Marta Edöcs

Glass fuser

Innovations in glass

Márta has devised two unique, labour-intensive glass processes
She teaches and exhibits in Europe and the US
She often draws her inspiration from memories

As a child of engineering parents, Márta Edőcs wanted to be a fashion designer. But a glass exhibition that she visited in Germany, at the age of 20, had such an effect on her that on her way home to Hungary she began to learn about glass making. Soon she started designing glass – in a self-taught way – and polished her knowledge further on courses abroad. Today, she is one of the most renowned Hungarian glass artists, who creates mainly jewellery as well as decorative panels – both by using very unusual techniques. Such is her success that she is recognised in the Studio of the world’s most important glass museum: the Corning Museum of Glass, in State New York, where she has been invited to give courses and teach her techniques. She sometimes also teaches in Sopron, Vienna and Budapest.

Interview

Is your craft related to any local tradition?: Theoretically, it is not – in Sopron, where I live, glass art does not have a long tradition. But when we held an exhibition in the basement of the local museum, an archaeologist showed me a glass bracelet that was similar to mine that had been recently excavated in our city – that was a very special moment to link me to my forebears.
You also work with a combination of glass and silver – is this your specialty?: I have two areas of specialty. Few people in Hungary make jewellery by combining glass and silver. I am a “specialist” in silver clay and its combination with traditional silversmithing and glass.
What is your other technique?: My other technique was inspired by a hydrangea bush – its giant petals appeared more and more clearly in my work and became randomly shaped “cells”. The final surface is made of glass pieces and glass powder, layer by layer – which is an extremely time-consuming process! The end result is a colourful, multi-layered patch field whose appearance changes depending on the light and time of day.
What are you working on now?: I am planning to create a series of wall panels whose pieces look like a homogeneous monochrome surface from a distance but as you approach them they become an exciting, playful surface.

Marta Edöcs is a master artisan: she began her career in 1986 and she started teaching in 1995