Louise Lang

The material glass is for me a constant search and a huge field of research to focus on and play with different detailed features.

Q&A

What craft do you work with?

As a child, I collected everything I could find in the way of little things made of glass and was entranced from the first moment I saw the glassblowers working in the factory. How they could handle the hot liquid in the center and form things from it. So it was the first choice for me to learn the craft of glassblowing right after school at the age of 16.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

Since then, the material glass is for me a constant search and a huge field of research to focus on and play with different detailed features. Not only in the field of glassblowing. For me it is not a specific technique, but rather the material glass itself. While studying fine arts, I started to use the material glass and my craft skills as a tool for my ideas. It comes from the material I know best, but it is no longer necessarily a glass object, which ends up being exhibited.

How do you start your creative process?

The material influences my thoughts and movements. My thoughts and movements shape the material. Glass as a haptic material consists of many intangible intuitive processes and remains as a material to be felt at the end. I am the invisible director in the background, staging, observing and working on the thoughts. Starting from a first thought, I am open in the process to think this thought further and to let it develop into something else to find the appropriate framework in other media such as photography, video, installation or screen printing.

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

A flexible, open space where it is easy to change the setup for my specific ongoing project. The needs are usually very different.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

Always, depending on the topic I’m in the middle of.

What have you learnt or the best advice would like to share with fellow crafters?

Being open, curious and observing closely, not forcing the material but guiding it with your knowledge and experience to work with it and also letting go of control once in a while.