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Forged in the Fire: Norway's Spirited Hadeland Glassverk
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14328 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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12 / 1996 |
2,040 Words |
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Stephen Henkin
Stephen Henkin is an arts editor for The World & I. |
The venerable Hadeland Glassverk in Norway has one foot in an esteemed craft tradition and the other on the cutting edge of glass design. How is it able to maintain this precarious creative balance while increasing its market share in fine glass? The answer is clear: It has succeeded in forging a happy marriage between some of the country's most talented glassblowers and designers.
Refined over the years, this intimate working relationship--the envy of any mutual craft enterprise--goes beyond the mere sharing of information on style and technique. It is rather about the deep and time-proven wellspring out of which flows a seemingly endless procession of remarkable glasswork.
One factor contributing to this dynamic is the actual work environment. Although the facility itself is large, the small-scale, focused "glass huts" within provide the setting for artist and artisan to regularly cooperate in the creative process. Each hut is divided into workshops of two to ten people, depending on the kind of object being made. And each workshop consists of glassblowers and/or apprentices, a headmaster, and a designer, united in a common effort to transform the fused components of molten glass and crystal into compelling objects of lasting beauty. Over 300,000 visitors per year peer into these "glass huts," which act as windows into artistic sensibilities and refined technical skills rarely seen today in similar settings.
Respected Craft
Because of Hadeland's distinguished reputation, craftsmen here are treated with great respect. This no doubt accounts in part for
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