The Future of Mystical Glass
UNESCO listed the knowledge and skills related to Finnish handcrafted glass on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the end of last year. Glassblowing is in the hands of a few experts, from whom it can only move forward by passing on tacit knowledge. Now it’s time to cherish the glass!
As a material, glass is multidimensional: when melting like flowing lava and solidifying, it is hard and eternally preserved, but on the other hand, it is so fragile and disappearing. Glassware is created by mouth-blowing air through a long blowpipe into a red-hot lump of glass. The flowing shape is modified with simple tools and molds. Coincidences and surprises are part of the process, but the glassblower seeks to master the substance. Cooling solidifies the living matter into material.
Glassblowing cannot theoretically be learned in a chamber, but requires constant practice of techniques and teamwork, as well as a kiln with a temperature that rises well over a thousand degrees.
Although the art of glassblowing dates back more than 2,000 years in the Middle East, it has remained almost the same to this day in all parts of the world. Glass as product material had been invented more than 4,000 years before the beginning of the era, because it has been found in the glazing of stone beads.
Glass has been manufactured in Finland since the late 1600s. Like glassware, the endangered know-how of mouth-blowing, if well nurtured, is passed on from generation to generation.
“If a medieval glassblower teleported to our Glass Studio Hytti at Suomenlinna, any of us could immediately grab the blowpipe and cooperation between us would be easy, despite the time travel. The tools have not changed much either, except for the electric kiln,” says glass artist Sini Majuri.
We are sitting in Oodi library’s café talking about glass and its mystical forms somewhere between the intangible and the material. We are overwhelmed by the strong emotions that glass evokes, just like many design students when they get to try glassblowing. But only a few professionals get to design glass products for industry or can set up their own glass studio. However, fascinating glass attracts both industrial designers and artists.
Moving forward with AI
Sini Majuri fell into glass after her studies in fashion design at the University of Lapland. The inspiration was sparked at Ornamo’s exhibition at Wanha Satama, when Oiva Toikka‘s works were prophetically next to her smart clothes. From there on Sini continued working with glass and futures research at Aalto University and has since built her artistic career as an entrepreneur.
Sini’s glass art includes 3D technologies as well as artificial intelligence and robotics, which merge with the layered Graal glass technique invented more than a century ago in Sweden. Her works are mainly sculptures and unique utility glass. Sini’s experience draws her towards fashion, and this year she participated in New York Fashion Week with glass artist Marja Hepo-aho and a multidisciplinary team. The collaborative fashion collection is crowned with glass accessories.
Sandbox for industrial designers
In Finland, industrially blown glass is only manufactured by the Iittala glass factory, which employs 60–70 glassblowers. Classic products and well-known contemporary designers keep the aesthetic and commercial level of products high.
Finnish vintage art glass and Iittala tableware are well known to collectors familiar with glass art, but with UNESCO’s recognition, it is the right time to highlight the variety of current Finnish glass designers, artists and makers to maintain the vitality of the glass industry.
There are surprisingly many glass artists’ cooperatives and companies in Finland who are bearing the responsibility of taking the unique craft traditions and small-scale serial production forward. These glass workshops act not only as innovators for the glass industry, but also as “sandboxes” for industrial designers who need prototypes and collaborate in art projects with glass blowers, learning from each other. For example, design director Sauli Suomela is creating a double career as glass artist. Sini Majuri also calls for more cooperation and openness between different actors.
“The most direct way to a glass cabin is to apply for a traineeship, because mouth blowing is learned like a journeyman by working together – there is no shortcut to it. Industrial designers and design students can contact glass workshops with a low threshold. The chemistry must come together when the work is done side by side rather sweaty and the work requires patience.
