Love is a unique feeling which can be both dramatically fragile and immensely strong. It appears at unplanned times and in unexpected places.
Like love, glass is also an unexpected, risky, yet always interesting material to explore and employ in jewelry. And, by doing that, glass artists literally blow the air of love into their creations.
Love for the art of glass-blowing puts artists at significant risk. Glass blowers face health and safety hazards every day: the temperature of glass and furnaces in glassblowing studios ranges from 1,000 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (around 500 to 1,000 degrees Celsius). Almost every surface is hot, increasing risk of serious burns. Working with glass exposes artists to dangerous, deep cuts, while chemical fumes from heated glass may cause long-term damage to lungs.
So, today we decided to step away from the omnipresent theme of Valentine’s hearts, and dive instead into a different world of love: glass artists’ love for the creative process and for their creations.
The sculptural Coil Glass Earrings by Bottega Veneta, twisted like an old-school phone cord, present a fresh take on the timeless, classic hoop earrings. Twists of icy, transparent glass catch the light and produce flirtatious little rainbows.
The Tetris Ring by a glass artist Agustina Ros, combining “through glass, the sensitivity of art and the resolution of design”, contains glass “diamonds”, magically placed inside a perfect glass sphere. In this piece, the artist used gold fuming technique, which vaporizes gold in front of a flame. Gold fumes then travel up the flame and bind to the surface of the glass, producing its color-changing, lustrous quality.
The June Brooch by Joanna Manousis, a glass artist, sculptor and PhD researcher, combines the real and illusionary with intentionally slightly pixelated gemstones, set in thin, hand-shaped glass and silver, with the playful flair of 1970’s kitsch. The piece is an exploration into the relationship between what is real and what is imaginary, the push and pull between true and fake.
As you explore glass jewelry, you never know what you might find: a short-lived affair that can easily break or a perfect match which you will want to preserve and to cherish.
And so we go about our lives: searching, finding, cultivating and cherishing our loves.
Wonderful painting by Håkan Årblom.