Jette Noa Liv Bøge & Sally Xenia Christensen

BLÆS

Glassblower

©piaVsimms

©Henrik Lofqvist

Blowing life into glass

Jette and Sally use wooden blocks and wet papers in their glassblowing process
Each piece they create is unique and handmade
Their portfolios feature numerous award-winning works

“What I love about this craft,” affirms Sally Xenia Christensen, “is the possibility to be creative on a professional level and be your own employee. This gives me a feeling of freedom and pleasure, where not two days are alike!” And Jette Noa Liv Bøge adds: “My passion is blowing glass, exploring shapes and mixing colours. I forget everything around me, when I blow glass!” Jette and Sally met in a glass studio in London, where they were doing an apprenticeship at the end of the 1990s. After acquiring an extensive knowledge of glassblowing in different parts of the world, in 2018 they decided to embark on their own enterprise, opening a studio in five containers situated in a street food market in Copenhagen. They called it BLÆS, which is Danish for ‘blow’, and a reference to the ancient art of shaping molten glass with mouth-blown air.

Interview

©piaVsimms

©Henrik Lofqvist

Was glass your first love?: Jette: I worked with ceramics for some years, but my first meeting with glass was like a drug, I was totally hooked. I prefer the quick process of glass, compared to ceramics, where a piece can take weeks to be completed.
Do you remember when you first saw glass being made?: Sally: When I was a young girl, during the weekends and holidays we would often visit a glass studio in Lønstrup on the west coast of Jutland. I was completely mesmerised by the material and the atmosphere in the workshop, which looked like an alchemist doing magic.
What type of products do you create?: Sally: We produce contemporary designs, unique works and sculptural installations that merge design and nature, form and function, art and technology. Our works are the result of our combined and individual artistic approaches and practices.
How do you carry out your work?: Jette: We have a furnace with molten glass from where we gather the glass on blowing irons. We shape the glass with wooden blocks and wet paper and blow it into shape often using moulds. We mostly use moulds for single use, which makes each piece different from the next.

Jette Noa Liv Bøge & Sally Xenia Christensen are expert artisans: they began their career in 1995 and they started teaching in 2019