Reykjavík Grapevine - Mar 2023, Page 23

23The Reykjavík
Grapevine 2/23
Best before:
March 2, 2023TRAVEL
As we step into Anders Vange’s studio
on a crisp January morning, the
temperature may be below freezing
outside, but things are definitely
heating up in here. With his trusty
furnaces and tools at the ready,
Anders transforms molten glass into
mesmerising creations with an ease of
a magician. It all seems almost effort-
less, but behind every enthralling
piece of glass art is years of experi-
mentation and craftsmanship. Here’s
how Anders pulls beauty from the fire.
I'm a second generation glass-
blower. I started when I was around
15. I would come home from school
and make small birds and glass balls
and other things. When I was 18, I
went to a glass school in Birmingham,
England. I travelled a lot, working
in different glass studios. I went to
the United States and different glass
studios in Denmark. I also worked at
my father and mother’s glass studio in
the north of Denmark.
I moved to Iceland half a year
ago and rented this glass studio in
Kjalarnes in November. My girlfriend is
from Iceland. We spent eight years in
Denmark, and then we decided to move
here. We have two children, so it was a
process of moving everybody here.
All the glass I'm using is recycled. I
pick it up from the window company
Íspan once a week and bring it back
here to my glass studio. I smash it
into smaller pieces and wash it just to
make sure that there's no stones, sand
or anything that I don't want to have
in the glass. Then I fill up the furnace
with smashed window glass. It takes
around twelve hours for the glass to
be clean again and get rid of most
bubbles. You can buy glass that will
be completely clear, but this window
glass will always have a greenish tone
and small bubbles here and there.
I try to design my glass so that it
fits with the window glass. I'm not
trying to work against it, I'm trying
as much as possible to make glass
designs that fit this particular glass.
I think at some point, I’ll melt other
colours. I've started to collect glass
bottles from home, bottles people
bring in and some from restaurants.
At some point I would like to do a
green batch, like a beer bottle green.
Branching out from stems
It's not only wine glasses that I make
— this is just the first step of my
process. I cannot go from making
wine glasses one day to making candle
holders the other day. It has to be
a continuous process for it to work
perfectly.
I'm doing smaller stuff just now to
get started, but I would like to advance
a little bit as I get to know the glass
and this studio and do bigger things —
maybe even turn on some of the bigger
ovens in here. At some point, I would
like to do
bigger vases
and artwork
that is more
compli-
cated.
With these
glasses, everything is unique. There
won’t be two stems that are the same,
which makes these special compared
to other glasses — some will be thick
and some will have more curves. Only
the height will be the same. I don't
always have a finished goal when I
start, I just go with the flow, to make it
nice and symmetrical.
(Not) suffering for his art
Many people ask if I burn myself. I
don't do that very often. People also
think you need to have really good
lungs to blow glass, but that’s not
true. When the glass is warm, it blows
out really easily. When it's cold it
stiffens up and you cannot blow into it
anymore.
I'm inspired a lot by old glass-work
and craftsmanship. Because I've done
glass all my life, every time I see a
glass piece, I get inspired by that. For
example, now with window glass, I get
caught up with what I can do to make
this work. I am thinking about it at
night — how can I make it work and
how can I make the final glass prod-
ucts look more fluid. It's very technical
for me. I find my inspiration in glass
materials and take ideas from earlier
work, especially old factory work.
If you want to become a glass-
blower, you have to learn the very
basics before you get started. Getting
the glass out of the furnace can take
several weeks just to get the first small
little blob. Then you have to start roll-
ing it and sanding it — it's much more
work than people think. It’s a really
long process.
Take a peek inside Anders’ studio
and watch him in action on the Grape-
vine’s YouTube channel.
“People think you need to have really good lungs to blow glass, but
that’s not true. When the glass is warm, it blows out really easily.
When it's cold it stiffens up and you cannot blow into it anymore.”
Words: Iryna
Zubenko
Photos: Art
Bicnick
Blowing Glass
and Minds
THE ISLANDERS