MANY visitors to Hawes this summer will stop a while to watch Mark Alder blowing glass that has a truly international flavour.

In the film Ransom, Mel Gibson was seen posing beside one of the craftsman's pieces. "It was a hell of a shock to see my work on the mantlepiece in that film," said Mr Alder.

He also dealt with an order for Venetian glass with very dainty folded rims for the film 1492, about Christopher Columbus. "It felt like sacrilege to see one being smashed during the film," he remarked.

Then came a rush order from the American White House, earlier this year, to produce 30 dishes in five different colours to be given away as presents to foreign dignitaries and guests.

"It's a nice thought that somebody famous should have a piece of my work," he mused.

Mr Alder's work sells well in the US, Japan and several European countries, and he believes this is because, as a student, he was inspired by overseas glass, especially that from Venice and Italy.

But living in Wensleydale for seven years has had an impact.

"My work used to be bold and garish. But you see things differently when you live here," he said. "My designs have become more fluid, and a lot more natural and free. My colours have become more pastel and subtle."

He is often visited by elderly, retired glassblowers of the type he learnt so much from in the past. "You will be surprised at how many old glass blowers there are. They come in for a chat and always introduce themselves. It's a small community so we always have shared acquaintances."

He remembers the old masters he used to talk to, likening them to oracles on history. Like them, he learnt to collect odd items with which to work designs into the glass as he blows it.

"You have a set of tools that are personal to you to get different patterns. I'll see something in a waste bin and think that would make a great pattern on glass. I have about 15 little jig tools - bits of copper pipe, steel springs, old knives and forks. I collect junk; I love the history of things that went into them.

"I don't sit down with pen and paper very much now and design. Instead I sit with the blowing pipe and play around. Within three or four days I can come up with a nice product just by trying a design and producing it."

Selling to the US has also affected his work. He used to make those White House bowls much shallower, but gradually they became wider and deeper to satisfy the American market. In the States, they are now sold as sweet glasses.

"They buy the same four to five colours so you are stuck with that. The more pastel colours sell in the autumn and the brighter ones in the spring," he said.

His glass is sold by some very up-market shops in the US including Barney's in New York, from where his work was bought for the Ransom film, and The Tiny Jewel Box in Washington DC, in which a White House aide found those sweet glasses.

The White House normally gives only American products, so this was a very unusual order.

Born in Leeds, Mr Alder obtained his art and technology degree at Stourbridge College and then spent a year at the International Glass Centre in the West Midlands. After gaining his master's in glass and ceramics design at the Royal College of Arts, he moved back north and lectured at Sunderland University for a few years.

He then became manager of Hartley Wood and Co in Sunderland, one of the last three or four companies in the world which produced hand-made sheet stained glass. But it was expensive to produce, and the company closed down about seven years ago.

"It was a shame. It was a great company," he said. "They made some great glass."

The urge to return to his home county of Yorkshire drew him southwards after he became redundant.

"One day I drove down the A1, turned right and ended up in Hawes. I saw a house for rent and a workshop and I stopped. I've never stayed long in one place before and this is the longest I have ever lived in one place. I love it here, that's why I have stayed so long.

"Here, I am part of the community and part of the attraction which brings visitors into the town. That's the way I see myself. I really enjoy sharing. I feel I am educating people for the future. On quiet days it is rather lovely because you can talk to people."

So, if you are visiting Hawes, look out for the glass workshop near the Market Hall car park.

*The National Glass Centre in Sunderlad has announced a £726,000 award over a two-year period from Arts Council England. The money will be spent on development, including further support for artists in the glass sector and demonstrations by guest glass makers and artists-in-residence.

The centre opened in 1998 to celebrate the heritage of glassmaking in Sunderland and develop the art and industry for the twenty-first century.