Nives Marcassoli

Glass sculptor

Living in a world of multicolour glass

Nives started her career as a dress designer for fashion magazines
She perfected her knowledge of glass at the Pilchuck Glass School
Murano glass artist Claudio Tiozzo was one of her tutors

“Blocks of glass are like a precious treasure chest, which reveal but cannot be penetrated. There’s no cutting corners with glass: you see everything, even the tiniest mistake. Perhaps that’s why I love this material so much, because it reflects the woman I am: transparent and incapable of pretending.” Yet Nives Marcassoli’s adventure in the world of glass did not start immediately. In the beginning she was involved with fabrics, which was only natural, having trained as a dress designer. “I grew up in a valley in Northern Italy that is famous for its textile mills. As a child my days were marked by the sound of the sirens that set the workers’ shifts.” Then she picked up painting, a passion which she nurtured from a very early age and which grew to become her profession for several years.

Interview

Why did you decide to work with glass, when you were already a painter?: As I like to repeat to the apprentices who have trained with me over the years, one must never tire of experimenting with new forms of expression. There is continuity between my paintings and the glass I create: the colours I mix come to life when I melt them. I melt glass several times before I achieve the result I am looking for.
Is this research the part of your work you enjoy most?: Yes. Only when I open the furnace do I know if all the work I have imagined has come true. Although I know the material and have worked with it for years, once you fire it you always have to expect the unexpected. The moment I loathe, instead, is conceiving the work.
For what reason?: Because I am a perfectionist and I am never satisfied with what I do, so it takes me a great deal of time before I define my projects. It took me one year just to draw the stained glass window dedicated to the Apocalypse, which I created for the Santissimo Crocifisso parish in Pavia!
You are very skilled in working both with hot and cold glass...: I have had to expand my knowledge of all glassmaking techniques in order to be able to express myself without limitation. The starting point, however, is always the same: my box of watercolours. I sketch the work I want to create and I keep the sheet in front of me until the very end.

Nives Marcassoli is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1990