How did you learn glassmaking?
I spent five years at the State School for Art, Craft and Design (Konstfack) in Stockholm, two years at the training school for glassblowing, cutting and engraving at the Orrefors glass factory and one term at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
When did you understand that glassmaking was your calling?
During my art training, glass design was a small part of the ceramic programme and ended with one week at a glass factory, where our designs were made by the glassblowers. Standing next to these skilled craftsmen filled me with a longing I had never felt before.
© Nadja Sjöström
How did you actually start?
At Rietveld Academie I saw a small studio glass furnace for the first time and realised that it was possible to blow glass as an independent artist outside the glass industry. Since I had to fulfil the longing I had felt observing the craftsmen, I did not think twice about having my own studio.
What aspect of your work fascinates you most?
My passion is blown glass, formed by hand into vessels or flat panels. Until quite recent times, window glass was made by blowing tall cylinders, cutting off the top and flattening the cylinder by reheating it. This is the same technique, on a smaller scale, that I use to make my panels.