Dancing with glass
- Tchai combines clay into her glass work
- She has a delicate eye for pattern and colour
- Her sculptural art objects are inspired by the Danish landscape
A nomadic existence as a child in Australia made it natural for Tchai Munch to search for a profession independent of verbal language. Clay was her first choice but glass quickly became the material that fascinated her the most. The picturesque Danish town of Ebeltoft became this nomad's final port, and she has now lived and worked there for more than 40 years. Tchai's early work concentrated on blowing, fusing and slumping, a process in which pieces of glass are fused together and then shaped by reheating. The process of composing patterns, often using ancient Venetian techniques, requires delicacy and the careful hand of an experienced artisan. More recently, Tchai has been working with sandcasting, combining clay with glass.
Interview
- What brought you to Ebeltoft?
- My teacher Finn Lynggaard needed assistants for his newly acquired summer workshop. It turned into much more than a summer and we became partners in life. By that time there was a pioneering spirit within the studio glass movement, of which Finn was a leading protagonist.
- So you created Ebeltoft Glas together?
- Yes, we did. When the money was there the workshop was modernised and an additional studio added. In 2015, the hot shop studio was bought by Nyholm & Cantrell Glass, with whom I'm fortunate to have an excellent working relationship.
- What is your inspiration when working with glass?
- Glass itself. Working with it is similar to dancing. There is the rhythm of movement, and finding reassurance in repetition to gain the courage to improvise. The challenge lies in creating structure with an amorphous material without violating its nature.
- How about your sculptural work?
- I live in a landscape shaped by ice and water through two ice ages. I have started to incorporate interpretations of my surroundings, for example stones, into art objects. By combining clay and glass in various ways, I'm satisfying my love of both materials.
Tchai Munch is a master artisan: she began her career in 1980 and she started teaching in 1985
Where
Tchai Munch
