Some thoughts about glass and my glass art
Because glass objects are fragile, few
have survived from ancient times. The first manmade glass produced over 3000 BC in Egypt and in the Near East. They were beads and jars and built up around a core of sand. In medieval Europe,
Venice
became the glass and bead-making centre of the world. Although it maintained its pre-eminence for centuries, Germans, Dutch and other Europeans also developed an expertise in glass making.
Phoenicians invented the technique of glass blowing in the 1st century BC. Stained glass is a term used to describe windows composed of coloured glass
set in designs.
Peaces of glass of various colours are placed together on a full-size model of
the window. They are joined with lead strips that are soldered in place. The
assembled panels are then suspended in the window frame. In the West, the earliest extant stained glass dates from the 11th
century. The finest stained glass windows were
produced in conjunction with Gothic art and architecture from about 1130 to 1330. In Islamic countries, coloured glass,
set in wooden or stucco frames in foliate designs, is known to have been used since beginning of the 12th century.
Tiffany technique was developed by
American Louis Comfort
Tiffany (1848-1933).This technique is also called copper foil technique because glass pieces
are surrounded first with a copper foil and soldered with tin together. This technique makes it possible to join small and curved pieces together. Tiffany's
lampshades, windows, vases, etc. are world-famous and he was the most notable American
contributor to the
Art Nouveau style.
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My glass art
I have worked with glass since 1986. Before that, in "my first life", I studied social science in the University of Tampere in Finland, received my M.A. in social politics in 1972 and worked in this branch until 1988. "My second life" began when I became acquainted with glass, the Tiffany- and stained glass techniques in 1986. After that, I have attended various glass courses in Finland and I wanted to learn more. At that time, there was only one school in Finland, where it was possible to study stained glass and Tiffany techniques, Liminka Art School. I studied there in the years 1988-1989. After finishing the art school, I have been a free artist and have a studio of my own in Tampere in Finland.
Along with the stained glass and Tiffany
techniques, I also use fused glass technique. I attended a course on fused glass technique in Germany in 1994. I use fusing as
part of stained glasswork or for artwork as a whole. Mostly I have made glass bowls.
After designing a bowl I make a mould, cut the glasses, set them on the mould and then
put the mould with the glasses to the glass kiln for fusing. To fuse glass, a
temperature of 700-900° C degrees is needed and sometimes the procedure needs to be repeated. Of course, the glasses must be compatible with each other.
I make also glass beads. To make beads I have an oxygen-propane torch, glass
rods and stainless steel mandrels. I heat the glass rod in the flame so that it is liquid (about 1000° C degrees) and I wind the hot glass around a mandrel.
The finished bead must cool down in a glass oven. I use beads to make
jewelleries and use them also as a part of other glasswork, if needed.
The inherent qualities of glass,
lustrousness, beauty, colour, fragility and its adaptability to numerous forms account for much of its attraction. Glass is also
not an easy material to work with and so it is always fascinating to try to get out of
it the ideas I have in my mind. I love abstract and geometrical forms, but if I have
made these kinds of works for a long time, I want to make something different for
instance something that reflects nature.
I have been interested in different
aspects of art throughout my life, oil painting, ceramic making, weaving and so on. These all help me in my glass making. They
give me flexibility of thinking when designing my glasswork and the liberty to
fulfill my ideas. I have had glassworks in many
solo exhibitions and together with other artists in Finland
and in other countries as well.
In 1993 I was asked to participate in an exhibition of the association of the
artists of Paris-Montmartre. I was asked to join the association and I was a
member of it in 1993-1995. I have worked
as an glass
teacher in Finland before I moved with my husband in the beginning of 1997 to
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he worked as an ophthalmologist at the
King Faisal
Specialist Hospital and Research Centre.
I had three major exhibitions in Riyadh in the Embassy of Finland. My plates
have been set out in a local gallery named Thurath and also in other small
exhibitions. In 2001 I was asked, along with an other Finnish artist, to
participate in the first exhibition of Saudi ladies and female expatriates in
Riyadh, and that's why it gained much recognition in
the local media, radio, TV and newspapers. We were the
only westerners in this exhibition.
We stayed in Riyadh until December 2002, at which time we came back to
Tampere, Finland and now I do my glasswork in my
studio and I also started teaching again.
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