The glass material swept me off my feet in 1996, when I first had a go at glass blowing. This was at the University of Art and Design Helsinki - nowadays called the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture - where I had just started my ceramic and glass art studies. I found hot glass such an immediate and exciting medium to work with, its challenging nature was something completely opposite to clay and ceramics which I had studied previously.

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Something that has followed me since the beginning, and also served as one of the key factors in choosing a material for life, was the vibrant colours that the glass material brought to me. I was especially drawn to the opalescent - non-see-through colours, which still dominate my work today, 26 years later. My love for glass had pushed me forward like no other force, it may not have made me the best glass blower (an early, very optimistic dream), but with it I've created my own way of bringing life to this already vibrant and stubborn material. ​