Since we’re working on a huge, creative and extremely fun project together with the Glass Museum and since Arnout Visser is such a fantastic bloke, I had little choice but to say “yes” when asked to create glass pieces as part of an exchange with African glassblowers and glassblowers from the glassworks.
Things are pretty busy at the moment, since the crisis seems to have bypassed us and we have numerous assignments in the works, not to mention the demolition and construction activities at our new building. Incidentally, you can read all about our adventures with the new building each month in Eigenhuis & Interieur, where I’m trying to fill an entire column, no easy task.
So I arrived late but announced, and luckily had to wait anyways, since they were still busy. I arrived without a design, but with a plan. Would it be possible to have several glassblowers blow the same glass at the same time to create a single object? This was something I had been wondering about. It turned out to be very well possible; I simply had to wait until all the blowers could give it a shot. The first vase was made with 3 blowers. This was followed by 3 more vases with 4 blowers. It was quite a sight to see.
None of those present had ever tried or seen it before. The result was not something that could have been designed beforehand, but depended entirely on the skills of the blowers, how the process ultimately unfolded, and a few instructions on my part. The final results are as spectacular as the process itself. The excitement hasn’t faded, since we haven’t had the opportunity yet to examine the results closely because the vases are still in the oven cooling off (slowly), and hopefully will still be in one piece afterwards.
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