EVER since she moved into a studio in a courtyard at Low Dalby Forest, Pickering, Rachel Gretton has been viewing the future through a glass brightly.

Her business, Rachel Gretton Glass, has increased its client portfolio of commissions for her unusual one-off glass sculptures to such an extent that her aim to reach international respect is now attainable. Two years on from winning the Young Entrepreneur category in the Teesside Best New Business Awards, Rachel is now pitching for the same title in The Press Business Awards, 2006. She is also competing in the Small Business Of The Year category.

Rachel, who established her business in 2004 with support from the Prince's Trust, also holds kiln glass workshops in the region, is a former visiting lecturer employed by Sunderland University, and has been a visiting artist to schools and colleges throughout the north-east and North Yorkshire. She has produced award-winning designs for Cost Boda in Sweden, a work which was sold in Harrods of Knightsbridge and exhibited in the "75 years of Swedish Glass" exhibition at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.

After completing a Masters degree at Sunderland University, Rachel relocated from Hartlepool to Malton last August and in April moved to her pretty studio. She has recently finished exhibiting her work in York's Pyramid Gallery, the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate, and Artifax, Birmingham.

Next month her creations will appear at the British Glass Biennale in Stourbridge.