Elin Isaksson

I am a Swedish Glass Artist, designer and maker and mainly produce hand blown luxury gifts and objects which are sold in galleries in the UK and from my studio in Dunblane, Scotland. I also offer a bespoke service for private and corporate projects, making light installations, garden sculptures and awards for example. My designs are simple timeless, and tactile forms in subtle colourways. Recently I have started to add gold and silver leaf to enrich my unique glass design.

Q&A

What craft do you work with?

When I was 18 years old I tried many different jobs during my art education, one day I visited a glass blowing studio and I was able to try to make tiny molten blob-I was hooked! I have now been blowing glass for 25 years and had my own business for the last 13 years. I enjoy combining the blown technique with sand casting but my favourite technique is making blown glass always striving to shape the perfect simple drop shape.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

I love making blown glass, I like the heat, the processes involved and the challenge to shape and tame this difficult materiel. Glass blowing is a very old technique which still today uses similar tools as hundreds of years ago. Today it is a dying art though since glass requires a lot of energy to be created and energy costs are rising in all aspects of glass making. The raw materiel, the glass colours and the end making of a product-all requires energy at every step of the way. I always try and minimise my production costs. I am passionate for this craft to stay alive so I teach a lot of glass blowing classes to the public to try and educate as many as I can about the craft and the current struggle to keep it alive. I recently started to use gold leaf in many of my designs to elevate the value and the forms of my crafted glass forms.

How do you start your creative process?

I get a lot of inspiration at the bench when I’m working and new ideas always comes to mind when using my hands shaping the molten glass. I enjoy making very simple forms but are not as easy as they look. The more simple the more fast and fluid you have to work the materiel before it cools and don’t do what you want it to. Sometime you also have happy accidents trying to make a specific shape but the glass has decided another route, some times this can be a good thing. Every time you make something it is always a risk the piece gets to cold at one end and the work can break before you get it in the kiln or dropped on the way to the kiln if you bump it even so slightly. Every piece is a challenge from start to finish and you have to be concentrating 100% and be ‘in the zone’ or your piece cold end up in bits! This happens at least once every day making and the glass really keep you on your toes at all times and this is why I enjoy this magic but tricky material.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

I have a hot glass studio and the heart of the workshop is my glass furnace which stays on day and night to keep my glass molten, if this breaks down I cant make any glass. I also need a small kiln to heat up my glass colours and a large kiln to slowly cool down my work I make. To keep the glass molten and keep shaping it I need a glory hole to keep reheating one glass cools every 30-60 seconds.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

I would like to explore new ways of making multiples to create larger scale works and I would also like to build my own ‘natural moulds’ using rocks to create textured one of blown larger art glass or vessels.

What professional dream do you have?

I would like to upscale my work and make installations for interiors like hotels or restaurants worldwide. Collaborating with a metal worker would be interesting!