Korean designer Sogon Kim aims to capture the spirit of the alchemist in her work. She investigates different material behaviours and reactions to create pieces that are unique and thought provoking. While her special interest is in glass, she also studied metal and ceramics, and draws from her knowledge of all matter to create her work.

“My work changes according to various factors,” she explains. “It resembles the world of space and earth sciences, where predictions are possible but not accurate.”

In her Submarine series, Kim uses wax to form the imprints for her work, she allows bizarre textures to form as the wax hardens on water and then casts these shapes in glass.

 “Glass has a unique materiality which changes the fluidity depending on the temperature,” she explains. “I think this was the most appealing to me. Moreover, I am fond of the transparency and translucency of glass.”

 Her colour choices further her attempts to capture a feeling of otherworldly materials. Bright blues and reds pervade, changing in intensity as the material thickens or shifts.

“Blue is the colour that I love personally,” she says. “I keep choosing bluish colours unconsciously. Blue makes me feel refreshed. Maybe that is why I prefer the ocean to the mountain. Nature always excites me.”

Kim’s Bottle series is inspired by traditional shapes from Korean ceramics, specifically moon jars. Combining these traditional shapes with contemporary materials brings the past and future together. Motifs from traditional Korean paintings and drawings are also applied to the glass.

As well as playing with classical forms, Kim is inspired by the “celestial bodies in space, aurora borealis in the night sky and the topography of the deep sea”. The geological formation of the world has always been fascinating to her. She hopes her pieces capture the imagination of the viewer.

Irish glass designer Barbara Kenneally is also fascinated by the possibilities of glass as a material, particularly its ability to transform depending on how light plays through it and across its surfaces. The capacity of glass to absorb, reflect and refract light is the basis of her visual language and she uses illumination as a powerful tool for communication.

“The transparency of glass allows for exploration of the surface and the subsurface at the same time,” and she uses this characteristic in her work.

In her most recent series, Kenneally uses rocks she has found in abandoned copper mines in West Cork to create unique sculptures cast in glass. Her colour palette is lifted from photographs she takes, and she often uses negative spaces to create stories and reference the hardship of the miners.

The use of the rocks and minerals from the specific sites connects her work to the history of the land.