After all, a designer can make a wooden mold himself with a CNC milling machine and buy glass blowing as a service. Glass can be approached from many angles: as a researcher, artist, maker or designer. In vain, we keep different kinds of expertise under a bushel when the best thing is to bring them together. As you can’t talk to robots, it’s interesting to hear coders’ thought patterns and bring them the artist’s perspective on the relationship between humans and technology or the ethics of artificial intelligence,” Sini says, referring to her latest collaboration in music and artificial intelligence, which will be presented at Berengo Studio in September.
Impact of the pandemic and war on the glass industry
The glass sector is important for Europe because it produces one third of the industrial glass on the world market. Finland applied for and received UNESCO recognition together with Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary and France. Germany is Europe’s largest producer of industrial glass.
Industrial glass would lose its cultural basis without artisans’ engagement in experimental development with glass. In Finland, UNESCO’s application process was driven by the Finnish Glass Museum and a wide range of glass industry operators, including Ornamo.
A couple of years ago, news began about the glass shortage in Europe, which was affected by both the pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The energy needed to make glass is usually obtained from Russian natural gas.
Industrial glass, such as windows for buildings and cars and bottle industries, are particularly affected by the glass shortage, but the explosion in natural gas prices has also had an impact on the extensive art glass production in Murano, Italy. For Finnish glass artists and designers, the energy crisis means an increase in their own costs.
More durable glass
Think of a world without glass. What would we know about the universe without lenses? Would we have internet without optical fiber? How would medicine have developed if we had not seen cells? Would decorating be as fun without crystal chandeliers? Would Cinderella lose her clog?
Sini and I are also inspired by scientific glass development in Finland. She explains how materials scientist and postdoctoral researcher Erkka Frankberg and his team have developed an unbreakable glass material that curves and bends at room temperature. Scientists use supercomputers to determine the formation of glass atom by atom.
Frankberg’s invention is revolutionary because, when commercialized, it will save production energy and offer a stronger but lighter alternative to steel. A car windscreen that does not scratch or fragment has a direct impact on the pockets of both car manufacturers and consumers.
When examining the environmental impacts of materials, one key problem has arisen from plastic as a “substitute for everything”. Due to its transparency, it has naturally become a substitute for glass in the industry. Plastic will not disappear from the Earth’s ecosystem overnight, but we can easily return from a lighter plastic culture back to mentally heavier glass culture.
Next year, the European Union will implement a new CIGI regulation (Geographical Indication Protection for Craft and Industrial Products), which can also protect local craft glass culture. Its aim is to improve the position of producers and protect the small-scale production in craft sector from counterfeiting. The CIGI regulation also aims to improve the visibility of genuine products on the market.
“Glass is more than a silent beauty enclosed in a display case or a collection of glasses gathering dust on grandparents’ windowsills. It is a powerful material in contemporary art, with which it is possible to reach the immaterial layers of existence,” says Sini Majuri.
Especially now, thanks to UNESCO’s recognition, Finnish glass art is ever more ready for its international flight. Glass production is one of our key technologies, no matter which way we look at it. Cheers!
Sources and Links
Finnish Glass Artists website.
Sini Majuri, Marja Hepoaho and working group
Infinity Vessel, a film commenting on women’s reproductive rights
Roboballet, a work on the relationship between humanity and technology
New York Fashion Week collection on archetypes of femininity
The New York Times
Penelope Colston: Forging Art From Molten Glass
The Finnish Glass Museum
Press release: Knowledge, techniques, and skills related to handcrafted glass added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,
BEDA News
Ornamo Art and Design Finland Contributes to Handcrafted Glass Know-How Being Inscribed to UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the BEDA website.
EUIPO
GIs for craft and industrial products, the EUIPO website.
Suomenlinna (FI)
Suomenlinnassa toimiva Lasistudio Hytti mukana tukemassa lasiin liittyvän tiedon, taidon ja tekniikan saamista mukaan Unescon ihmiskunnan aineettoman kulttuuriperinnön luetteloon
Salkunrakentaja (FI)
Richard Wacker: Jälleen uusi synkkyys – seuraavaksi Euroopasta uhkaa loppua lasi