Glass Artist
“Being a glass blower is a bit like being a musician – every day is spent practising and training. Glass is so technically difficult to work with and has a life of it’s own. As an artist I am fascinated by making a form with the human breath. The heat of the furnace and the molten, soft glass are my inspiration.”
Ola Höglund was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1956, into a family of artists where glass and design were an important part of life. It seemed almost inevitable that Ola would become involved in glass. His mother Maerit was an independent ceramic artist. His father Erik, was an artist who at the early age of 21 as a glass designer, revolutionised the art of glass in Sweden and for a large part of the Swedish public, the name Höglund became synonymous with modern Swedish glass.
Ola knew at an early age that working with glass was his destiny. “The first time I saw glassblowers at work, I was just a young boy. I decided straight away that when I grew up I was going to be a glassblower myself.”
“Inspiration just comes to me,” says Ola. “As I get familiar with the material, I start to know how it is going to behave. My strongest interest is in mastering the forms and pure lines. The simpler they are, the more challenging they are.
“I live and breathe my work and I get my energy from the glass.”