AOIFE SODEN & BAIBA DZENITE
THE ALCHEMY OF GLASS
Irish designer Aoife Soden makes functional glass sculptures with brightly coloured tints. The selection of work included in the Cluster Crafts collection is typical of Soden’s particular style.
Ecliptic Vases Sundown Set
“Living in Denmark where there are a lot of small glass studios you need to find a signature look to differentiate you from other artists,” says Soden. “Since finding my voice in glass I have described my glass as ‘Scandinavian Glass with a twist’.”
The pieces, all available on the Cluster online shop, clearly encapsulate Soden’s philosophies as a maker: clean shapes and eye-catching details, with a colour palette that draws on Soden’s childhood growing up in the Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Ecliptic Vase Grey Fade Tapered
Like many designers who choose to work with glass, Soden is enchanted by the alchemy of the material as it transitions from a liquid to a solid state.
“I am a very practical person and somehow glass as material appeals to this side of my personality. Glass work requires precise preplanning, but also the ability to be flexible and think on the spot. Each movement you make while blowing glass will alter the end result. We are always involved in a dance with this material.”
Double Bubble Tall Sky Blue
Soden manipulates the glass to allow her products to play with light, magnifying or bending rays as they move through the pieces. This gives her work a captivating vibrancy.
Ecliptic Vase Midnight Steel Blue Fade
Soden’s collection includes the smaller Double Bubble pieces as well as the larger Ecliptic Vases pieces.
YOU CAN BUY AOIFE SODEN’S PIECES THROUGH OUR ONLINE SHOP
Latvian artist Baiba Dzenite also works with misted glass, using the varying transparency of the material to create the impression of fog or dew in the vases she creates. Her work has a much more muted colour palette than Soden’s, and a rather different emotional impact.
Dzenite’s collection Calm forms part of our online Cluster collection and shop. It comprises four uniquely formed vases and a bowl that are all designed in keeping with a classic minimalist style.
“Each object is made from free formed mouth-blown glass that reveals the unique plasticity and brilliant shine of the glass through special imprints, where the glass once touched metal,” explains Dzenite.
Calm Vase Large & Low
The imprinted markings on the objects were made with an old-fashioned Latvian tool that was originally used for linen crafts. It has become the signature sign for the Calm collection.
“For as long as I remember I’ve been fascinated by the transparency of glass. When natural light glows through it, I have this idea in my mind that the glass stays alive,” says Dzenite.
The smoothness, transparency and clarity of pure glass strongly attracts Dzenite to the material. The ability of the artist to cloud or dim glass with colours also allows the material to achieve a certain mysterious quality, much like the fog that inspires Dzenite’s work. She attempts to capture in her work the emotional response that the natural world triggers in our bodies.
“Fog and dew were the inspiration for my first collection,” she explains. “The phenomenon of fog seems very mysterious – everything you see can disappear and then the breath of earth surrounds you.
“The dew is reminiscent of glass pearls to me, but ones that only allow me to adore them without touching them or they disappear. I guess these phenomena teach us respectfulness towards nature.”
To see more of Soden and Dzenite’s work have a look at their artist pages.
Calm Vase Large & High
Calm Bowl Detail High
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.