:. Works - Glass .:

These glass pieces started out from the idea of making beautiful, coloured objects in free-blown studio glass.

I wanted to go back to the studio, a difficult but magical environment, to work with coloured glass in traditional techniques. The techniques and colours used in the exhibits are derived from Roman glass, Murano glass objects and Finnish experimental glass art of the sixties, as well as from incredible unique pieces, all of which I have reinterpreted and reworked.

The birth of these "beautiful coloured glass objects" was made possible through collaboration with master blower Jaakko Liikanen. In the summer of 1985, I worked as apprentice to Master Jaakko in the Åland Islands, and ever since I have periodically sought for a new opportunity of working together with him. Today, I am the artist in the partnership, benefiting from "Jaska's" 33 years of unremitting attention to skill and aesthetic development.

In the balmy summer and autumn closing this millennium we made these pieces using the incalmo, filigrano and coloured band techniques. Massive and challenging, they were complicated and lengthy to make - difficult to manage. And yet, though the final result was satisfying, this exhibition incites me to continue, to make even more "beautiful", demanding and massive pieces.

Exhibition has given me the opportunity of beginning again, once more