass fusing for a year, brought her own kiln and now makes all her work from her Wood Green home.

The pieces have to be fired for 16 hours to 800 degrees, until the glass goes into a semi liquid form and melts together.

Originally she worked with stained glass, but then had decided to make something more unique.

"There are a lot of people making bowls but I've never actually seen people make glass pictures," said Ms Preuss, whose son is a tennis coach at Durnsford Park, better known as Albert Rec, off Alexandra Park Road.

As well as the pictures, Ms Preuss makes jewellery, coasters and bowls which she sells at craft fairs and the Alexandra Palace farmers market.

All the pictures, which cost about £25, feature unique designs, inspired by something she has seen, from fireworks at bonfire night to balloons at a children's party.

She explains: "It's a question of looking really.

"People should surround themselves with beautiful looking, colourful things.

"It makes a difference to peoples lives. It cheers them up on a grey day".

Ms Preuss said her pictures make lovely individual presents.

"They're ideal for Christmas", she added.

To view the exhibition visit Pavillion Cafe, in Albert Road Recreation Ground, off Alexandra Park Road. It continues into the new year.