Changing the face of glassblowing
- Though traditionally trained, they use their knowledge in new ways
- They both first started blowing glass at the glass school in Kosta, Småland
- Their first art work was a public installation in Kungsängen cemetery
Glass studio Glasbolaget was created by Ammy Olofsson and Erika Kristofersson Bredberg. They were both trained in Småland, the Swedish area sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Crystal. On the one hand, they work as separate artists, assisting each other in the hot shop and creating exhibitions and commissions. On the other, they develop common projects and blow other companies’ products under the name Glasbolaget. They are also members of the feminist glass artist group BOOM!, with three other glass artists. “We aim to question the current norms in the glassblowing scene, make space for new ways of working with the material artistically, and to encourage women to collaborate instead of compete.”
INTERVIEW
Ammy: Traditional glassblowing, the hacker community and vintage science fiction. Erika: The forest, hierarchy in society, and popular culture.
We make objects and we are a platform for learning and sharing. Our vision is to work with glass in a more environmentally-friendly way, and to show that glass can be different from what is traditionally shown.
The Glasbolaget furnace is unique, since we use biogas (gas produced by the breakdown of organic matter, a renewable energy source) that stems from landfills. That is possible because our location is close to the recycling company Ragn-Sells.
Erika: That I mostly use an air compressor to blow up some of my sculptures. I like it when the air transforms the glass without my control! Ammy: When glass is hot it conducts electricity, when it’s cold it works as an isolator (and in between, as a resistor).
