While at Droog today I fell in love with a huge work that they have in the store now by Pieke Bergmans. I had never heard of her but she’s Dutch, of course, and works largely in glass. As a reformed glass blower myself I know the basics of the process and when looking at the table I couldn’t figure out a piece of the process, which inspired my fruitful conversation with the shop clerk.
Yes, that is what it looks like, the glass was put directly on the table burning it richly in the creation of the vases.
In exploring her site it was evident how it’s done. The glass blowpipe is held above and gravity does the work, the pieces catch on fire and the glass vase top is cut and polished with a torch I think. When they’re cool enough to stop being maleable, but not too cool that they begin to crack they’re taken and stuck in the annealer to cool slowly. Then they’re rejoined with the other elements.
Droog is actually selling each of the vases separately in this case though frequently her works are sold with the furniture item and the glass work with them. Like the ones below.
I love all of these pieces.
Pieke also experiments with putting the glass on other surfaces – this one was from the Mother of Pearl line.
In addition to her virus works, which is what all of the glass globules are considered, she also makes lightbulbs – but they’re not your typical bulb – they’re the definition of bulbous – irregular, oversized, and bizarre.
Yeah, that’s a lightbulb dripping out of its fixture.
As you can see the bulbs themselves even drip down onto the floor and chairs themselves.
The above is my favorite – what a great tablelamp.
Her tape vases are also beautiful – I like how she creates vessels in irregular ways using familiar materials.
This piece, from her Unlimited Edition, looked to me like felt, but no – it’s ceramic!
You have to go look at her site to see how these are made, they’re awesome.