VESSELS & SCULPTURES
I have worked with hot glass since 1997. My work has evolved quite naturally
in ten year cycles; at the beginning of my career I worked with blown vessels
for more than 20 years.
First deacde was about perfecting my technical skill in the so called "Swedish Overlay", which I used to make predominantly black&white vases and bottles. The black, shiny surface acted as a canvas for me to create strict, controlled patterning by carving through to the white underneath with diamond lathes and engravers. At the same
time I was introduced to Bullseye sheet glass and fusing techniques, which I used for large scale fused and kilnformed one-off bowl shapes and wallwork.
After being introduced to fusing, I had a chance to assist glass artist Klaus Moje during
a glass blowing demonstration in Japan, and I was literally blown away by the technique he had created, the "Roll-up". This versatile way of using sheet glass allowed be to start making work with more detail and much, much more colour. I continued being a
vessel-oriented maker, but slowly moved on from vases and bottles to different containers and boxes with lids, feet and decorative elements in sculpted hot glass.
It was these solid glass elements that started my third decade as a glass artist.
For almost 20 years I have worked an lived in a village called Nuutajärvi where glass
has been made for more than 230 years, and which is renowned for the
Finnish glass art icons like Kaj Franck and Oiva Toikka. It was due to them to
really start pushing out vivid, colourful glass art, which also I am very inspired by.
With this legacy of coloured glass, I wanted to get into melting different
hot glass colours. Since roughly 2021 I have been making more sculptural
work with solid, hotsculpted elements in different colours.